# A Change of Culture

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Moojan Momen, A Change of Culture, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> A Change of Culture
> 
> The recent messages of the Universal House of Justice have signalled to the Bahá'í world that
> the Bahá'í community is undergoing a change of culture. In the Ridvan message of 2000, they
> referred to a "critical qualitative difference" in the Bahá'í community and that the "culture of
> the Bahá'í community experienced a change." In the same message they stated that during the
> Four Year Plan, the "members of the community came gradually to appreciate how
> systematization would facilitate the processes of growth and development." They then state
> that this "raising of consciousness was a huge step that led to . . . a change in the culture of
> the community."
> 
> What then does a change of culture mean and what processes surround such a change? The
> culture of a community is defined by sociologists as "constituting the `way of life' of an entire
> society,"1 including language, norms of behaviour and systems of belief. Human beings create
> the world in which they live. They live in communities and come to a communal agreement
> as to the meaning and significance that they will assign to the entities in their world. These
> entities may be in the natural world (they may agree that a certain rock or mountain is sacred),
> or may be certain activities (they may determine a particular ritual for funerals) or certain
> individuals (they may make one person their ruler, another a priest and another an outcast).
> Even such a basic thing as language itself is a creation of human culture. In this way human
> beings create their reality. And so "Culture may be defined as the entire array of symbols,
> including objects, acts, utterances, and events, with which reality is apprehended, given
> meaning and communicated."2 This reality is then passed on from one generation to the next -
> it becomes taught to the children as the way the world is and the way they should live their
> lives in order to be part of that world. It becomes unquestioned because it is unquestionable -
> it is part of "common sense" and is taken for granted therefore it is usually outside of the area
> that we question.
> 
> It can be seen from the above description of culture that it is something in which human
> beings invest a great deal of energy and time. It can also be discerned that a culture is self-
> perpetuating and resistant to change. In general, since the dawn of civilization (in its literal
> meaning of the time when human beings have lived in cities), human prosperity has depended
> on stability and continuity. Therefore there are many inbuilt psychological and social
> mechanisms that resist change. Parts of it may change gradually over time - British culture
> that regarded owning slaves as a normal part of its world in the 17th century, had by the end
> of the 19th century come to regard the practice as unethical and inhuman. Under the influence
> of catastrophic events such as a major natural disaster or a conquest, parts of human culture
> may even change quite quickly. But in general terms, the core values of a culture do not
> change. Human culture has an inherent resistance to change. Since it creates reality, the way
> the world is, it has itself usually not been seen and observed, and thus not criticized or
> subjected to pressure for change. It was a feature of the nineteenth and twentieth century that
> human societies became more reflexive, more able to examine and criticize their own culture
> 1.
> Unwin Hyman Dictionary of Sociology (ed. David Jary and Julia Jary), 2nd ed., Enderby, Leics.: Bookmart,
> 1999, p. 139
> . Robert Wuthnow, "Comaparative Ideology," International Journal of Comparative Studies 22 (1981), p. 121
> 
> and hence more able to initiate change in that culture. Even this ability to reflect on our own
> culture does not lessen the resistance of cultures to change, however. For example, the
> realization that women and men are equal and that women should therefore play an equal role
> in society has been with Western societies for almost a century and yet change in that
> direction has been painfully slow - the glass ceiling on advancement still exists for women in
> most walks of life.
> 
> It can thus be seen what a difficult task it is to change a culture. At present the Bahá'í
> community is in the middle of a change of culture initiated by the Universal House of Justice.
> It is, therefore, difficult to see the wood for the trees - one cannot discern the overall features
> of the change going on when one is in the midst of it. Perhaps a better way of gaining
> perspective on the process underway is to look at a historical example of such a change.
> 
> During the early years of Shoghi Effendi's ministry, he initiated a change in the Bahá'í culture.
> With the hindsight of history, we can now discern the main features of that change. During
> the ministry of `Abdu'l-Bahá, the Bahá'í community had been run much like a large family
> with `Abdu'l-Bahá as the head of the family. Most things were done on a person-to-person
> basis. For example, when `Abdu'l-Bahá wanted to implement an initiative, he would ask an
> individual to do this. Examples of such initiatives include `Abdu'l-Bahá's instructions to
> Agnes Parsons to organize the Race Amity Conferences in the United States;3 his
> encouraging Corinne True to lead the work on the American temple;4 and his direction to
> John Esslemont to restart the Bahá'í Council in England.5
> 
> Shoghi Effendi realized that, for the Bahá'í Faith to grow, it was necessary to implement the
> outlines of the Bahá'í administrative framework that had been given in the writings of
> Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá - especially in the latter's Will and Testament. Only the most
> rudimentary elements of this order were then in existence. In order to bring about the change
> that he had envisaged, it was necessary for Shoghi Effendi to bring about a change of culture.
