Dear friends, it is a great pleasure for me to be  here
this afternoon and to meet with you. I am  particularly
pleased to be in such a magnificent  setting.  As  John
Walker  mentioned,  I  have  been  a   Bahá'í   for   a
frighteningly long time and in my early  days  I  could
never have imagined that the time would come when there
would be a Sydney Bahá'í Centre of  this  magnificence.
When I first went to Sydney University we  did  have  a
Sydney  Bahá'í  Centre  –  it  was  a  rented  room  in
Piccadilly Arcade and at that time Sydney community had
one Feast  for  the  entire  metropolitan  area,  until
Shoghi Effendi told us the time had come to observe the
law of the Aqdas about civil jurisdictional limits. But
it was a pretty run-down sort of a place and Piccadilly
Arcade was somewhat insalubrious in those days  anyhow,
and it was a far cry  from  the  magnificence  of  this
building -–so well  designed,  so  well  appointed  and
finished.

This gathering is distinguished by the presence of  the
Counsellor, Stephen Hall – I want  to  acknowledge  his
presence  ,as  well  as  the  other  members   of   the
institutions of the Faith.

This afternoon I want to speak on what I see to be some
present-day needs of the Bahá'í community.  I  do  this
because my experience and observation over many decades
is that it is very important for  Bahá'ís  to  keep  up
with developments and needs in the Faith. The Faith  is
expanding, developing – one of  the  functions  of  the
Universal  House  of   Justice   is   to   create   new
institutions as the need arises. It has done  and  will
continue to do that. Circumstances in the world  prompt
new needs; the House of Justice  has  the  function  of
adapting the operation  of  the  Cause  consonant  with
those needs.

What one finds is that from  time  to  time  one  meets
Bahá'ís who have not kept up. I remember when I went to
the United States to live in 1963,  in  the  few  years
after that I met some Bahá'ís who were  still  back  in
1921. They remembered  the  visit  of  'Abdu'l-Bahá  to
north America in 1912; they remembered  how  the  Faith
was in those days; they were loyal to the changes  that
had been brought into being with the Guardian in  1921-
22 and there onwards but they had not  kept  up;  their
concept of the Cause was still of the Cause as  it  was
during the latter years of  the  Apostolic  Age.  There
were Bahá'ís in America and in Australia  who  did  not
keep up with the formation of  the  National  Spiritual
Assemblies in the  1930s.  I  remember  when  I  was  a
Counsellor here in Australia in the 1970s we still  had
a few Bahá'ís who had a sense of  misgiving  about  the
fact that the  National  Spiritual  Assembly  had  been
formed in the 1930s here in Australia and  that  things
had changed and had become more organised and  somewhat
impersonal, as they felt it. So it is at each stage  in
the unfoldment of the Cause.

There were still Bahá'ís around a  few  years  ago  who
remembered how it was in the  days  of  Shoghi  Effendi
when everything was personalised in the Guardian and it
all seemed very different after that. They had not kept
up. The changes created by the House  of  Justice  from
1963 - although they  retained  their  loyalty  to  the
Cause, they did not keep up with all of those changes.

So for this reason I see a particular importance in our
giving attention to what are the present-day needs  and
how the Cause is developing. Obviously what I say is no
more than my own personal impression;  I  certainly  do
not speak for the House of Justice, I speak  simply  as
an individual who happens to be  serving  in  the  Holy
Land and has access to a  vast  amount  of  information
that comes into the Holy Land every day  and  therefore
forms certain impressions.

One of our greatest needs all over  the  world  at  the
moment is to acquire a deeper under-standing of what we
are doing in building the World Order  of  Bahá'u'lláh.
We need to get a deeper understanding of the  House  of
Justice and the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in  relation
to resolving the world's problems. We know  that  there
are  very  pressing  problems   –   [microphone   being
adjusted] - we know, of course, that there are a  great
many problems in the world –  problems  of  minorities,
problems of  warfare,  problems  of  child  abuse,  the
spread of  AIDS  and  all  kinds  of  things.  And  the
challenge before us is to see how  building  the  World
Order of Bahá'u'lláh relates to the solution  of  those
problems. People who look

2

superficially at the Bahá'í Faith are likely to  become
very condemnatory about what we are doing.  If  I  were
not a Bahá'í, with a very superficial understanding  of
the Bahá'í Faith, I would come to  the  Bahá'ís  and  I
would say: "Look What are you people doing?  Look  what
is happening out there. Do you know how many people are
being killed in Liberia and Sierra Leone  and  Burundi,
and Rwanda and all  the  other  trouble  spots  in  the
world? Do you know what is happening with crime in  the
big cities of the world? And what are  you  doing?  You
Bahá'ís  say:  'Well,  we  are  solving   the   world's
problems'. Great. What are you doing? What you're doing
is praying about it, and trying to enrol more  Bahá'ís.
And you come to me, as a non-Bahá'í, and  say  you  are
solving the world's problems. Nonsense.  You  are  just
another  religion  concerned  with   its   own   narrow
interests, trying to  grow  in  size,  trying  to  take
advantage of the worry and  concern  in  the  world  to
attract more followers. What are you really  doing  for
these hard-core, pressing issues which  are  destroying
the fabric of civilised  life  in  every  part  of  the
world. Don't tell me that you are simply enrolling  new
Bahá'ís, because  that  doesn't  seem  to  me  to  have
anything to do with the problems."

That of course is the view, the  superficial  view,  of
somebody who knows little about  the  Faith.  But  that
view  appears  in  more  sophisticated  ways  in   many
different settings. Therefore I think we need to  think
more deeply about the relationship between building the
World Order of Bahá'u'lláh and the  resolution  of  the
pressing problems of humanity.  Otherwise  we  will  be
criticised as being irrelevant to those real  problems.
We will be regarded as being  selfish,  concerned  with
our own narrow ends.

Let  me  take  a  moment  and   share   with   you   my
understanding of the various problems that exist in the
world today. It seems to me – I seem  to  have  already
made somebody cry and I have only just got started,  so
it is not a very good sign when, after seven  or  eight
minutes, somebody bursts into tears. [laughter] Let  me
share with you my grouping of what  I  see  to  be  the
various problems in the world today – and I think  they
can be grouped under four headings.

The first heading are problems of governance around the
world; in country after  country  one  finds  that  the
government is unresponsive to the  real  needs  of  the
people, the electorate responds by becoming  alienated,
people give up  voting  in  democratic  countries,  the
percentage falls – it is different in  Australia  where
they fine you if you do not cast  your  ballot  but  in
countries where you do  have  a  choice  a  diminishing
number of people are voting in parliamentary  elections
every  time  they  are  held.   People   are   becoming
alienated. [microphone being adjusted once more] So one
of the problems of governance is that  the  governments
are proving unresponsive to the real needs  of  people,
and people are responding  by  giving  up  on  it,  and
saying, "What's  the  use  of  voting.  This  bunch  of
rascals go out, another bunch comes in, and they are no
better, and it's the same sort of thing."

The other thing  is  that  people  are  taking  to  the
streets  to  change  the  government;  angry  mobs  are
invading the  presidential  palace,  the  parliamentary
buildings, the  courts  and  the  like,  and  literally
driving  the  elected  leader  from  power.  This   has
happened, of course, in South America,  in  Georgia  in
recent days and  in  other  countries.  It  is  a  very
disturbing trend occurring in the world as part of  the
breakdown of governance.

In so many countries one finds the dictatorial  tyranny
of the majority over minorities, defended in  terms  of
the fact that – well, this is democracy, majority  rule
applies, carried to the extreme  where  the  minorities
are persecuted and their rights are ignored.  The  two-
party system in democratic countries is  under  strain.
You get the three-party system, the four  parties,  the
five parties, and end up with a small  party  which  is
beholden to an  extremist  element  of  society,  which
holds the  balance  of  power  between  the  two  major
parties, this is so in a  great  many  countries  which
subscribe to a democratic system and it is part of  the
breakdown of the system of governance.  The  corruption
of officials by  vested  interests,  money  behind  the
scene, secret deals and the like to ensure that certain
vested interests are served.

