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Members of seasonal school committees consult in a small group at the committees’ annual national meeting, Jan. 4–7 at Louhelen Bahá’í School in Davison, Michigan. Photo by Mary Morris
In today’s turmoil, as it has for many decades, Shoghi Effendi’s guidance helps make sense of the constructive and destructive forces at work in the world and how those forces ultimately draw humanity toward the just and peaceful civilization envisioned by Bahá’u’lláh.
Beginning this spring and summer at seasonal school sessions across the country, Bahá’ís and their friends will have chances together to explore some key themes from the ministry and writings of Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith.
This emphasis emerged from a national consultation involving 20 committees organizing the seasonal schools, Jan. 4–7 at Louhelen Bahá’í School in Davison, Michigan. It was announced to the U.S. Bahá’í community in a Jan. 31, 2018, letter from the National Spiritual Assembly.
According to the national Office of Education and Schools, this focus will run side by side with the continuing Hope and the Family program. In collaboration with the Regional Bahá’í Councils and their agencies, Hope and the Family brings interested families living nearby to the seasonal schools for a process of study, consultation, action and reflection. Many become agents of community building in their neighborhoods alongside Bahá’ís.
Even before the Jan. 31 letter, the National Assembly’s Dec. 8, 2017, letter urged Bahá’ís to “let us introduce the universal message of Bahá’u’lláh, study His writings, and explore with our friends and contacts their implications for the reconstruction of the world.” Study of this letter and one from Feb. 25, 2017, provided much inspiration for the seasonal schools’ priorities this year.
Activities surrounding the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh last fall demonstrated how many friends and contacts are joining Bahá’ís locally in all aspects of community life, including devotionals, study circles, and children’s and junior youth activities.
Shoghi Effendi’s perspectives add another dimension to the exploration of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, notes Jeff Albert, the education office’s director. They strengthen us in “knowing and understanding the impact of the current social discourse,” and are just as valid today as they were in the 1930s through 1950s when the Guardian was releasing such works as The Advent of Divine Justice, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh and The Dawn-Breakers.
This emphasis is particularly fitting, he says, considering how Shoghi Effendi promoted summer schools for many years so that Bahá’ís could “understand what the troubles and problems really are which baffle the mind of man” and potentially “take the lead in reforming the world” (see sidebar).
From the viewpoint of the Regional Councils, the seasonal schools are essential in offering “programming and experiences that are complementary to the community-building process” in each locality and cluster, says Elizabeth Price of the Appalachian region, one of eight Council secretaries who participated in the January consultation. Study of the Guardian’s guidance through the lens of the current Five Year Plan, she says, can “provide a deeper understanding of the vision” that shapes the Plan’s framework for Bahá’í efforts.
Purposes of seasonal schools
Purposes of seasonal schools
Some purposes of Bahá’í seasonal schools are summarized in The Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh: The Guardian of the Faith, Unit 2 of Ruhi Institute Book 8:
Another development that we should consider here concerns the summer school — an annual gathering generally of several days’ duration, often replicated at other times of the year. The Guardian’s promotion of the summer school as a means for preparing the friends to teach the Cause holds particular significance in light of the introduction of the training institute into the Bahá’í community by the Universal House of Justice in the 1990s. “I wish to urge the necessity of concentrating, at your next summer session,” the Guardian explained in 1932, “on the systematic study of the early history and principles of the Faith, on public speaking, and on a thorough discussion, both formally and informally, of various aspects of the Cause. These I regard as essential preliminaries to a future intensive campaign of teaching in which the rising generation must engage, if the spread of the Cause is to be assured in that land.” However, the preparation of teachers was only one of the functions he assigned to the summer school. From statements such as these we get glimpses into the contribution it can make to the life of the Bahá’í community: “The world is undoubtedly facing a great crisis and the social, economic and political conditions are becoming daily more complex,” we read in one letter. “Should the friends desire to take the lead in reforming the world, they should start by educating themselves and understand what the troubles and problems really are which baffle the mind of man. It is in these Summer Schools that this training should be provided for the friends.”
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