> He had to redirect the energies of the Bahá'í community into a new channel. From the earliest
> years of his ministry, therefore, Shoghi Effendi's communications to the Bahá'í world were
> focussed on this goal of establishing the Bahá'í administration. This is the subject of almost
> all of his major letters of this period. Those Baha'is who were the most useful to Shoghi
> Effendi in this period were those who were the most willing to allow themselves to be
> remoulded in accordance with the new culture. A story is told of Amelia Collins who went to
> see Shoghi Effendi in Haifa in 1923 wanting to speak to him about how to become more
> spiritual and was instead given detailed instructions on Bahá'í election procedure and
> consultation.6
> 
> 3.
> Gayle Morrison, To Move the World, Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982, pp. 134-6
> 4.
> Bruce Whitmore, The Dawning Place, Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1984, p. 31
> 5.
> Moojan Momen, John E. Esslemont, London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, p. 21
> 6.
> The writer first heard this story about Amelia Collins during a talk by Counsellor Leo Niedermeyer in Lisbon
> on 20 July 1981. It is given in substantially the same form in A. Q. Faizi, Milly: a Tribute to Amelia Collins,
> Oxford: George Ronald, pp. 3-6. Of course, it may be that Shoghi Effendi's reply to Amelia Collins was more
> pertinent than it appears, for the workings of the Bahá'í administrative order are also mystical and assist in the
> spiritual development of the individual, see Moojan Momen, "Mysticism and the Bahá'í Community", Lights of
> `Irfan, vol. 3 (2002) pp. 107-20
> 
> One result of this initiative of Shoghi Effendi was that growth and expansion of the Faith
> ground to a halt for more than a decade. The Faith even went into decline numerically in these
> years. When the requirement to register oneself formally as a Bahá'í in order to participate in
> Bahá'í elections was enforced in Iran, many individuals who had previously been considered
> Bahá'ís refused to do this and drifted away from the community in subsequent years. The US
> Census for 1916 shows 2,884 Bahá'ís, while that for 1926 shows 1,247 Bahá'ís, a decline of
> over 50% (although part of this decline is due to a stricter definition of who was a Baha'i,
> nevertheless it is clear that there had been no growth in the community). Outside observers
> even considered the Bahá'í Faith close to demise. Richards, a British Christian missionary,
> writing in 1932, described the Baha'i Faith in the West as being on the wane ("its day is past")
> and in England as having "practically ceased to exist".7
> 
> Not surprisingly, some Bahá'ís were deeply unhappy about the changes that Shoghi Effendi
> was making. They were attached to the way that the Bahá'í community had been in the first
> two decades of the 20th century. They could not see the advantage of jettisoning that culture
> for the sake of what appeared to be a remote bureaucratic organization - especially when the
> only results of that process appeared to be a marked decline in the fortunes of the Faith.
> Looking around themselves they saw the Bahá'ís apathetic and depressed and felt in
> themselves disappointment and frustration.
> 
> Some Bahá'ís responded to this situation by drifting away from the Faith. In Britain, for
> example, several individuals who were major figures in the community during the ministry of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá, such as Wellesley Tudor Pole and Johanna Dawud, drifted away from the
> community during these years, unable to come to terms, no doubt, with the new culture of the
> Bahá'í community. Some even came out in outright opposition to Shoghi Effendi's drive to
> establish the administrative order. In the United States of America, a prominent and wealthy
> Bahá'í from the time of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Ruth White, decided to oppose Shoghi Effendi, basing
> herself on a report that `Abdu'l-Bahá had said that the Bahá'í Faith could not be organized.