3

In countries  where  there  is  democratic  voting  the
electorate has proven unable to resist the promises  of
short-term benefits from politicians  who  wish  to  be
elected. So one finds in so many countries of the world
the elected leaders resorting  to  short-term  policies
for the sake  of  getting  re-elected  the  next  time.
Demagogues  are  able  to   influence   unsophisticated
masses, so one finds in  a  great  many  countries  the
unsophisticated masses are appealed to by a  demagogue,
often with bribery or offers of special  benefits,  and
the whole system of governance  is  overturned.  Beyond
that, information is  manipulated,  the  electorate  is
uninformed; it does not know what the true  issues  are
or what the  nature  of  the  people  who  are  up  for
election is, and so the system does not work. What this
means is that one of the major problems in the world is
the breakdown of the system  of  governance,  be  it  a
democratic form or any other form.  If  the  democratic
form is the most popular one in the world today  it  is
very difficult to find countries where it is not  under
serious strain.

The second group of problems is that of turmoil between
countries. A resurgent  nationalism,  especially  among
newly independent nations, is leading  to  tension  and
turmoil between countries which previously  lived  very
peacefully with their neighbours. Border  disputes  are
proving  an  endless  source  of   difficulty   between
countries. Those of us  who  do  not  live  near  those
borders really do not care – give it to either side, be
done with it. But to the people  who  are  involved  in
those countries it is literally a matter  of  life  and
death, and each side can produce documents showing this
is where the border is, depending on  how  far  you  go
back.

Border disputes are, in the large, endless when you try
to solve them by  that  means.  Trade  tensions  –  the
manipulation of tariff and subsidies,  the  dumping  of
manufactured   goods   or    of    primary    products,
protectionist   policies   produce   tensions   between
nations. The corrupting influence of trade in armaments
is a major source of tension between countries. And  of
course there are secessionist movements  of  minorities
creating tension between countries when the  minorities
straddle national boundaries, such as  the  Basques  in
north-western Spain and in  south-western  France,  the
Kurds in their particular part of the world  and  other
groups in Africa which straddle national boundaries.

The third of the four groups of problems that I see  in
the world today are  religious  disputes.  Some  twenty
years ago those who regarded themselves as  enlightened
and sophisticated anticipated the gradual vanishing  of
religion in the face of  scientific  advances  and  the
spread of mass education, that religion would become  a
relic of man's earlier  days,  essentially  irrelevant,
adhered to only  by  the  older  generation.  That  has
proven spectacularly not to be the  case.  Religion  is
becoming more and more one  of  the  major  sources  of
tension and warfare in the world  today.  We  have  the
overthrow of democratic institutions by  fundamentalist
religions, the oppression of  religious  minorities  in
countries such that the religious minority feels it has
no option but to resort to terrorism.  Warfare  between
states for reasons that are partly religion and  partly
economics. The religious  so-called  justification  for
the denial of the legitimate rights of women is proving
one of the sources of great problem in the world  today
particularly as women have access to the Internet or to
television and to mass education, and can see  that  it
is not like this elsewhere, and why should they have to
put up with it  here.  The  fanatic  indoctrination  of
children  in  the  name  of  religion  is  leading   to
innumerable problems in the world; children are growing
up literally and explicitly taught to hate,  and  given
weapons before they reach their  teens,  and  this  can
only lead to great disasters for humanity.

The  final  of  the  four  categories  are  the  social
problems within any society – the increase in crime and
violence in daily life, the corruption of the media  by
pornography and by violence. The spread of AIDS  is  an
enormous problem; we find that the  Bahá'í  communities
in Africa, in their social  and  economic  development,
have to deal with villages that are largely depopulated
of the adult generation, groups  of  orphans  who  live
together in an informal  tribal  setting,  grandparents
who are in their declining years exhausted at having to
look after a large number of grand-children because the
normal adult generation has been killed off with AIDS.

4

The spread of narcotics, the alliance of  the  proceeds
of the  narcotics  trade  with  radical  and  terrorist
movements providing the funding for terrorism  in  many
countries; corruption and greed affecting business; the
ethics of business corrupted by  unbridled  greed,  the
corruption  of  the  police  force  and  the  judiciary
through the spread of bribery – all of  these  are  the
problems that we face today and our non-Bahá'í  friends
say: "What are you doing about that? You're  trying  to
spread your religion and  get  more  people  to  become
Bahá'ís, and to pray about it. What are you doing about
these real problems?"

Our answer is  this,  that  these  problems  are  being
analysed in the world today at a  materialistic  level.
Our non-Bahá'í friend says, "Well, so  what!  They  are
material things." We say, "No. The materialistic  level
is only a partial understanding of what  is  going  on.
There are great spiritual forces at work in the  world,
and in order to properly understand what  is  happening
in the world today you need to take  account  of  these
spiritual forces"  -  not  denying  the  value  of  the
material  analysis  but  saying   it   is   incomplete.
[possible gap in tape on change-over]

So apart from the overwhelming mass of society, because
the overwhelming mass is focused on material causes and
effects, and our understanding is that  these  material
causes are an outcome of deep spiritual  forces  moving
throughout humanity. These problems are not only  being
analysed at a materialistic level but  they  are  being
addressed at  a  symptomatic  level.  In  other  words,
people  are  dealing  with  the   symptoms.   AIDS   is
spreading; we try and lower the price of the retroviral
vaccines which seem to at least retard  the  spread  of
AIDS or the transmutation of HIV into AIDS.  There  are
problems of crime; we try and beef up the police force,
we try and install surveillance cameras and  all  kinds
of  things.  We  Bahá'ís  are  not  opposed   to   this
symptomatic treatment; we are not against it. But  what
we say is that it is no more  than  treating  symptoms,
that the problems are far deeper  rooted  in  spiritual
forces and it is with that we must address ourselves.

We believe - and of course this is the central  message
of the book The Promised Day is Come - we believe  that
these problems arise from  a  failure  of  humanity  to
respond to the needs of the new age and the  coming  of
the new Message from God. That basically is why  things
are in such a dreadful mess and becoming worse. It does
not deny the power of technology to bring about bad  as
well as good; it  does  not  deny  the  forces  of  the
oppression of  minorities,  the  effect  of  the  post-
colonial era and all kinds of  things  like  that.  But
what we say is that that is only at a certain level. At
the deepest level humanity has failed to recognise  the
coming of the Message of God and, as a result, symptoms
have appeared which manifest in all  these  problems  I
have referred to.

This gives a suitable framework in which to  view  what
we are doing in building the World Order as a  mean  of
resolution  of  these  problems.  The  World  Order  of
Bahá'u'lláh is to us a unique creation; it is not  like
the way Muslims or Christians or Jews or  Buddhists  or
Hindus or Zoroastrians or anybody else  organise  their
faith. It is  not  simply  the  way  in  which  Bahá'ís
organise their religion. The World Order of  Bahá'ulláh
is an entirely new entity the like  of  which  humanity
has never seen in its thousands of  years  of  recorded
history. It involves a fundamental  change  of  values,
allied with  a  new  system  of  human  relations.  Our
religion offers  an  entirely  new  approach  to  human
relations, whether it is human relations one to one  in
marriage or one to several in the family, or one to the
whole  of  humanity  in  a   national   or   local   or
international setting, the whole dynamic and  basis  of
human relations is changed by what we  call  the  World
Order of Bahá'u'lláh. And we, as we build it, offer  it
as a model to humanity – just as an  architect,  trying
to persuade you to buy  the  building,  will  create  a
model and say, "Look at this model – look how beautiful
it is." He will make computer pictures  and  everything
like that and you will  say,  "Hey,  that  looks  good.
Okay, where do I sign? I want it". We  are  offering  a
working model to humanity of a  system  which  has  the
capacity and power to resolve these problems.

