Children's Classes
“Classes that nurture the tender hearts and minds of children”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010 Message
“Let them never forget the imperative to tend to the needs of the children of the world and offer them lessons that develop their spiritual faculties and lay the foundations of a noble and upright character.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Oct. 20, 2008 Message
Junior Youth Groups
“While global trends project an image of this age group as problematic, lost in the throes of tumultuous physical and emotional change, unresponsive and self-consumed, the Bahá’í community – in the language it employs and the approaches it adopts – is moving decidedly in the opposite direction, seeing in junior youth instead altruism, an acute sense of justice, eagerness to learn about the universe and a desire to contribute to the construction of a better world. Account after account, in which junior youth in countries all over the planet give voice to their thoughts as participants in the programme, testifies to the validity of this vision. There is every indication that the programme engages their expanding consciousness in an exploration of reality that helps them to analyse the constructive and destructive forces operating in society and to recognize the influence these forces exert on their thoughts and actions, sharpening their spiritual perception, enhancing their powers of expression and reinforcing moral structures that will serve them throughout their lives. At an age when burgeoning intellectual, spiritual and physical powers become accessible to them, they are being given the tools needed to combat the forces that would rob them of their true identity as noble beings and to work for the common good.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010 Message
“Let them come to realize the full significance of their efforts to help young people form a strong moral identity in their early adolescent years and empower them to contribute to the well-being of their communities.”
-The Universal House of Justice, October 20, 2008 Message
“That the major component of the programme explores themes from a Bahá’í perspective, but not in the mode of religious instruction, has opened the way for its extension to junior youth in a variety of settings and circumstances…and the spread in influence of a programme that instils in junior youth the sense of a twofold moral purpose, to develop their inherent potentialities and to contribute to the transformation of society.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010 Message
Study Circles
“…circles of study, open to all, that enable people of varied backgrounds to advance on equal footing and explore the application of the teachings to their individual and collective lives…”
“…the efflorescence of an approach to study the writings that is wedded in action…”
“ [The tutor must create] an environment conducive to the spiritual empowerment of individuals, who will come to see themselves as active agents of their own learning, as protagonists of a constant effort to apply knowledge to effect individual and collective transformation.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010 Message
“…develop, along with others, capacity for service; and to accompany one another in the exercise of what has been learned.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2015 Message
“…systematic study of the Creative Word in small groups in order to build capacity for service.”
-The Universal House of Justice, October 20, 2008 Message
Devotional Gatherings
“…meetings that strengthen the devotional character of the community…”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010 Message
“Responding to the inmost longing of every heart to commune with its Maker, they carry out acts of collective worship in diverse settings, uniting with others in prayer, awakening spiritual susceptibilities, and shaping a pattern of life distinguished for its devotional character.”
-The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2008 Message