> She tried unsuccessfully to establish that `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament, the document
> on which Shoghi Effendi's authority was based and which gave many of the instructions for
> the setting up of the administrative order, had been forged. Shoghi Effendi referred to her
> efforts with the words "I am at a loss to explain that strange mentality that inclines to uphold
> as the sole criterion of the truth of the Baha'i Teachings what is admittedly only an obscure
> and unauthenticated translation of an oral statement made by `Abdu'l-Bahá, in defiance and
> total disregard of the available text of all of His universally recognized writings."8
> 
> An even stronger challenge to the new culture that Shoghi Effendi was trying to create was
> provided by Ahmad Sohrab and Julie Chanler. They had set up the New History Society as a
> way of introducing people gradually to the Bahá'í Faith. Using the generous financial support
> given by Mrs Chanler, Ahamd Sohrab had been able to set up large meetings with an
> impressive list of speakers at prestigious venues in New York. Sohrab and Chanler were
> indignant, however, when it was suggested to them that their activities should come under the
> jurisdiction of the appropriate Local Spiritual Assembly (in other words that they should
> 
> 7.
> J. R. Richards, The Religion of the Baha'is, London: Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1932,
> chapters 9 and 18
> 8.
> Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, Wilmette, IL: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1991, p. 4
> 
> incorporate themselves into the new culture that Shoghi Effendi was trying to create). In the
> end a confrontation with the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States resulted in their
> expulsion from the Faith. They proclaimed themselves the defenders of individual freedom
> and rights in the Bahá'í Faith and publically and vehemently protested that the Bahá'í
> administration had become an instrument of authoritarian control and totalitarianism - far
> removed from the liberal attitude fostered by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
> 
> Sohrab and Chanler claimed that they had considerable support among the generality of the
> Bahá'ís but that these had been silenced by the tyranny of the National Spiritual Assembly.
> They certainly did not have considerable support among the Bahá'ís but it may well be that
> many Bahá'ís had misgivings about the new culture towards which Shoghi Effendi was
> leading the Bahá'í community. The fact is that a change of culture is unnerving for human
> beings who have been used to the old culture. They have felt comfortable in the old culture -
> it was reality for them. Many Bahá'ís of that period had grown up in the old culture and so
> this represented for them the reality of the Bahá'í Faith. Thus some Bahá'ís in the United
> States must have had twinges of doubt when people like Ruth White and Ahmad Sohrab
> claimed that this new culture was not really the Bahá'í Faith but rather a distortion being
> foisted upon them.
> 
> It is important, however, to retain a balanced perspective on these events and not to
> overemphasize the importance of people like Sohrab and Chanler. This dissent did not really
> enter into the thinking of vast majority of the Bahá'ís of that time. Indeed, most were
> completely unaffected by it. Some of the New York Bahá'ís and a few Bahá'í intellectuals
> entered into the discussions but almost all of these rejected Sohrab and Chanler's position.
> The dissidents found more support among the liberal establishment outside the Bahá'í Faith
> than they found in the Bahá'í community itself. The vast majority of Bahá'ís whatever
> misgivings they may have had, immersed themselves in the work that Shoghi Effendi had set
> them and slowly managed to create the Bahá'í administrative order.
> 
> Considered with the wisdom of hindsight, however, there is no doubt that the direction in
> which Shoghi Effendi was leading the Bahá'í community was the right direction if the
> community was going to flourish and expand in the future. Speaking sociologically, the
> charisma of Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá needed to be routinized - to be institutionalized - if
> the Bahá'í Faith was to progress to the next stage of its development. It could not continue to
> be run as a large family if it was going to expand. `Abdu'l-Bahá had spoken of the fact that
> good ideas, noble principles and well-considered plans are not enough, "we need an army to
> attain victory in the spiritual world."9 The new institutions created by Shoghi Effendi, the
> National Spiritual Assemblies and Local Spiritual Assemblies, would act in the subsequent
> decades as the generals and officers of that army, leading on to the successful spread of the
> Bahá'í Faith to all parts of the world.
> 
> Returning now to the present-day Bahá'í world, there is a similar situation to the one that
> Shoghi Effendi faced at the beginning of his ministry and again a change of culture is needed.
> Insofar as it is possible to visualize the situation at present and to assess the thinking of the
> Universal House of Justice in instituting the change, the following appear to be the main
> 
> 9.