The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh has certain  distinctive
features. It creates, as I say, a  social  order  which
expresses spiritual values; it gives priority to  unity
based upon principle as the

5

One can examine the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in light
of the four groupings of problems I mentioned  earlier.
One  can  examine  it  in  terms  of  the   issues   of
governance; one can look at the problems of  governance
in relation to the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh  and  one
can show  that  the  development  of  the  World  Order
provides a means of governance  which  is  a  model  to
humanity to resolve the  various  governance  problems.
The excess  of  nationalism  and  the  tension  between
countries likewise are resolved by the  values  of  the
World Order. Religious disputes clearly are  identified
and taken care of. The social problems, the problems of
the breakdown of rectitude of conduct and morality  and
the  like,  the  problems  of  racial   prejudice   and
prejudice between the generations and the sexes are all
addressed through the development of the World Order of
Bahá'u'lláh.

Perhaps the most  pertinent  criticism  of  the  Bahá'í
approach is that it will take a long time. Let  us  not
pretend; it will  take  a  long  time.  It  is  a  slow
process; a lot of people are going to be  hurt  in  the
process. You might say, "Well, if it is going to take a
long time, can't we do something more quickly?" Lots of
luck. Go for it. People will  find  that  in  order  to
solve these deeply rooted problems of humanity which go
back thousands of years it will require the development
of a structure called the World Order  of  Bahá'u'lláh.
It will take time; it will take  decades  and  it  will
take centuries, but it will be necessary in  order  for
thousands of years of disorder and turmoil and  tension
and oppression to be eradicated.

The growth process of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh is
what engineers and mathematicians call non-linear –  in
other  words  it  does  not  go  smoothly.   Biologists
likewise – it is like a growth  curve.  It  starts  off
painfully  slow  and  gradually,  as  it  gets   itself
together, it picks up momentum and  then  its  rate  of
growth increases, accelerates and it grows  very,  very
rapidly. And the Bahá'í community, with its development
of its World Order and its numerical  size,  shows  the
characteristics of organic growth. In many parts of the
world its growth is starting to accelerate, starting to
reach that take-off point – not in all countries but in
a certain increasing number. The power  of  social  and
individual  level  in  a  searching  world  will   also
accelerate that growth. [brief blank section  on  tape]
Growth occurs because  individual  and  social  example
will accelerate that growth.

That is the first of the things – is there a  glass  of
water I can drink? That is the first  of  the  items  I
wanted to mention to you this afternoon. I now want  to
turn to another one which I regard as  another  of  the
needs to keep up  with  the  new  developments  of  the
Cause.

Many of us who have been Bahá'ís for many  years  yearn
for the simplicity of the old days, as a  Bahá'í.  Life
then was a lot simpler than it is as  a  Bahá'í  today.
You went to Feasts; if you were elected to the LSA, you
went  to  LSA  meetings,  more  or  less;   there   was
individual teaching – you taught  people  whenever  you
found  somebody  to  listen,  firesides  and  deepening
classes – it  was  a  fairly  simple,  straightforward,
readily understood way of life as a Bahá'í. Now, almost
suddenly, things have become a lot more complicated and
a lot of new words

6

have  appeared,  essentially  from  nowhere:  clusters,
institutes,   reflection   meetings,   study   circles,
devotional meetings, children's education classes.  The
whole mechanism has suddenly,  it  seems,  become  much
more complicated. And some of us who have  been  around
for many years say, "Who asked for all of  this?  Where
did it all come from? What was wrong  with  the  simple
way of  life  –  LSA,  Nineteen  Day  Feast,  fireside,
deepening class, individual teaching?" Well,  where  it
all came from is very straightforward; it came from the
House of Justice [applause].  If  we  go  back  to  the
Ridvan Message of 1996 and there-upon,  and  the  whole
process of advancing the process of entry by troops and
so on, you find year after year  new  terms  appearing.
And if one does not keep up with it, one can be totally
lost. And one can  develop  even  a  slight  degree  of
resentment – "Clusters, why do we need clusters? We got
along  fine  with  the  LSA  and  the  groups  and  the
isolateds – what's all this  cluster  business?  What's
all these institute things,  centres  of  learning  and
Ruhi classes and study circles and tutors  –  all  this
kind of stuff – why do we need all this?"

The point I want to make is  simply  this,  that  these
apparently new things are not new at all; they  are  no
more than the development in processes that have always
been part of our religion and have existed in  core  or
kernel form in statements of Bahá'u'lláh. So  basically
what I am saying, very politely and  in  a  very  well-
mannered and reasonable way, is: calm down folks. These
are not things that the House of Justice,  sitting  off
on the top of Mount Carmel, dreamed up out of  nowhere.
These are things that have their seed in statements  of
Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and represent the  latest
stage in important processes.

Clusters – why clusters? We got by without them,  fine,
what is this all about? What all this is about is about
Bahá'u'lláh,   in   the   early    days,    functioning
strategically in the spread of the Faith –  in  sending
travel teachers to India and to other parts in the Near
East, commissioning Jamal Effendi to go  off  all  over
the place around south-east Asia and various  parts  of
southern Asia, and the like – even  the  outer  Pacific
islands. The Faith has always functioned strategically.
The next development in  the  process  of  clusters  is
where 'Abdu'l-Bahá revealed the Tablets of  the  Divine
Plan. You might say  there  the  cluster  was  country-
sized. Somebody please go and  open  up  South  Africa,
somebody please go and open up the Czech Republic -  or
Italy or Germany or Switzerland or  something.  It  was
strategic functioning; there were  hardly  any  Bahá'ís
anywhere except in Iran and neighbouring countries  and
in north America.  Strategically  'Abdu'l-  Bahá  said,
"Here is a list of countries; we should open  these  up
and proceed from  there."  Strategic  thinking.  Shoghi
Effendi, in his various plans and particularly  in  the
Ten  Year  Crusade,  divided  the  world  up  into  the
countries and said we need someone to open them up.  In
that  sense  cluster  was  country-sized.  "One  Bahá'í
please go and open Venezuela, one Bahá'í please go  and
open Nicaragua", somebody go to Iceland and somebody go
to wherever – to Sri Lanka, to Cambodia and so on.

What we have done now is a  further  extension  of  the
Guardian's mapping of the world  into  countries  where
the Faith needed to appear, and  ultimately  to  become
national assembly countries. What we are doing  now  is
no less daring than mapping the entire surface  of  the
world into clusters. It is part  of  our  intention  to
embrace  the  whole  of  humanity  with  the  light  of
Bahá'u'lláh and in order to do that, we have  to  begin
by carving up the entire surface  of  the  planet  into
bite-sized pieces that we  call  clusters.  Never  mind
that most of them are empty. It is so good people  have
adopted A,B,C and D – and if  you  want  to  use  that,
fine, you're welcome, you do not have  to.  D  clusters
are empty; we have a lot of D clusters in the world. We
are not worried about that; it means we  have  fingered
them. We know  these  are  cluster,  bite-sized  areas,
manageable  in  size,  in  terms   of   geography   and
communication, where the roads and rivers  and  railway
lines go, and we have them fingered  on  our  list  and
ultimately, with the passage of years and  decades,  we
will make them C-type clusters and then B and  then  A-
type clusters.  The  very  act  of  creating  clusters,
geographical clusters throughout the world –  which  is
now in process in the Five Year Plan –  represents  our
stated intention that this religion should  go  to  all
parts of humanity.

7

Our challenge is  not  only  the  geographical  one  of
deciding the clusters but our challenge is to make  the
clusters work, and one of the interesting challenges of
clusters is the  composition  of  them,  because  in  a
number of clusters you have one or two or more LSAs and
then you have groups and you have isolateds –  and  you
probably have a few people who do not know  where  they
belong but they are somehow part  of  it-  and  somehow
these  have  to  work  together.  The  Local  Spiritual
Assembly  still  retains  its  eminent   rank   as   an
institution of the Cause; it does not sort of lose that
because  the  LSA  area  is  part  of  a  cluster   but
nevertheless it works with others  who  are  groups  or
isolateds. And this is difficult in some cases. An  LSA
gets very sensitive – "Hey you guys. That is our  area.
What do you mean by saying we should be doing  this  or
doing that there?" Sometimes the groups  and  isolateds
feel dominated  by  the  LSA  that  is  part  of  their
cluster. These are growing pains; it  is  part  of  the
reflection of  how,  in  the  wider  society,  we  work
together although we are believers  of  different  age,
different   rank,   different   education,    different
background, different everything – but somehow we learn
to work together  without  dominating  each  other  and
treading on each  other's  feet.  So  it  is  with  the
clusters; we are learning – and, of course, it is  only
in the early years - how to work together with entities
of different rank and size and longevity in  the  Faith
and so on.

