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Abstract: Short letter to the Bahá'ís of the world. |
Dear Bahá'í Friends,
Our message of 27 December 2005 delineating the features of the Five Year Plan stressed the particular role that pioneers would play in meeting the challenge of establishing at least 1,500 intensive programmes of growth worldwide. In this connection, we expressed the hope that those who would arise to serve in this capacity, whether on the home front or in the international field, would settle in clusters receiving systematic attention, either to help lay the groundwork for accelerated growth or to strengthen cycles of activity already under way. As efforts intensify across the globe towards the realization of the goal that has been set, we ask the followers of Bahá'u'lláh throughout the world to reflect on their participation in this mighty enterprise and decide how they can best contribute to the successful execution of the Five Year Plan. Let those souls able to join their co-workers in the forefront of activity hesitate not a moment longer.
A document prepared by the International Teaching Centre will soon be issued from the World Centre offering an overview of national communities that would benefit most from the reinforcement of pioneers. It includes information on the status of clusters and describes other needs that must be met to support the work at the grassroots. Moreover, it further demonstrates how the various elements of the Plan provide a coherent framework for action. Friends responding to the call for pioneers are encouraged to turn to the institutions as a first step; this will help them determine where their services can most effectively be directed.
The Five Year Plan that concluded at Ridvan 2006 witnessed the movement of more than 3,000 international pioneers. National Spiritual Assemblies are now being asked to set numerical goals for those to be dispatched beyond their borders during the current Plan. Some 3,500 will be required in all. To these will be added the thousands who will have to be deployed to clusters on the home front. Though but a fraction of the manpower needed to propel the process of entry by troops worldwide, such a number of pioneers can lend the process an impetus that should not be underestimated. Indeed, they who cast away their attachments and forsake their homes for the love of God are assured of divine assistance. "Now we must not consider our ability and capacity," are 'Abdu'l- Baha's words in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, "nay, rather, we must fix our gaze upon the favours and bounties of God, in these days, Who has made of the drop a sea, and of the atom a sun."
On behalf of all believers who, committing their lives to His care, issue forth from their homes to promote His Cause, we shall offer ardent prayers at the Sacred Threshold.
- [signed:
The Universal House of Justice]
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