> `Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982, p. 250
> 
> features. The last half of the twentieth century saw the spread of the Bahá'í Faith to and the
> establishment of the administrative order in all parts of the globe. Most of the plans initiated
> by Shoghi Effendi with the Ten Year Crusade and continued by the Universal House of
> Justice in the Nine Year Plan and subsequent plans were centred on quantitative goals which
> resulted in this spread of the Bahá'í Faith to all parts of the world and the establishment of the
> Bahá'í administration there. The last phase of this process was completed with the fall of the
> Iron Curtain and the establishment of the Bahá'í administration in the former communist
> countries during the 1990s.
> 
> During these decades, an increasing number of Bahá'ís have been perceiving that the
> community lacked spiritual depth. The spread of the Bahá'í Faith has resulted in a large
> increase in the number of Bahá'í communities, but many of these new communities have little
> understanding of the Bahá'í Faith and almost no appreciation of the depths of the Bahá'í
> teachings. This problem has been most acute in some of the countries of the Third World
> where there have been large-scale enrollments into the Faith, but little success in making
> these new converts into knowledgeable and deepened members of the Bahá'í community. It is
> clear that the mechanisms that existed in the Bahá'í community previously for the
> consolidation of belief of new converts and their transformation into active members of the
> Bahá'í community are insufficient for the new situation. After a time, even the large-scale
> enrollments themselves began to dry up as the Bahá'í community tried to grapple with this
> problem. The number of conversions has dropped to a very low level and even those who are
> converted frequently do not remain in the community. The Bahá'í community as it currently
> stands does not appear to be sufficiently inviting to retain those who do become Bahá'ís. The
> extent of the problem has been highlighted in a recent report by the National Teaching
> Committee10 of the United States which points out that the rate of conversions to the Bahá'í
> Faith compares favourably with that of other religious movements in the United States, but
> the rate of retention of new converts is lower than many. Various solutions have been
> attempted with varying degrees of success, but it is undoubtedly true that there has been no
> satisfactory resolution of the problem within the old culture.
> 
> Beginning with some earlier plans but coming to the fore in the Four Year Plan of 1996-2000,
> the Twelve-Month Plan of 2000-2001 and the current Five Year Plan, the Universal House of
> Justice has set the Bahá'ís on a new pathway towards solving the problems facing it. The
> goals of these plans are qualitative rather than quantitative. The aim is a transformation of
> Bahá'í community life. The following is an attempt to analyse the change in culture that the
> Universal House of Justice is seeking to bring about. The old culture from which the
> Universal House of Justice has stated that it is seeking to free the Bahá'í community is one
> which is dominated by "the mode of religious activity that characterizes the general
> society--in which the believer is a member of a congregation, leadership comes from an
> individual or individuals presumed to be qualified for the purpose, and personal participation
> is fitted into a schedule dominated by concerns of a very different nature."11 Clearly, the
> Universal House of Justice considers that the Bahá'í community is still tainted by certain
> characteristics that it considers should not be part of the Bahá'í Faith and that it is these
> 
> 10.
> National Teaching Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá=ís of the United States, Issues
> Pertaining to Growth, Retention and Consolidation in the United States, 12 December 1999
> 11.
> Letter of the Universal House of Justice to an individual, dated 22 August 2002
> 
> characteristics that are holding back the progress of the Faith. These are, broadly speaking,
> characteristics which exist in current religious communities and which Baha'is have brought
> with them into the Baha'i community.
> 
> These unwanted traits include the passivity implied by the words "member of a
> congregation." Members of a congregation play a receptive role - receiving sermons,
> sacraments and advice from the priest. They are told what their scriptures mean and how to
> apply that to their lives. In some congregations, it is even considered to be within the priest's
> powers to hear confessions and pardon sins. Bahá'ís can no longer, in the new culture, play
> such a passive role. They must actively participate in their communities, study and interpret
> their scriptures for themselves, and work out their own salvation. Each Bahá'í must be his or
> her own priest.
> 
> The second phrase in the above statement points to the fact that leadership and decision-
> making in the new culture should no longer be the prerogative of ambitious or learned
> individuals. We live in societies that are patriarchal -- where leadership is by a small number
> of individuals, mainly men. Such societies are hierarchical and, because men are inherently
> more aggressive and competitive, they tend to end up at the top of these hierarchies. And
> Baha'is have unconsciously imported these tendencies into their Baha'i communities in many
> areas, resulting in a situation where a small number of individuals, usually men, run the
> community in those localities. It is clear, however, that the Baha'i community should be one
> in which there are no hierarchies of power -- only a hierarchy of opportunities for service.