Another thing – institutes and study circles  –  what's
all that about? We know the mechanism, we know what  it
is – and there are classes and there are books and  all
kinds of  things.  But  deep  down  it  is  the  latest
development of the application of  some  very  precious
Bahá'í principles: the mysterious power of the creative
Word as a channel  for  the  spirit  and  a  source  of
inspiration. This is a profound mystery. You  can  take
even the simplest passage from our sacred Writings  and
even if you have been a Bahá'í for fifty years and read
the thing so many thousand times, or if  you  are  some
genius like John Walker who read the Book of  Certitude
seven times in two weeks – even then you can read  this
simple passage with a number of other Bahá'ís  and  get
new meaning. Take the short  obligatory  prayer:  "bear
witness . . . Thou has created me to know Thee  and  to
worship Thee". There is no limit to the new insight and
understanding you or I could get from a  discussion  of
what does it mean that God "has created me to know Thee
and to worship Thee". How does this apply, what does it
mean to "know" God, how do we "know" him when He is the
Unknowable – all this kind of stuff?

So the institutes and study circles rest, in  part,  on
the mystery of the endless understanding  that  can  be
gained  from  the  creative   Word.   Another   element
underlying  institutes  is  the  mutually   reinforcing
effect of knowledge and belief. To  us,  the  more  you
know the deeper can become your  belief.  It  does  not
happen automatically, nothing is free but it can be the
vehicle  for  a  deeper  belief.  There  is  also   the
interactive effect between knowledge and action. So our
institutes and study circles are not  simply  means  of
acquiring knowledge but means of translating  knowledge
into  action.  And  we  are  learning  that  these  are
mutually   reinforcing.   Knowledge   gives   rise   to
spiritualised action, which can then be the  motivation
and the means of insight to give deeper knowledge.

Institutes and study circles are also part of our means
of breaking down a wall which  is  six  thousand  years
long – the wall between clergy and congregation.  Every
religion  up  till  now  has  had  a  congregation  who
basically sit there quietly, behave themselves,  listen
to their clergy and do what they are told.  Bahá'u'lláh
has come to break that down. We are breaking  it  down;
we have no clergy in the Bahá'í Faith but that does not
mean we have broken it down.  We  still  tend  to  have
hero-worship;  we  still  tend  to   venerate   certain
individuals rather than the institutions and the  like.
It is not going to be easy; it  is  going  to  take  us
centuries  to  get   out   of   our   bloodstream   the
congregation  vis-à-vis  authority-individual  kind  of
dynamic. The institutes and study circles are  part  of
that process. And they also rest upon the fact that any
knowledge to be acquired has to proceed systematically.
It is no use just reading a bit here and a  bit  there;
that will give you inspiration but as far as a coherent
body of knowledge it has to proceed systematically.

Let me mention a couple  of  other  things.  Reflection
meetings – where did that come from? That came from the
fundamental principle of the Faith that there should be
periodic review.

8

"Bring thyself to account" in the Hidden Words. We  are
encouraged  in  other  passages  to  daily  review  our
progress and our activity, to reflect and to  plan  for
the next day. Moderately carried out,  periodic  review
is a fundamental part of our religion. It only works if
this review is carried out in a  moderate  way,  rather
than  either  crushing  yourself  with  guilt  or  else
carrying out a review and coming to the conclusion that
you are really fantastic and  tremendous,  much  better
than anyone else. I mean, that is  not  a  very  useful
review. Periodic review is only useful if it is carried
out relative to an  authoritative  standard  –  in  our
case, the sacred Writings. And it is only useful if  it
gives rise to plans for further action, otherwise it is
simply  introspection  which  has  its  value  but  not
totally.  Reflection  meetings  rest  upon  that  basic
principle  of  the  Faith.  We  have  carried  it   out
individually; we bring ourselves to account  each  day,
the nineteen-day  cycle  with  the  Feasts  also  is  a
periodicity of review. The period  of  the  fast  every
year is intended to  be  a  period  of  reflection,  of
spiritual renewal. As individuals we are used  to  this
as part of our individual life. What we have  done  now
with  reflection  meetings  is  extend  this   to   the
community, far beyond the Nineteen Day Feasts but  into
defined reflection  meetings  with  the  community,  to
extend individual practice to social activity.

Devotional meetings – This is where we are on  familiar
territory; we know what devotional  meetings  are  for,
our purpose in life is to worship God  as  well  as  to
serve Him. Devotional meetings in  the  plans  that  we
have before us are far more than simply  gathering  for
worship. They also  have  a  role  in  sanctifying  the
location where the worship occurs. And I think  we  all
know, by experience, that certain locations  where  God
has been worshipped  change.  They  become  sanctified;
they have a nice atmosphere – people notice,  they  can
tell there is something special  about  this  location.
Some churches have that, some cathedrals – some not, of
course - as well as all kinds of other  aesthetics.  We
also find the power of the Holy Word to  attract  those
who are not Bahá'ís, and devotional meetings  are  part
of the expression of that power of the Holy Word.

Let me say a word about children's education,  as  that
is also part of the process that we are  going  through
now with these new activities. It is not all that  new;
we have  had  people  telling  us  to  have  children's
classes for years and years, but now we have  got  very
serious about it.  I  hesitate  to  say  much  in  this
setting because Australia has a pre-eminent position in
the world with what you have done  and  you  are  doing
with Bahá'í Education in  State  Schools.  Nevertheless
let me call attention to a few things you already know.
It is clear from the integration of children's  classes
in the plans coming from the World Centre of the  Faith
that it has become evident how heavy is the duty of the
older generation to educate and transmit  knowledge  to
the new generation.  It  is  not  a  luxury,  not  just
something you do at the weekends when there is  nothing
else to do. It is a duty, so that civilisation proceeds
and the older generation passes on wisdom  to  the  new
generation. The older generation can pass  on  nonsense
to the new generation, so our  children's  classes  are
based on the sacred Texts, so there is  a  purification
as the generations proceed.  We  know  that  children's
education has been given greater priority in the  plans
of the World Centre nowadays because it has got  a  lot
more dangerous out there than it was even ten or twenty
years ago. Children are being swept away by  the  very,
very  dangerous  forces  –  child  abuse,  pornography,
narcotics, crime, violence, indoctrination – all  these
things are very dangerous, and children's education  is
a means of protecting children against these hazards.

Overall there are certain  things  one  can  say  about
these new directions. There  is,  as  always  when  the
Faith moves into new directions, a danger of  extremes.
One extreme is to ridicule it and to stay far away from
it – "all you silly people running  around  with  study
classes and Ruhi books and institutes and clusters  and
the like, this is a lot of nonsense" –  ridiculing  it.
The other extreme is to harass the people  who  do  not
want to get involved in it – "You are unfaithful to the
Covenant; you know you should be doing it. It  says  in
the Five Year Plan that you should do it"  and  so  on.
The House  of  Justice,  in  a  letter  that  has  been
published in the "Building Momentum" document, has said
it is quite allowable for those who do not want

9

to be part of this – these new directions.  It's  okay.
But what we say is: "Please be supportive of it. If you
don't want to come to study classes, if you don't  want
to go to institutes, if you don't want  to  participate
in cluster meetings,  it's  okay  –  fine.  Don't  feel
guilty, don't get embarrassed or worried about it.  But
please don't say bad things about it,  please  be  nice
about it – because it is part of the Five Year Plan and
gradually, as time  goes  on,  you  may  feel  yourself
inclined to become at least partially or fully involved
in it. We do not want these new  directions  that  have
appeared since 1996 to be a form  of  division  of  the
Bahá'í community. We do not want it to become a club to
beat others with. If you want to  do  it,  welcome,  we
need all the help we can get. If you feel it is not  to
your taste, that's okay.  We  won't  say  nasty  things
about you, but please don't say nasty things about it.

