Truthseeker
Non-debating member when I can help myself
As many of you know, the UHJ has said that the emphasis of the nine year plan is social engagement in the world to work with like-minded organizations to work towards unity especially in the world. Here is the latest Ridvan message speaking of the urgency of the Baha'i community doing that in disintegrating world. I include here passages I find the most relevant and am attaching the entire Ridvan message.
Two years of a formidable nine-year endeavour have sped by. The friends of God have taken its objectives firmly to heart. Across the Bahá’í world there is an increased depth of understanding about what is required to further extend the process of community building and effect profound social transformation. But with every passing day, we see too the condition of the world grow more desperate, its divisions more severe. The escalating tensions within societies and between nations affect peoples and places in a myriad ways.
This demands from every conscientious soul a response. We are all too aware that the community of the Greatest Name cannot expect to be unaffected by the travails of society. Yet, though it is affected by these travails, it is not confused by them; it is saddened by humanity’s sufferings, but not paralysed by them. Heartfelt concern must prompt sustained effort to build communities that offer hope in place of despair, unity in place of conflict...
The methods and instruments of the Plan allow every soul to contribute a share of what humanity needs in this day. Far from offering a temporary salve for the ills of the moment, the prosecution of the Plan is the means by which long-term, constructive processes, unfolding over generations, are being set in motion in every society. All of this points to an urgent, inescapable conclusion: There must be a sustained, rapid rise in the number of those committing their time, their energy, their concentration to the success of this work.
Where else but in Bahá’u’lláh’s principle of the oneness of humankind can the world find a vision broad enough to unite all its diverse elements? How else but by translating that vision into an order based on unity in diversity can the world heal the social fractures that divide it? Who else can be the leaven through which the peoples of the world can discover a new way of life, a pathway to enduring peace? Extend then to everyone the hand of friendship, of common endeavour, of shared service, of collective learning, and advance as one...
In the Holy Shrines, with overflowing hearts, we thank Bahá’u’lláh for having raised you up and trained you in His ways, and we entreat Him to send you His blessing.
Two years of a formidable nine-year endeavour have sped by. The friends of God have taken its objectives firmly to heart. Across the Bahá’í world there is an increased depth of understanding about what is required to further extend the process of community building and effect profound social transformation. But with every passing day, we see too the condition of the world grow more desperate, its divisions more severe. The escalating tensions within societies and between nations affect peoples and places in a myriad ways.
This demands from every conscientious soul a response. We are all too aware that the community of the Greatest Name cannot expect to be unaffected by the travails of society. Yet, though it is affected by these travails, it is not confused by them; it is saddened by humanity’s sufferings, but not paralysed by them. Heartfelt concern must prompt sustained effort to build communities that offer hope in place of despair, unity in place of conflict...
The methods and instruments of the Plan allow every soul to contribute a share of what humanity needs in this day. Far from offering a temporary salve for the ills of the moment, the prosecution of the Plan is the means by which long-term, constructive processes, unfolding over generations, are being set in motion in every society. All of this points to an urgent, inescapable conclusion: There must be a sustained, rapid rise in the number of those committing their time, their energy, their concentration to the success of this work.
Where else but in Bahá’u’lláh’s principle of the oneness of humankind can the world find a vision broad enough to unite all its diverse elements? How else but by translating that vision into an order based on unity in diversity can the world heal the social fractures that divide it? Who else can be the leaven through which the peoples of the world can discover a new way of life, a pathway to enduring peace? Extend then to everyone the hand of friendship, of common endeavour, of shared service, of collective learning, and advance as one...
In the Holy Shrines, with overflowing hearts, we thank Bahá’u’lláh for having raised you up and trained you in His ways, and we entreat Him to send you His blessing.