WI and the Framework for Action
As an agency of the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of the United States, the Wilmette Institute (WI) acts as a tool to promote its goals. The NSA is a pillar of the Universal House of Justice and promotes the achievement of the goals contained in the global plans. The current series of global plans focuses on a community building process -- the "framework of action" -- that the House of Justice has been building and implementing worldwide. WI strives to consolidate its role within the framework of action and thus contribute to the success of the global and national plans.
Origins
The History page describes the origins of the Wilmette Institute as a response to the Ridván 1993 message that called for training to raise up human resources to carry out the work of the Cause. In December 1995, the House of Justice conveyed to the world that "the development of human resources on a large scale required that the establishment of institutes be viewed in a new light." Training needed to happen within organizational structures that could carry out systematic efforts. The message further articulated the new understanding of training institutes:
The purpose of such training is to endow ever-growing contingents of believers with the spiritual insights, the knowledge, and the skills needed to carry out the many tasks of accelerated expansion and consolidation, including the teaching and deepening of a large number of people—adults, youth and children. This purpose can best be achieved through well-organized, formal programs consisting of courses that follow appropriately designed curricula. (26 December 1995 – To the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counselors)
From our current vantage point, we know how the training institute has evolved. Nearly 10 years after the above message, the House of Justice explained how the Ruhi Institute curriculum and approach best fulfilled this imperative, and it is now nearly synonymous with the concept of training institutes. However, the mandate to raise up human resources to carry out the work of the Cause is complex and cannot be fulfilled by the Ruhi Institute alone. WI's role remains vital.
WI adheres to its original mandate, and evolves along with the Ruhi Institute in a supplementary role. The training institute is the motor for "accelerated expansion and consolidation", and WI focuses on building human capacity to contribute to prevalent discourses in society. Further, WI provides support for learning around social action.
The "framework for action"
An evolving conceptual framework organizes thought and gives shape to activities, becoming more elaborate as experience accumulates. We can organize the elements of our conceptual framework into groups, including eternal verities/fundamental principles, statements about society and its evolution, values/attitudes/concepts relevant to particular areas of activity, and those related to our approach and methodology. The current framework of action is difficult to summarize succinctly. However, we would like to set out some features that are most relevant to WI's work.
Eternal verities - Among the eternal verities we find familiar concepts, such as the progressive revelation, oneness of humanity, race unity, our approach to modernization and progress, justice at the individual and collective levels, equality of men and women, the role of knowledge in society building, harmony between science and religion and the role of each in establishing prosperity. We aim for consistency between belief and practice.
Statements about Society and its Evolution - We need to continuously strive to see the forces of integration and disintegration and contribute to those that promote integration. The society envisioned by Bahá'u'lláh requires a complete re-conceptualization of the roles and relationships among the individual, community, and institutions. Striving to achieve coherence between material and spiritual prosperity is a fundamental task of the Bahá'í community.
Learning and capacity building are also key elements that require our attention as an educational institution. Capacity to contribute to local community growth is built slowly, starting with relatively simple acts of service and building up to more complex actions. Of course, training requires knowledge, but training is broader than deepening. Training involves gaining knowledge, skills, attitudes, conceptual clarity, and enhancing spiritual qualities. Deepening is important, but it is a single element of the training called for by the House of Justice. The Ruhi Institute has identified specific capacities that best contribute to community building, and WI can work with those same capacities.
Approaches and Methods - Participation in community building implies exercising protagonism, as the main actors in the development process must be the people themselves. Systematic action is another key concept. At the heart of the framework of action is a posture of learning. Individuals, communities, and institutions learn about growth in quality and quantity of believers by training, planning, acting, and reflecting on processes and outcomes. Consultation is the vehicle through which the collective power of the community becomes action and turns into learning.
To further explore characteristics of the framework, here are some of the key messages from the House of Justice you may wish to start with:
28 December, 2010 - regarding the next Five-Year Plan
12 December, 2011 - regarding the global plans of the Bahá'í community
29 December, 2015 - regarding the next Five-Year Plan of the Worldwide Bahá'í Community
November 25, 2020 - on the occasion of the Day of the Covenant
All of these elements come together in local community building efforts in which friends study the guidance from the World Centre, become involved in efforts that build community through the core activities, accompany each other in service, and reflect together before starting this cycle over again. These actions emerge naturally as the friends move through the sequence of Ruhi Institute courses and carry out the practical aspects of each one. Consultation with Auxiliary Board members and other cluster and regional institutions strengthens these efforts. As more neighborhoods become centers of activity, the cluster moves from one milestone to the next. The cluster administrative scheme evolves to match the growth by adding an area teaching committee, a community facilitator, and a coordinator for each core activity. From these community building activities, capacity is built to respond to larger community needs through small social action events or projects and through becoming involved in contributing to certain prevalent discourses in society that correspond to the needs of the Baha’i community.
WI as a learning institution
To become and remain an integral and coherent contributor to the current global plans and the evolving framework of action, WI itself must model the learning cycle. First and foremost, a learning institution keeps current with the guidance from the World Centre.
In conjunction with national and regional institutions, WI staff must read the reality of the United States community to perceive the needs that WI can respond to through courses and webinars.
This reading will also assess WI’s role as a supplement to the training institute and other relevant institutions.
This reading will take place regularly, perhaps every six months or annually.
Course offerings will be determined according to the reading and in light of potential course designers and instructors.
This may mean that some courses that have been offered for many years may not fit among the priorities set through these gatherings.
What this means for WI courses
WI is trying to improve course quality and move the community learning courses more in the direction of support for community building, so that they will strengthen the effort to assist people in becoming "protagonists," i.e., people who are anxiously concerned about and capable of bringing about change in the world, starting locally in particular.