The  other  thing  I  want  to  say  about  these   new
directions is that the old stuff doesn't  suddenly  get
out of date. We still need  individual  initiative;  we
still   need   firesides,   deepening   classes,    LSA
development, personal  spiritual  practices  -  prayer,
fasting and moral development. They did not suddenly go
out of style because of  clusters  and  institutes  and
study circles and all the rest of it. They still remain
the foundation of our religion.

What is happening with all this? What is  happening  is
an organic process.  Gradually  the  structure  of  the
Bahá'í community is emerging. The  Nineteen  Day  Feast
was the basis of the structure;  now  new  elements  of
structure are emerging – the clusters,  study  circles,
institutes, all these kinds of things. It is a bit like
embryology: the embryo initially is a  fertilised  ovum
and it is basically a tiny little blob.  Everything  is
basically the same; there  is  no  structure  –  it  is
spherical blob. Gradually with the passage of  time  in
the embryonic  development  structure  emerges;  little
things emerge that turn out  to  be  the  head,  little
things emerge that turn out to be the  arms  and  later
even more little things emerge which turn out to be the
fingers and so on and so forth.

The embryonic World Order of Bahá'u'lláh is  developing
structure, little by little, and if you looked  at  the
embryo in the first few weeks of pregnancy,  you  would
see the emergence of elements  of  structure.  And  you
would say, "How about that.  The  thing  is  developing
structure." Well, stick around for a  few  more  months
and we'll show you structure like you've  never  heard.
So it is with the World  Order  of  Bahá'u'lláh.  These
elements of structure are simply  the  beginning,  more
will  appear  with  the  passage  of  time.  And   this
structure is the basis for  advancing  the  process  of
entry by troops, because it provides a  means  whereby,
when lots of people come into the Faith, you  can  find
them six months later or even six days later, let alone
a year later. We can keep them when they enrol  in  the
Faith because of this structure. And beyond that,  this
structure is the  basis  for  the  creation  of  a  new
civilisation. All these things that we are doing are no
less than the civilising process, the first streaks  of
light  on  the  horizon  before  the  dawn  of  a   new
civilisation. We are civilising ourselves and  humanity
by the creation of this structure.

I have one more point to make – I can  make  it  fairly
briefly, but I have taken almost an hour. I  have  seen
speakers in a similar situation and what they  tend  to
do, they say, "I have this thing to say  to  you  –  it
will take another five to ten minutes. Do you  want  me
to do it or not. Now, this is  intrinsically  dishonest
because  nobody  is  willing  to  say,  "No,  I've  had
enough." So what happens when a speaker  says  that  is
the audience feels duty bound to say "Yes, of  course."
And later they sit there thinking, "Why was  I  stupid;
why didn't I say, 'No, I've had enough'." Well, I'm not
going to put you in the  situation  of  having  to  lie
between your teeth and say, "Yes, continue". I'm  going
to continue for another five or eight minutes but  then
I promise I'll stop, then I'll take questions  and  you
will have a chance to get your own back.

I wanted to take a  few  more  minutes  to  talk  about
social and economic development.  Social  and  economic
development  has  a  particular  form  in  Third  World
countries where there is  endemic  poverty;  there  are
great needs for  hygiene  and  health,  and  collective
generation of income, but we are still working out what
to do in a developed Western society such as  this  one
in the way of social and economic development.  I  want
to share with you very quickly

10

four things  that  I  feel  are  pertinent  to  Western
society in the area of social  development.  These  are
areas where I think Bahá'ís have a lot to offer to  our
friends who are  not  Bahá'ís  in  the  way  of  social
development.

The first is this: successful marriage. I find with  my
friends who are not Bahá'ís in Australia and  in  north
America and  in  other  countries  that  my  non-Bahá'í
friends are on the verge, if not beyond that, of giving
up on marriage – not because they enjoy the promiscuous
life but simply because they are so deeply  pessimistic
about the chances of having a marriage that  works  and
they are well aware, from their parents' generation, of
the emotional  havoc  of  marriage  breakdown.  We,  as
Bahá'ís, do not claim to have solved this problem –  we
know that we have  marriage  breakdown  in  the  Bahá'í
community but we also know we are working on it and  we
have very powerful  teachings  which  can  help  us  to
develop successful marriage, and I think there is  room
for social development, for Bahá'ís to  offer  what  we
have on successful marriage to our non-Bahá'í  friends:
things like equality of  the  sexes;  things  like  the
basis for communication  and  decision  making  in  the
marriage  through   consultation;   things   like   the
importance of fidelity and avoiding pre-marital sex  as
a means of  increasing  the  likelihood  of  successful
marriage; and things like working  together  for  noble
goals as a basis of strengthening the marriage. I think
that is one area.

The second area – and I am doing these quickly  because
the audience is going to  go  to  sleep  if  I  am  not
careful –  the  second  area  is  that  we,  in  social
development to our non-Bahá'í friends, can  offer  good
values for children. Again my  non-Bahá'í  friends  are
desperate to find some system  of  belief  that  offers
good values for their kids. Not everybody in  the  non-
Bahá'í world is in favour of gay clergy, not  everybody
in the non-Bahá'í world is at ease  with  the  idea  of
clergymen who sexually molest small children  entrusted
to their care. The non-Bahá'í society is desperate  for
something that conveys good values. We have  a  lot  to
offer  because  we  convey  religious  values   without
indoctrination and fanaticism. We foster the aspiration
to  excellence  and  achievement.  We  orient  kids  to
service to humanity, and we offer  religious  education
which also values the rational process and science.  If
I wasn't running out of time, I would  develop  all  of
these ad nauseam but in  fact  so  many  religions  are
anti-rational,  or  they  foster  religious   education
through  indoctrination   and   fanaticism,   or   they
encourage you to be satisfied with your  way  of  life,
not to aspire to excellence and achievement, We have  a
unique set of values to offer in this regard..

Two more. We can offer to the  larger  society  a  safe
place for social interaction.  What  I  mean  is  this:
there are lots of  people  around  out  there  who  are
feeling lonely, alienated but are  distrustful  of  the
motives of others. There are a lot of people out  there
who would like to be friends but who dare not smile  at
you because it sends an unwanted signal, often a sexual
signal – whether it is the same sex or the opposite sex
unfortunately these days. We offer a  community  –  not
saying, "Hey you guys, you have to  become  Bahá'ís"  –
but we offer a community setting where people can  feel
they can trust others; they can  be  genuine  in  their
approach to strangers. We offer  a  community  of  good
motive and values that is  open  to  diversity,  and  I
think there is more we can do to provide a haven  where
you can relax and feel that  there  are  people  around
whom you can trust, who  will  not  try  and  do  nasty
things to you or manipulate you emotionally or  in  any
other way.

And finally in social development, I think we can offer
advice and example  and  guidance  to  people  who  are
looking  for  meaning  in  life.  I  am  aware  of  two
particular populations. One is  the  population  of  my
generation, who have reached their  sixties,  who  have
sometimes been very  successful,  sometimes  incredibly
eminent in their professional life and  who  say,  "I'm
still hungry. Is this all there is? Is this what it  is
all about? I have achieved thus and so,  and  this  and
that, and I have all  these  possessions  but  I  still
don´t feel as though I really know who I am or what  it
is all about or where I'm going." The second population
are  those  in  their  thirties  and  forties  who  are
dropping out of the system, and  there  are  a  lot  of
those in Australia. You read about people who are  very
successful in professional life in Sydney or  Melbourne
or some other place who say, "I give up. I'm going  out
to Lightening Ridge or

11

to Broken Hill or to Longreach or to some place and I'm
going to start again – buy a piece  of  land  and  just
live quietly because I'm trying to find myself,  and  I
don't find it in the city." There are  lots  –  and  an
increasing number of  people  –  who  are  looking  for
meaning in life, abandoning their ordered, settled  way
of life  in  search  of  meaning.  We  can  offer  them
meaningful life without their having to kick  over  the
traces  particularly.  We  can  offer   them   a   non-
materialistic lifestyle that is not  ascetic;  it  does
not mean they  have  to  give  up  the  things  –  air-
conditioning and things - that  make  life  comfortable
but onele which is fundamentally non-materialistic.  We
can  offer  them  a  way  of  life  that  aims  at  the
upliftment of society, that  helps  a  new  generation,
that gives them a synchronism with where the  world  is
going.

