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"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
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The
Universal House of Justice |
By the time of Shoghi Effendi's passing in 1957, the Faith
had established the necessary broad base of national and
local Spiritual Assemblies, thus permitting the election of
the Universal House of Justice, the international governing
body envisioned by Bahá'u'lláh.
For
Bahá'ís, the long-awaited establishment of the first
Universal House of Justice on 21 April 1963 represented an
event of transcendent importance. It had been conceived by
Bahá'u'lláh, and invested by Him with the promise that it
would be infallibly guided by God in its decisions.
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"Great
is thy blessedness, O earth, for thou hast
been made the foot-stool of thy God, and
been chosen as the seat of His mighty
throne."
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The nine
members chosen that year by secret ballot came from
four continents, represented three major religious
backgrounds (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim), and were
of several different ethnic origins. Since that time,
elections for the Universal House of Justice have been
held every five years.
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As
the supreme institution of the Bahá'í Faith, the
Universal House of Justice took on the task of directing
the growth and development of the worldwide Bahá'í
community. This was accomplished through a series of
plans; each plan ran for from five to nine years and
outlined a series of goals for expansion and
recognition.
In 1963,
worldwide Bahá'í membership had reached 400,000. Bahá'ís
lived in 11,000 localities and were organized into 56
national and regional communities. By 1992, there were
some 5,000,000 Bahá'ís, residing in more than 116,000
localities, and organized into 165 national communities. |
In April 1963, some 6,000 Bahá'ís gathered in
London's Royal Albert Hall for the First Bahá'í
World Congress, a celebration of the 100th anniversary
of the inauguration of Bahá'u'lláh's mission.
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Click here to read about the
spiritual significance of the Universal House of Justice.
Excerpted
from The Bahá'ís, a publication of the Bahá'í
International Community.
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