Creating a possible “to-do” list for a Spiritual Assembly based on the attributes of “an evolving framework for action”, identified by the Universal House of Justice in their Ridvan 2016 message
(Ridvan
2016 message)
- To “progressively nurture
and refine essential capacities”
- To initiate “simple acts
of service”.
- To start “a systematic
process of human resource development and community building”.
- To inspire “confidence” in
“believers…to share accounts of Bahá’u’lláh’s life and discuss the
implications of His Revelation and peerless Covenant”.
- To encourage the “friends,
at the very grassroots of the community” to become more able “to describe
in eloquent terms their experience of a process capable of transforming
character and shaping social existence”.
- To increase the “numbers
of those indigenous” to the country who, “as members of Bahá’í institutions
and agencies” will guide “the affairs” of its community.
- To encourage “reliable,
generous, and sacrificial giving to the Fund”
- To aim for an “unprecedented
efflorescence of individual initiative and collective action in support of
community-building activities”.
- To inspire “enthusiasm” in
“selfless souls in the prime of youth” to bring “immense vigour” to “the
spiritual education of younger generations”.
- To enhance “the devotional
character of the community through regular gatherings for worship”.
- To “rise in capacity at
all levels of Bahá’í administration”
- To increase LSA’s “readiness”
to “think in terms of process”, “to read…[its] immediate reality” and
assess…[its] resources in the [place]…where they live”, and “to make plans
on that basis”.
- To encourage LSA’s committees,
task forces, liaisons, to “think in terms of process”, “to read…[its]
immediate reality” and assess…[their] resources in the [place]…where they
live”, and “to make plans on that basis”.
- To increase community
members to “think in terms of process”, “to read…[their] immediate
reality” and assess…[their] resources in the [place]…where they live”, and
“to make plans on that basis”.
- To maintain, as an
Assembly, and as individual believers, “an instinctive posture of learning”
and follow the rhythm and process of “study, consultation, action, and
reflection”.
- To increase believers’ “appreciation
for what it means to give effect to the Teachings through social action”.
- To seek and seize many “opportunities…to
offer a Bahá’í perspective on discourses prevalent in society”.
- To periodically remind the
friends that we as a “global community” through all our “endeavours” are “hastening
the emergence of divine civilization by manifesting the society- building
power inherent in the Cause”
- To help "the friends' growing consciousness" that by exerting “efforts” they are bringing “about
the betterment of the world” and expressing “the very purpose of religion
itself “ - efforts:
- to foster inner
transformation,
- to widen the circle of
unity,
- to collaborate with others
in the field of service, [and]
- to help populations take
charge of their own spiritual, social, and economic development…”