Let me conclude. What I have mentioned are  the  needs,
as I see them, of the present  day.  Other  needs  will
emerge in the future; we don't know what they are  –  I
gave a talk in some place in Germany a year or  so  ago
–maybe it was two years ago, things kind of speed up as
you get older – but a couple of years ago I gave a talk
in  Germany  and  I  talked  about  these  various  new
developments, and I said, "New things  will  emerge  in
the future and the House of Justice will write  to  you
about them." And that intrigued the audience  and  they
said,  "Can  you  tell  us  what  they  are?".  Then  I
frightened the wits out of them by saying, "I  have  no
idea what they are – I don't have  the  faintest  idea.
What I do know is that God  will  guide  the  House  of
Justice in accordance with the Writings of Ishráqát and
the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and so on  –  He
will  guide  the  House  of  Justice   to   these   new
developments when the time is right. So I have no ideas
what they are, but they will  come  and  they  will  be
presented by the House of Justice in years to come, and
the Faith will move forward."

We should proceed now with great confidence  that  this
is what God wants us to do, this  is  the  way  we  are
guided  in  the  unfoldment  of  the  Faith   and   our
confidence should be reinforced by the certainty of our
knowledge that a vast multitude of people are moving in
the realm of time towards us, to join us in the future,
to become part of this process of  building  the  World
Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Thank you. [applause]

The next thing is your turn to ask me any questions you
wish, and if I can answer them  I  will  -–if  I  can't
answer them, I will make up something completely unreal
– no, I won't, I'll tell you I don't  know.  [laughter]
The reason I wanted this question  period  was  that  I
feel it is very important that when somebody  from  the
institutions at the World Centre visits the friends  in
any country, that a precious part of  our  religion  is
the right of any believer to ask anything they wish  of
the administrators of the Cause. So  do  feel  free,  I
don't mind what you ask. If it is something that I feel
is sensitive or private  of  confidential,  I  have  no
inhibition about saying so. If it is  something  I  can
answer, I will certainly try and do so. So  don´t  feel
any embarrassment – if there is anything  you  want  to
know and I can help you with, feel free to ask.

Question: What of the writings  of  Shoghi  Effendi  at
this time – God Passes By, The Advent of Divine Justice
. . . ?

Fine, that is a very good question. In  one  sense  all
the writings  of  Shoghi  Effendi  remain  of  enduring
validity during the whole of  the  dispensation.  There
will not ever be a time when we will put them aside. Of
course, everyone has their own favourite and so and  so
forth. But the House of Justice in the  Ridvan  Message
this past Ridvan called attention to several letters of
the  Guardian  in  the  book   The   World   Order   of
Bahá'u'lláh, and directed the friends to make a special
study  of  those  messages.  One  of  them   was   "The
Unfoldment of World Civilisation"; another one I  think
was "America and the Most Great Peace", and there  were
one or two others - whatever it was, you will  find  it
in the Ridvan Message. I write these  things;  I  don't
have to read them, okay. [laughter] They were  selected
very carefully – you can't tell that from the fact that
I can't remember them,  but  they  were  selected  very
carefully because the House of Justice felt  they  were
of special relevance at this time.  When  you  look  at
them you  will  find  that  "The  Unfoldment  of  World
Civilisation" looks as if it was written yesterday,

12

speaking of the two processes of  decline  and  growth,
the breakdown  of  society,  the  integrating  process,
where it will lead and so on – full of illumination.

One of the messages mentioned by the House of Justice I
think was "America and the Most Great Peace" – and this
was controversial. Why did the House of Justice ask all
the Bahá'ís in the world  to  read  a  message  of  the
Guardian which has focused on the role of America? When
you  stop  and  think  about  it,  America  is  a  very
controversial subject – always has been and always will
be. You can stop any person on the street out here  and
he or she will have very strong views on  America,  and
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  American
foreign policy  in  Iraq  or  in  the  Middle  East  or
anywhere else. And it is important that Bahá'ís have  a
perspective on America and its role in the World  Order
of Bahá'u'lláh - a perspective that is defined  by  the
Writings rather than by whatever is said about  America
in the society around us, so it was  very  deliberately
chosen. But if one had to  rank  the  writings  of  the
Guardian in terms of  relevance  right  now  one  would
choose those messages that were mentioned in  the  last
Ridvan Message over the others.

Question: I am interested about the social and economic
development projects that you mentioned – that we could
focus on the four points – and I am wondering what  you
think, when the time comes and we have lots  of  people
coming  from   abused   backgrounds   and   broken-down
families,  do  we  need  to  devise  new  materials  to
reinforce the institute process that we are  doing,  or
do you think we will  just  focus  on  the  three  core
teachings?

That is a very interesting  question.  As  people  come
from various backgrounds where they  have  suffered  in
many ways, such as various forms of abuse, do  we  need
to develop new materials to meet those particular needs
or not? The answer is very simple:  I  don't  know.  It
depends  on  each  country  and  it  depends  on   each
particular  social  background.  The  institutions   in
Australia are in a much better position,  being  closer
to Australian culture, assuming there is – well,  there
is, I don't want to be nasty about Australian culture –
sorry about that [laughter] – and needs and so on,  and
they would be in a better position than I am just  sort
of flying in on a short visit. I could argue yes and  I
could argue no – it depends on the  particular  setting
of the country.

Question: I have always been  wondering  –  you,  as  a
member  of  the  Universal  House  of  Justice  –  what
difference do you feel between now and when you are  in
the Universal House of Justice in a meeting  after  the
starting prayer has been said? I am  sure  it  is  very
different; I am just wondering how different it is.

How different does it feel – I can  answer  by  telling
you a very complicated story which will  probably  lose
you half way. Nevertheless I will tell you  the  story.
[laughter] The House of Justice has its council chamber
and it meets in that  council  chamber,  and  it  meets
typically nine-thirty to twelve and then three to five-
thirty, three days a week. Sometimes it will  meet  six
days or seven days a week, but typically three  days  a
week. It's raining – great;  we'll  see  how  well  Kia
built this building.

[blank section on tape] . .  .  the  House  of  Justice
agreed, so Janet and I had lunch with Shabnam and  then
at the end of the lunch, I said, "Shabnam, as a special
privilege the House of Justice  has  given  me  special
permission." So off we go, up to the  first  floor,  to
the council chamber – of course, it is empty – and  the
House had been meeting from nine-thirty  to  twelve.  I
opened the door and say,  "Shabnam,  you  can  go  in".
Shabnam stands there – Shabnam can go in,  but  Shabnam
stands there. Eventually I kind of gently nudge her and
she crosses into the room. Next  comes  Janet  –  Janet
stands there – "Janet, go in."  Janet  stands  there  –
because Janet is my wife I can shove  her  a  lot  more
strongly [laughter] – with Shabnam I had  to  be  nice,
okay. So they both come in and I show  them  the  nine-
sided table and the chairs,  basically  just  a  simple
room with a nine-sides table and nine  chairs  and  the
bookcases on either side. Shabnam is deeply moved, very
overcome, very conscious of what  she  feels  to  be  a
great power in that room. Eventually she comes out  and
we go off. Shabnam feels that

13

there was some tremendous spiritual power in that room.
Fine. I  say  to  Janet  afterwards,  "Okay,  that  was
Shabnam. What was your problem?  You've  been  in  that
room before". And  Janet  says,  "There  was  something
about it." The House of Justice had been meeting  there
for two and a half hours; there was  some  power,  some
influence residually in that room that Janet felt. Me –
I'm like a block of wood  [laughter]  –  I  don't  feel
anything.