> Any situations of power or hierarchy that exist in the community, structures that inherently
> favour men who are more competitive and aggressive, must come to an end. Decision-making
> must be through consultative processes and collective leadership - a community structure that
> is more conducive to women and minorities playing an active part in the community.
> The third element in the statement of the Universal House of Justice signals that it is no
> longer sufficient, in the new culture, for Bahá'ís to fit in their Bahá'í activities into odd nooks
> and crannies of their lives. Their participation in the community must become a central
> feature of their personal and family lives. This may be the most difficult of the three elements
> for Bahá'ís in the West to implement, with the enormous and never-ending materialistic
> demands that modern life places on the individual.
> 
> The new culture towards which the Universal House of Justice is pointing the way is one in
> which "groups of Bahá'u'lláh's followers explore together the truths in His Teachings, freely
> open their study circles, devotional gatherings and children's classes to their friends and
> neighbours, and invest their efforts confidently in plans of action designed at the level of the
> cluster, that makes growth a manageable goal."12 The new culture of the Bahá'í community is
> one in which the individual and the family take a much more central role. While
> responsibility for instituting the process lies with the institutions of the Bahá'í Faith, without
> the participation of the generality of the Bahá'ís, the goals set by the Universal House of
> Justice cannot be achieved. By its very nature, this new culture cannot be imposed from on
> top - it cannot be created by decree. It is the responsibility of every Bahá'í to initiate or
> participate in his or her own community in a coming together of groups of Bahá'ís for the
> purposes of forming study circles, instituting devotional gatherings and setting up children's
> 
> 12.
> Letter of the Universal House of Justice to an individual, dated 22 August 2002
> 
> classes. This process will expose the Bahá'ís to their scriptures, thus increasing the knowledge
> and understanding of the community and make more effective teaching of the Baha'i Faith
> possible; bring the Bahá'ís together in prayer and devotions, thus increasing the spiritual
> depth of the community; and ensure that children of the community become thoroughly
> immersed in its teachings and in the new culture with the result that each succeeding
> generation of Bahá'ís will be able to take this process further. All of this activity needs to be
> put onto a systematic footing such that it becomes an automatic part of each individual
> Bahá'í's life and of their family life.
> 
> Furthermore, this new culture should be "a culture of learning".13 This implies that Baha'is
> must not only learn from their scriptures and from the collective wisdom of the group in the
> process of consultative deepening that occurs in the study circles, but they must also learn
> from their own experiences. The Baha'i teachings were never intended to be applied in a
> uniform way across the globe, but rather in ways that are specific to local situations and
> customs. The Baha'is must therefore be ready to apply the Baha'i teachings in their own
> communities and to learn from what happens as a result of this process -- thus instituting a
> cycle of learning, action and reflection that results in a gradually evolving understanding of
> how the Baha'i teachings can be applied and what they mean in any given situation.
> 
> The type of learning that goes on in the study circles is not carried out within the usual
> pedagogic framework. The intention of the study circle is not to impart learning but to bring
> about the transformation of the individual. That is why each phase of the study circle
> programme is accompanied by a practice that helps the participants to embed and bring into
> their lives the spiritual truths that are taught in the study circle. Furthermore the ethos of the
> study circle is very different to that of the usual educational institution, where there is a
> teacher, who is presumed to know, and learners, who do not know. In the study circle all are
> collaborators in the process. Although one person leads in taking the participants through the
> book, that person is not presumed to know more than the other participants; the whole group
> is learning together. This is the reason that, for some, the books seem childish. Because the
> intention is for all to be able to participate, it is necessary to assume the lowest common
> denominator in terms of the educational abilities of the participants. And so the attitude of
> those who are more advanced educationally should be not "this is so childish, I am bored and
> frustrated" but rather "this is an opportunity to be of service to those who have not had the
> educational advantages that I have had". The situation is rather like that of the speed limit on
> a road. It may be that an experienced driver could drive safely at higher speed than the speed
> limit, but that limit is set for all drivers, even those who have only just learned to drive. The
> more advanced has to drive at a slower speed than he is capable of driving safely for the sake
> of the beginner. Similarly, the attitude of a school teacher towards Book 3 of the programme
> (which is designed to help people to teach children's classes) should not be "I do not need to
> do Book 3 because I am a trained teacher" but rather "I look forward to doing Book 3 and
> hope that my experience as a teacher will contribute to the group's learning."