Let's look at some practical examples. A central action in the current plan is holding meaningful conversations. Meaningful conversations have a specific purpose, and there are even specific topics suggested. In Book 2, unit 2 of the Ruhi Institute, participants develop the capacity to "initiate and sustain a series of conversations on certain themes as part of a systematic effort to build a vibrant community in your village or neighborhood."
Focusing on this passage seems key. The following sections of that unit of the book suggest the topics: the need for an Educator, God can only be known through His Manifestations, the oneness of religion, the relationship between science and religion, the oneness of humanity, justice, elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, prejudice (national, racial, gender-based), equality of men and women, universal education, and peace.
A course on film, for example, could focus on the topics of the oneness of humanity (section 6), justice (section 7), and prejudice (section 9). Racial, environmental, and economic justice clearly relate to a course about film. So does the concept of seeing with one's own eyes, which is akin to critical media literacy. For example, critical media literacy helps people see context for films in light of prejudice, such as how women are portrayed. Understanding prejudice for what it really is requires a clear understanding of the oneness of humanity. This sets up a nice exploration about the relationship between oneness of humanity and justice, using film as a vehicle. This way the participants could be encouraged to have conversations about justice and oneness in a context of building community that uses film. This skill is an essential component of the Plan, and it focuses the course on a valuable skill and the spiritual qualities necessary to carry out that skill successfully.
We encourage all instructors to hold discussions about building vibrant, local communities with participants and identify how the course being studied can foster their efforts to contribute to this endeavor. These conversations should be open, loving, and encouraging.
Courses about the Hidden Words, motherhood, or climate change can essentially follow the same general procedure.
Another example can highlight the importance the Universal House of Justice has given to the spiritual empowerment of junior youth program. A course about the "Individual, Institutions and Community", for example, could take the junior youth program as a key strategy to foster the development of all three protagonists. By encouraging participants to become involved in the spiritual education of junior youth, and to see in the texts and in the service projects an expression of the role of the individual, institutions and community, they will gain a much deeper understanding than they would by just learning about the three protagonists. Participants may identify key spiritual qualities needed by an animator, or anybody else involved with the education of this population, and strive through involvement in the program to develop them in themselves. This experience, and the insights gained, will equip participants to actively contribute to institutions and community life.
Building human capacity with the participants of the course is a priority for WI. There has already been some learning with the racism course where students have become TAs and then faculty, which has allowed the course to grow. Beyond this model of offering increased capacity to offer courses, WI will be learning about accompaniment of participants. Faculty and other friends will be asked to accompany participants to connect with cluster agencies as they apply their learning to their reality, whether it is contributing to social discourse in written form or in meaningful conversations.
Social Action
Community building is a central aspect of the current series of plans, but what about social action and participation in social discourse? How do they fit into WI courses? "The Riḍván 2010 message explained, in relation to the community’s engagement with society, that it would 'prove fruitful to think in terms of two interconnected, mutually reinforcing areas of activity: involvement in social action and participation in the prevalent discourses of society.'"
Let us recall that in Book 13, unit 1 it is clear that participating in the Institute process and related community building activities is social action. Participating in the institute process, doing the practical activities associated with each book and contributing to community growth serve to build capacity in participants to engage in more complex social action initiatives.
Even though a 10 week course on social change will not necessarily prepare individuals to effectively participate in complex social action initiatives, this and similar courses should ask participants to gain experience in the field. In other words, these courses should try to avoid aiming only to help participants learn about social action. Such experience could be an event that is relatively simple to organize and carry out, or participants could help out an existing initiative. These courses should explicitly address the concept that participating in the Institute process and related community building activities builds the basic knowledge, skills, attitudes, and spiritual qualities necessary to contribute to more complex social action projects. Building the capacity to reflect on the effectiveness of social action endeavors will add considerable value to these courses.
Participating in the prevalent discourses of society
Similar to social action, participating in the prevalent discourses of society is a complex service. At its core, participating in discourses is an extension of the capacity to engage in uplifting and meaningful conversations with others. Such conversations happen after a devotional meeting with neighbors, in a meeting for parents of junior youth or children participating in an Institute program, or in home visits to these same populations. Book 12 trains and encourages participants to facilitate and promote conversations with families about the issues faced by raising children to achieve coherence between material and spiritual aspects of their lives. Book 13 encourages participants to contribute to conversations at the grassroots in which concepts found in the Bahá'í Writings influence collective consciousness. Book 14 studies prevalent discourse participation directly, and provides ample clarity about the concept and its implications. Experience in such conversations aimed at building community will considerably enhance participants' confidence and ability to contribute to broader discourses.
In other words, identical to social action, participating in the Institute process and its related practices is participating in the prevalent discourses of society. From Book 1, in which participants initiate their own devotional gathering, on through the entire sequence of books, participants build this capacity little by little. A 10 week course may not be able to make up for participants' lack of experience with the Institute process. More experienced participants, on the other hand, may be ready to raise their participation in discourses to the next level. For courses that aim at getting participants to engage in prevalent discourses, it may be necessary to plan the complexity of each participant's activity individually to ensure appropriateness.
The Bahá’í International Community (BIC) has selected specific public discourse topics to focus on, and WI has decided to follow BIC’s lead. Sharing focus topics will lead to coherence among like-minded efforts and a common language to speak of these topics. WI courses that aim to help participants contribute to public discourse will generally explore the following topics:
Realizing the equality of women and men
Human rights and the well-being of humankind
Development and community building
Youth as protagonists of constructive change
Religion in the life of society
Situation of Bahá’ís in Iran
Revised: 04/01/2022