So I tell you this story to indicate that because I  am
involved in the meetings there all the time, I  feel  –
if you will – normal. If you were to say to  me,  "Does
it feel unusual or special?" – I don't know. I  know  I
feel very free,  I  feel  my  spirit  liberated  during
consultation – the consultation  is  very  frank;  it's
very friendly; we enjoy being with each  other  and  we
are very frank – we disagree, fine.  I  know  sometimes
when very complex issues come up the consultation takes
quite a while and you can have nine members  with  nine
different views. Sometimes I say, jokingly, "There  are
only nine of us here and we have ten different  views."
But that is just me,  joking.  And  then  gradually  it
converges and the right decision emerges. But for those
who are not used to it, even somebody who has  been  in
the room before – so it is not a novelty so far as  the
furniture of the room, like Janet – there is still  the
sense of some very special power. This is no more  than
a 'pilgrim note' – I don´t want to start  some  magical
thing here but I think it  is  interesting  that  these
individuals,  both  Shabnam  and  Janet,  both   sensed
something from having been in the room  so  soon  after
the House had met.

Question: In the past a lot  of  the  messages  of  the
House of Justice have focused  on  working  with  like-
minded organisations and I am wondering  whether  there
is – there seems to be a  feeling  in  the  communities
that  I  have  lived   in   but   perhaps   it   is   a
misunderstanding, that there is  a  shift  in  emphasis
away from that to purely Bahá'í activities, focusing on
the three core activities. If this is the case, what  I
am wondering is - if it is the case, it might nor be  –
if it is, combining the solution to the  problem  areas
that  you  mentioned  of   both   the   spiritual   and
necessarily materialistic approach, where we might  get
our skill set from,  because  we  seem,  to  be  rather
woefully equipped to deal with these things, other than
working with like-minded organisations.

I can think of nothing that has come from the House  of
Justice to support the view that we  should  move  away
from working with like-minded organisation,  and  I  am
familiar with the House of Justice's letter to the U.K.
as well as to other parts of the world, so I  certainly
would be aware of anything along those  directions  and
it would be kind of radical -–one would  have  to  say,
"How does that fit in with the rest of the  Faith?"  So
the  conception  that  you  have  got  may  well  be  a
misunderstanding that has arisen in that  part  of  the
community and, if it is, it doesn't  alarm  me  because
one gets to expect all kinds  of  misunderstandings  as
the Faith develops. Some of  these  are  geographically
localised; some are continentally spread and the  like,
and they gradually  get  worked  out.  Either  somebody
discovers them and writes to the House of  Justice  and
we clarify it or in some other way – people go back and
say, "Hey, where does that come from?"  –  and  realize
that  it   is   a   misunderstanding,   because   these
misunderstandings are inevitable. We also  get  zealots
and extremists – people who become so  enamoured  of  a
particular element of Bahá'í activity  that  they  want
everybody, without exception, to join into it. They can
be a little hazardous to your health but after a  while
they calm down, one way or the other.  So  my  attitude
towards it is very much that of the older generation.

Question: I just wanted to  ask  a  question  that  was
raised by a new believer at the university that I am at
– we were in  a  study  circle,  and  this  is  a  very
intelligent fellow who has done a lot of research  into
the Faith before he declared, and he kept referring  to
these failed prophecies  of  'Abdu'l-Bahá  about  world
peace. It turns out that he was probably  referring  to
the 'candle of unity' with the nations  which  'Abdu'l-
Bahá has said would be firmly established by the end of
the twentieth century. I was wondering, in the  context
of  what  you  were  talking  about  with   the   Cause
developing, could you perhaps  give  us  some  of  your
personal insights as to how that candle has  been  lit.

14

Yes, this  is  a  very  good  question.  The  so-called
'failed prophecies' is  of  course  a  misnomer.  There
aren't   any    failed    prophecies,    just    failed
understandings,   and   these   failed   understandings
generally arise from the fact that we, in our  society,
are not oriented  to  processes;  we  are  oriented  to
events. If you are oriented to events, there are  about
a million things in the Writings that don't make sense.

For example, good old President  Woodrow  Wilson,  with
his fourteen points at the end of World War 1  –  fine.
That gave rise to the League of Nations. The League  of
Nations fell flat on its face and  then  arose  as  the
United Nations after World War 2, etc. What does Shoghi
Effendi say  about  Woodrow  Wilson's  fourteen  points
giving rise to the League of Nations? You will find  it
in  the  book  Citadel  of  Faith,   in   the   message
:"Challenging Requirements of the Present  Hour"  which
is in the first ten pages.  Shoghi  Effendi  refers  to
that activity of Woodrow  Wilson  as  representing  the
"dawn of" – the dawn of what? I'll keep you in suspense
- no, I'll tell you -  "the  dawn  of  the  Most  Great
Peace".

Well, give me a break – if he had said "the dawn of the
Lesser Peace" you could maybe stretch your  imagination
and  accept  that  Woodrow  Wilson's  thing  with   the
fourteen points was the dawn of the Lesser  Peace.  But
Shoghi Effendi says it was 'the dawn of the Most  Great
Peace". And you might say, "Well, okay, that was 1919 –
this is now 2003. That's 84 years later, I  don't  even
see the Lesser Peace, let along the Most  Great  Peace.
How come Wilson's thing was the 'dawn of the Most Great
Peace'." It makes no sense whatsoever  unless  you  are
process oriented, and Shoghi Effendi, with  his  divine
insight, saw that relatively failed endeavour,  in  the
narrow sense, as of enormous significance in the  long-
term history of humanity over many centuries,  that  he
marked that as  "the  dawn"  of  what  will  ultimately
become the Most Great Peace a long, long way  down  the
road. So, in one sense, so-called  "failed  prophecies"
represent that.

With this business of the "end of the  century"  it  is
clear that there were  authoritative  texts  and  there
were what the Bahá'ís said to each other. Authoritative
texts  referred  to  unity  of  nations  being   firmly
established by the end of the twentieth century, and  I
think one can make arguments about the unity of nations
being firmly established by the end  of  the  twentieth
century  in   terms   of   the   interconnection,   the
interdependence, the interaction of nations in  various
activities. If by unity of nations you  mean  they  are
all very nice to each other and treat each other  very,
very nicely and calmly, then obviously it is not true –
nowhere near it, you have all the nasty  people  around
the place wanting to throw bombs at each other.  Living
in the state of Israel, we have  all  kinds  of  things
happening there and so  on  –  there  is  no  unity  of
nations, if that is what you  mean.  But  if  you  mean
interdependence, if you mean interactive  activity,  if
you mean a sense of the ties binding nations  together,
one sees an evolving process that has  reached  certain
stages by the end of the twentieth century.

My favourite – because of where I live at  the  moment–
is the pollution  of  the  Mediterranean,  because  the
Mediterranean, contrary to what it looks on the map, is
basically a lake in  the  sense  that  the  Straits  of
Gibraltar  are  narrow  and  relatively  shallow,   and
essentially almost all the water in  the  Mediterranean
swills around there and  does  not  get  out  into  the
Atlantic. So pollution of the Mediterranean is a  vital
issue with all the oil tankers that  discharge  ballast
from their tanks and  all  kinds  of  things  happening
there. It is such  a  pressing  problem  that  all  the
nations bordering the Mediterranean  join  together  in
consultative conference to make decisions about how the
pollution of the Mediterranean  can  be  regulated  and
controlled. And  that  happens.  To  me  that  is  very
significant because among  the  nations  bordering  the
Mediterranean that sit together are not only Greece and
Turkey but Israel and Libya, and  to  have  Israel  and
Libya sitting together at a conference,  joining  in  a
consultative group with a reasonable degree of  harmony
about what can  be  done  to  avoid  pollution  of  the
Mediterranean is, to me, a small cameo example  of  how
unity of  nations  exists  in  a  developing  -  not  a
developed - form at this time.

15

Question: I know you have been standing for a while now
but I want to ask a very simply question and relate  it
to  the  Australian   community   welfare.   The   very
magnificent talk you have presented to us today  sounds
very  familiar  with  what  the  Australian   community
welfare  are  doing  at  the  moment.  Is   there   any
relationship between the welfare society in  the  world
and the Bahá'í teachings?