> 
> The new culture should also be "a culture of growth." The Universal House of Justice has
> stated that in the new culture:
> 
> 13.
> Letter of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies, dated 17 January 2003
> 
> a. The Baha'is will "see their duty to teach as a natural consequence of having accepted
> Baha'u'llah" and, quoting `Abdu'l-Baha, will "consecrate every fleeting moment of their lives
> to the diffusion of the divine fragrance and the exaltation of God's holy Word." In such a
> situation, their hearts become so enkindled "with the fire of the love of God that whoever
> approaches them feels its warmth." Thus teaching the Baha'i Faith becomes "the dominating
> passion" of their lives.
> 
> b. "Fear of failure finds no place. Mutual support, commitment to learning, and appreciation
> of diversity of action are the prevailing norms." In other words that the support coming from
> these transformed communities mitigates any fears that the individual may have and the
> "culture of learning" that has been instituted means that every teaching effort that is made
> becomes an opportunity for learning and so, even if it fails, it is not a wasted effort. A wide
> variety of efforts should be initiated at the local level and then as these initiatives produce
> results, lessons should be learned and either the existing initiative should be revised or new
> initiatives devised.14
> 
> Another feature of the new culture is that the activities initiated in each local community
> should be systematic and sustained. Although it is important to learn from trial and error, and
> the precise way in which certain activities are carried out may be radically altered over time,
> yet the overall process of developing study circles, devotional programmes, children's classes,
> teaching activities, service activities, etc. must be systematically implemented and sustained.
> Moreover the responsibility for doing this rests equally upon the individual, the Assemblies
> and the clusters.
> 
> The extent of the culture change involved here should not be underestimated. The change
> initiated by Shoghi Effendi at the beginning of his ministry was one that was far-reaching, but
> at least it was easily understandable. The overall concept of establishing an administration
> was easily comprehended and there were models in the wider community to which the Bahá'ís
> could turn, although of course many of the features of the Bahá'í administration were unique
> and not to be found elsewhere (one could say that even up to the present day, some aspects of
> this change such as the process of consultation and of Bahá'í elections have not been fully
> understood and put into effect by the Bahá'í community). The change of culture initiated by
> the Universal House of Justice is, however, more difficult to grasp because there are no
> precedents for the kind of community that it is seeking to create. It is a step into the unknown,
> where there are no models that can be used - thus it is largely a matter of trial and error.
> 
> Indeed it may appear strange to some to say that this change of culture is a change that seeks
> to create communities where individual Baha'is are initiating activities and decisions are
> made at a "grass-roots" level, and at the same time to say that this change is a process that is
> being initiated by the Universal House of Justice and is thus being directed from the top.
> However, one has to consider the question: how else would such a change of culture occur in
> a community that is used to receiving its directions from the top and is prevented, by the
> concept of the Covenant, from launching a grass-roots rebellion in order to achieve such a
> change? Moreover, it is clear that the Universal House of Justice also sees itself as a
> participant in the "culture of learning", noting the initiatives that have worked in one part of
> 
> 14.
> The Universal House of Justice, letter dated 9 January 2001
> 
> the world and passing this information on to other parts of the world that might benefit.15 And
> perhaps, in the future, once the present guidance has been assimilated, the Universal House of
> Justice will issue further guidance as to the sort of culture that it envisages.
> 
> The change of culture that the Universal House of Justice seeks to being about is, to a large
> extent, also a change of identity. Baha'is need to see themselves differently -- a new vision of
> what it means to be a Baha'i. This new vision involves Baha'is envisaging a new type of
> community in which they are actively involved, a new type of community that is open to the
> outside world, a new way of life that puts the Baha'i Faith at the centre of their lives. But this
> new vision need not be, and indeed should not be, just a mental process. It is precisely by
> participating in the processes that the Universal House of Justice have set in train (study
> circles, devotional programmes and children's classes) that this new vision can be formed in
> the mind of each Baha'i. Thus it is through a change in behaviour that the Baha'is can change
> their vision and hence their identity.
