Visit of Counsellor Paul Lample to Kuching
16 July 2008
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Kuching 23-24 October 2004: The third state level institutional meeting was held at the Crown Towers, Pending with Counsellor Paul Lample from the International Teaching Centre as the guest of honour. Also present was Counsellor George Soraya. Among the 139 participants were representatives of the various national committees and institutions based in Kuching, Regional Council of both north and south region and the teaching committee of central region. Nine ATCs from the southern region and ATC Mukah. Local Assemblies of Miri and Sibu and those of Kuching-Padawan-Samarahan communities were also represented.
Verbal comments from a few participants showed that the meeting not only had instilled fresh inspiration but also had brought about a higher level of understanding regarding the whole process of entry by troops. It had assured the community that it is treading the right path, albeit slowly. The main issues to analyze now are “Where are we now?”, “Where are we going?”, and “How are we going to the place we want to go?”
There should be a natural process of change. The objective of the Five Year Plan is to advance that process. Since the time of the Guardian we had witnessed the process of entry by troops. Since then many people had became Bahá’ís all over the world and soon we cannot sustain the activities. In 1990 to 1992 there were about one million new Bahá’ís but there was no system to consolidate these new believers. From then on the Universal House of Justice provides lots of guidance such as introducing the idea of developing a new culture in the Bahá’í world—the heart of which is the culture of learning. Initially nobody knows how it was but later bit by bit the whole picture fall into place. For example, to teach a five year old, you may be a perfect parent but when the kid reaches 15, the parent must change and know what to do otherwise they are in trouble. So, the individuals and institutions must change their approach to suite the needs of the time.
The role of the various institutions were also elucidated. First of all, the institutions must understand the concept of cluster. This itself is part of the learning. Clusters must be sizeable and manageable and all the friends should be walking in the path of service. There must be institutional support for the establishment of the institute process and development of the human resources should be through the institute. As the community develops, the relation between the institutions becomes more complex but everyone must be open to changes and have the confidence that the directions from the Universal House of Justice will lead to progress. The believers are advised to serve with a great sense of joy but to achieve something some sacrifices may be required…
Although this instiutional meeting in Kuching was held nearly five years ago now, on 23-24 October 2004, the issues that were the topics of discussion are still on the international Baha’i agenda. Those who are interested in the new culture of learning and growth, the process of entry-by-troops might like to fit their own reflections on this new CULTURE OF LEARNING AND GROWTH in an article at Baha’i Library Online(BLO). Such readers will then have access to a 64,000 word, 125 page document entitled THE NEW CULTURE OF LEARNING AND GROWTH:Community and Individual Paradigm Shifts–A Context and a Personal Text.
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This article contains my reflections and personal understandings regarding this new culture of learning and growth and the accompanying paradigm shift in the Fourth and Fifth Epochs of the Formative Age: 1986 to 2021 and the Second Epoch(1963-2021) of ‘Abdul-Baha’s Divine Plan. This post/article/essay allows readers to examine a context for the Intensive Programs of Growth(IPGs) which the 41 regional conferences called for by the Universal House of Justice in 2008 and 2009 which swept across the globe and which are now being implemented in the last 21 months of the current Five Year Plan(2006-2011).
This essay is dedicated to the Universal House of Justice in celebration of the forty-fifth anniversary in April 2008 of its first election in April 1963. This essay was also written in commemoration of the memory of my maternal grandfather, Alfred J. Cornfield, whose epic autobiography was an example of the culture of learning with which he was imbued all his life.
It is my hope that what readers will find at BLO in that essay, originally written for the Online Journal of Baha’i Studies, will serve as a useful extension of their own reflections and understandings regarding the culture of learning and of growth and the paradigmatic shift the Baha’i community is currently going through and has been going through since the mid-1990s, in relation to this learning and this growth.
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