That sounds a  very  interesting  question.  I  am  not
familiar  with  the  organisation   called   Australian
welfare but I can pretty much guess the kind  of  thing
it must be doing. What is happening is  best  described
in  a  general  way  in  terms  of  this  message  "The
Unfoldment of World Civilisation" which  the  House  of
Justice recommended the  friends  read.  In  there  the
Guardian speaks about processes occurring in the  world
today – the process  of  decline  and  the  process  of
growth – and he tells us that the growing  process  has
two bits to  it.  One  is  the  growth  of  the  Bahá'í
community – we know all about that – the second bit  is
the growth  of  values  of  activities  in  the  larger
society, external to the Bahá'í community but going  in
the same direction. So there are all kinds – in fact it
relates to Corinne's point – there  are  all  kinds  of
organisations  and  entities  which  are  growing   and
developing in similar directions to some or all of  the
Bahá'í teachings. We can categorise them as part of the
growing process that the Guardian  referred  to  -  the
growing process are all this  stuff  happening  in  the
wider society towards internationalism,  towards  human
rights, towards  the  emancipation  of  women,  towards
minority  concerns  and  all  kinds  of  other   things
improving society, going in the same direction as  some
or other of the Bahá'í teachings. So in that  sense  my
guess is that the Australian  welfare  fits  into  that
model of being one of the organisations,  part  of  the
growing process, animated by the spirit of the new  age
released in the world with the  coming  of  Bahá'u'lláh
and going in the same direction as us.

This leads me to a point which I will sneak in while  I
can, and that is that the  House  of  Justice  wrote  a
message on politics in  about  1966  –  it  is  in  the
compilation of messages. In it  the  House  of  Justice
refers to these two parts of the  growing  process  and
says  that  the  growing  process  outside  the  Bahá'í
community is developing, leading to  the  Lesser  Peace
and the unification of  the  world.  That's  wonderful;
that's great – and we're all very happy. But  then  the
question arises: who needs us? If the  growing  process
in the  outside  society,  as  well  as  the  declining
process, leads to the unification of the world and  the
creation of the Lesser Peace, why are we having nervous
breakdowns and getting  exhausted  and  running  around
doing things? Why don't we just relax – it will  happen
anyhow. The House  of  Justice  answers  that  in  that
message by saying the role of the Bahá'ís in  spreading
the Bahá'í Faith and building the Bahá'í  community  is
to spiritualise the unified body of mankind.  Our  role
is the spiritualisation of that unified body. If it  is
not spiritualised, it will be unified but  it  will  be
inert, in terms of creativity, in terms of  vision,  in
terms of growth. In that sense what we are doing now is
a replay of the Book of Genesis, because in the Book of
Genesis – of course it is symbolic  -  God  takes  this
clay figure and forms it into a human form and then  He
breathes spirit into it and it comes to life. This is a
replay; this is the remake of the old  movie.  What  is
happening now is that the power  of  God  is  breathing
into and creating a  unified  body  of  mankind  –  the
Lesser Peace – and we are the agents  of  God,  through
our belief in Bahá'u'lláh, and we are  commissioned  to
breathe  spiritual  life  into  this  unified  body  of
mankind, just as in the symbolic story of  Genesis  God
breathed spiritual life into this clay  figure  and  it
became a human being – although most of us feel like we
are clay, particularly in the morning - but  the  whole
thing is like a repeat on an international scale.

Question: Dr Khan, thank you very much for immersing us
in this ocean of beauty, like today  we  are  really  a
part of paradise, and I am looking at  all  my  friends
and beloved Bahá'ís here. Every one of us feel like  we
are so blessed to be Bahá'ís, to have  hope.  The  last
Universal House of Justice  member  who  was  here,  Dr
Javaheri, said that you have to  pray  for  the  people
whom you are teaching the Faith, and  I  prayed  for  a
certain person and  in  five  days'  time  that  person
signed  the  card.  Today,  after  the  passing  of  Mr
Furutan, is it possible

16

for us here to want to bring one soul  until  the  next
passing  of  'Abdu'l-Bahá's  memorial  service?  Is  it
possible fore each of us to teach the Faith to just one
more person and, imagine, next  year  will  be  us  and
another group  just  like  this,  knowing  Bahá'u'lláh,
serving Bahá'u'lláh and teaching the Faith?  How  could
we achieve that, Peter Khan? Please let us know.

That is a rhetorical question. I'm not dumb  enough  to
try and answer that. [laughter] Okay,  let's  take  the
next question.

Question: My question is in light of the recent message
from the Universal House of Justice with regard to  the
near future of Iran, the near future situation in Iran.
Just I have visited the latest message of the Universal
House of Justice that was released on 26 November,  the
Day of Covenant, to the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in the
Cradle of the Faith. I hope you do  not  tell  me  that
this is for those beloved friends there but, you  know,
I  seek  clarification.  Indeed  every   sentence   and
paragraph of this message would be the  climax  of  the
message but for the purpose of asking question, I  have
picked the very last paragraph. Please allow me to read
it. In here it says:  "Each  time  we  visit  the  Holy
Shrines you are in the  forefront  of  our  hearts  and
prayers. Your long night will end, and  you  will  have
the joy of witnessing with your  own  eyes  the  mighty
structure your sacrifices have raised."  Although  this
paragraph, with our own  imagination  and  latitude  of
thought   and    implications    can    have    various
interpretations, I would like to  ask  you  to  clarify
that and elucidate on the meaning of this section.

Yes, what I can do is share with you  my  understanding
of what I was thinking of when, in session,  we  agreed
on the wording of that paragraph. I say that because we
have to be very, very  careful  because  what  a  House
member feels the passage  means  does  not  necessarily
hold to be accurate. The House member was just  one  of
nine people who were present; we consulted and  we  all
decided that was what the wording  should  be.  If  you
were to question each member afterwards and  say,  "Why
did  you  select  that  wording?"  you  may  find  nine
different views. That's it.  You  have  to  distinguish
between the individuals and the institution,  and  this
is very crucial for our protection, both now and in the
future.

However, when we came to that passage  I  remember  the
consultation and my feeling at the  time  was  that  we
needed  to  remind  the  friends  in  Iran  that   this
psychological and mental and physical  oppression  that
they have been experiencing for so long, since 1979  or
whatever, that its end will come. The passage does  not
say it will come immediately or soon or next year or in
two years' time. We do not  know,  because  it  depends
upon human free will. But we do know that it will  come
and we felt a need to remind the friends in  Iran  that
this would come to an end whenever God decrees that  to
be the case, and that then the friends in Iran will see
what wonderful effect their sacrifices  have  had.  The
structure  that  will  come  into  being  will  be  the
structure of belief on a large scale  as  a  result  of
what they have experienced and endured.

Now what does this mean? What I know is  that  Payam-i-
Doust, the short-wave radio transmission carried out by
the Bahá'ís from a transmitter in Marlborough  or  some
place, that it reaches all through  Iran  and  that  an
increasing number of non-Bahá'í Iranians write or email
or contact Payam-i-Doust and say,  "This  is  the  only
positive thing I hear on the entire radio program every
day. This is the thing  I  look  forward  to"  and  say
wonderful things about the Faith. Groups of individuals
– we had one message I saw which was from  a  group  of
soldiers, the entire unit would gather around the radio
and listen to it each night and so on. It is clear that
the fidelity and the heroism of the believers  in  Iran
has attracted and is attracting an inordinate amount of
admiration from non-Bahá'ís in Iran, even those  people
in Iran who are disillusioned with religion because  of
the extremism around them find their faith in  religion
redeemed by what they see to  be  the  example  of  the
Bahá'ís around them. My thought in sort of  voting  for
that passage was the fact that the Bahá'ís in Iran will
be stunned when the cloud lifts in Iran and  they  seen
the magnitude of the benevolent effect they have had on
the people

17

in their country and throughout  not  only  the  Muslim
world but the larger world by the  fact  that  so  many
people will be attracted to the Faith by virtue of  the
example of the Bahá'ís, as well as  the  model  of  the
teachings presented to them.

So in a sense in that passage we wanted to  remind  the
friends in Iran that things are  going  to  get  better
and, when they get better, it will really be wonderful,
far more so than they can realize, and  in  that  sense
that was how we wanted to end the message.  But,  as  I
say, this is just one individual's views and one of the
most important things in our religion  in  the  present
day is that let us never confuse the thoughts and views
of an individual member of the House  of  Justice  with
the majesty and the authority of the Universal House of
Justice itself. Thank you.