> 
> There can be little doubt that just as the change of culture brought about by Shoghi Effendi
> was necessary for the Baha'i Faith to expand from the position that it was in the early 1920s,
> the change of culture which the Universal House of Justice wants to bring about is similarly
> necessary if the Baha'i community is going to expand now. For many decades now, most of
> the Baha'i activities in most communities have been on the shoulders of a small number of
> individuals. If large numbers of people are going to come into the Baha'i community, that
> situation cannot continue. The Baha'i community does not have a paid priesthood and the
> only way that community activities can be sustained if large numbers of people are to become
> Baha'is is by the abandonment of the model of passive congregations led by a small number
> of individuals and the adoption of the new culture of active and whole-hearted participation in
> the community by all Baha'is -- and also by the concept of groups of communities, the
> clusters, assisting and interacting with each other.
> 
> The sort of community which the Universal House of Justice envisages is one that
> encompasses characteristics that are often thought to be contradictory and mutually exclusive.
> Thus for example these communities should be both democratic and decentralized and yet
> also subject ultimately to the guidance and authority of the Bahá'í administrative order; there
> should be individual freedom and individual initiative, but individuals are also expected to act
> maturely and with self-discipline; the community should be united, and yet open to all. In the
> past, communities have been most united in the face of a threat from an "other", now the
> same or higher level of unity must be reached without any external threat, a community must
> be created that is both united and open to all.
> 
> Now, undoubtedly in all this, many Bahá'ís have misgivings. They feel uncomfortable in the
> new culture and look longingly back at the old culture - the Bahá'í Faith they knew and loved.
> Some Bahá'ís have, as in the early days of the ministry of Shoghi Effendi, drifted away from
> the Faith, because they do not feel comfortable in the new culture. Others have even opposed
> 
> 15.
> "This consideration was an important element in the drafting of the relevant sections of the document 'Century
> of Light', to which you make reference. These passages of the document seek to acquaint believers everywhere
> with the profound change in Bahá'í culture that the preceding decades of struggle, achievement and
> disappointment made possible and that was capitalized on through the agency of the Four Year Plan." (The
> Universal House of Justice to an individual, dated 22 August 2002)
> 
> the new culture, claiming once again that their freedom and individual rights have been
> violated. They are even using the same quotations that Ahmad Sohrab used in presenting their
> case. As before, their numbers are minuscule and the majority of Bahá'ís have remained
> completely unaffected by them. Such individuals are, however, very vocal on the Internet,
> which has enabled them to have a voice far out of proportion to their numbers or importance.
> They have also found a platform, as Ahmad Sohrab did, in the liberal establishment. Still
> others do not yet see or understand the change in culture that is being called for, regard the
> instruments that have been created for its achievement (devotional meetings, study circles
> junior youth groups and children's classes) from the viewpoint of the old culture and therefore
> do not see the potential for change. Therefore they do not wholeheartedly support these
> instruments for change.
> 
> In 2002, The Universal House of Justice made it clear: "Where Bahá=í communities are
> unable to free themselves from an orientation to Bahá=í life that has long outlived whatever
> value it once possessed, the teaching work will lack both the systematic character it requires,
> and the spirit that must animate all effective service to the Cause."16
> 
> Of course it is early days yet -- it took more than a decade for the change in culture that
> Shoghi Effendi instituted to become established in the Baha'i community. But the tide is
> turning. Guided by the Counsellors and the National Spiritual Assemblies, the Baha'is are
> beginning to follow the instructions of the Universal House of Justice -- and increasingly it is
> those Baha'is who have previously played a passive "congregational" role in the community,
> who have not been leaders in the community, the women and the youth, who are responding
> and initiating the activities that the Universal House of Justice has asked for. Although they
> may not yet be able to visualize how the Bahá'í community will look in its new cultural
> manifestation and they may not yet discern any benefits from the new order, nevertheless they
> are pressing ahead with the process. The direction towards which the Universal House of
> Justice is pointing the Bahá'ís is clearly the next logical step in the development of the Bahá'í
> community and as Bahá'í communities respond to the call for a change of culture, it can be
> anticipated that the features of the new culture will gradually become clearer.17
> 
> 16.
> Letter of the Universal House of Justice to an individual, dated 22 August 2002
> 17.
> A first draft of this paper appeared on an e-mail list in February 2003. It has subsequently been published in
> Living Nation and translated and published in a few languages. I am grateful to numerous people who
> commented on this paper in that list and subsequently by private correspondence and thus helped to shape the
> current (July 2011) version of the paper. To name any individuals would be to run the risk of omitting other
> important contributors.
>
> — *A Change of Culture (Used by permission of the curator)*