World Unity Conferences
(To categorize)[edit]
"In connection with the series of World Unity Conferences which you have initiated and so laboriously organized, I feel that in order to reap the fullest advantage and benefit from this laudable effort, it is absolutely essential to follow up with the aid of enlightened, experienced and capable teachers the interest which has been aroused. Such a group of teachers should judiciously select those few among the many interested, and endeavor with patience and sympathy and by constant intimate personal intercourse, to prepare them gradually for the entire and unreserved acceptance of the fundamentals of the Bahá'í Revelation. If the results be meagre, if the attendance be small, let us not despair, nor relax in our efforts. Let us remember that this sound method will eventually triumph, if we only consistently support it, and persevere in undertaking those subsequent steps that can alone produce full and permanent benefit."
"Regarding the series of World Unity meetings which some of the thoughtful, capable and devoted servants of the Cause have carefully organized and successfully conducted, and to which you have referred in your letter of March 8th, I wish to express my keen appreciation of such a splendid conception, my deep gratitude for the efforts they have exerted, and my gratification in view of the success they have achieved."
"In connection with the World Unity Conferences, which you have organized, I desire to assure you of my heartfelt appreciation of such a splendid conception. I am profoundly impressed by the generous assistance spontaneously offered by those who, faithful to their other obligations, have risen to insure the financial success of such a noble Plan. I am grateful to those local Assemblies and individuals who have given it their whole-hearted support in their respective fields.
"As to the policy that should be adopted with regard to these Conferences and other Bahá'í activities in general, it appears increasingly evident that as the Movement grows in strength and power the National Spiritual Assemblies should be encouraged, if circumstances permit and the means at their disposal justify, to resort to the twofold method of directly and indirectly winning the enlightened public to the unqualified acceptance of the Bahá'í Faith. The one method would assume an open, decisive and challenging tone. The other, without implying in any manner the slightest departure from strict loyalty to the Cause of God, would be progressive and cautious. Experience will reveal the fact that each of the methods in its own special way might suit a particular temperament and class of people, and that each in the present state of a constantly fluctuating society, should be judiciously attempted and utilized.
- (Shoghi Effendi, Bahá'í Administration, pp. 124-125)
"He feels that the statement which your assembly made in your letter to him ... regarding Bahá'ís cooperating with peace and world unity conferences, covers the subject adequately. There is no reason to draw a line of demarcation as to whether the type of world federation being promoted by a certain society involves governments or peoples. The point is that if it is not allied to any particular political faction, and is not either Eastern or Western in its projects, the Bahá'ís may appear as speakers on its platform and give it moral support."
"And now, it behooves us to reflect on the animating purpose and the primary functions of these divinely-established institutions, the sacred character and the universal efficacy of which can be demonstrated only by the spirit they diffuse and the work they actually achieve. I need not dwell upon what I have already reiterated and emphasized that the administration of the Cause is to be conceived as an instrument and not a substitute for the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, that it should be regarded as a channel through which His promised blessings may flow, that it should guard against such rigidity as would clog and fetter the liberating forces released by His Revelation. I need not enlarge at the present moment upon what I have stated in the past, that ... that the World Unity activity is being carried out as an experiment to test the efficacy of the indirect method of teaching..."
