tion exist on earth today, for one must bear in mind that a Bahá’í community can never be an exclusive group nor a closed circle of interests but, on the contrary, its fundamental purpose is to unify and co-operate with every possible element in the surrounding population.
The local Spiritual Assembly after election organizes by electing from its own number a chairman, corresponding secretary, recording secretary and treasurer. It should appoint from its own members or from the local Bahá’í community working committees responsible for the various permanent activities of the Cause.
Since a Spiritual Assembly is established upon a new and higher ideal, the character, knowledge and purity of its members is essential to success. Wherever personal ambition, narrowness or impurity enters a Spiritual Assembly, the results are invariably to check the growth of the Cause and, if these conditions are prolonged, to destroy the foundation already laid. The careful student of the teachings will accept this result as one more vindication of the all-surrounding spirit protecting this Faith. The elimination of an unworthy group from the Bahá’í Cause would be a bitter disappointment but not an evidence that the Cause had failed. On the contrary, the Cause could only be declared a failure if personal ambition, pride, narrowness and impurity should so prevail as to build a world-wide organization able to pervert the original purpose.
The local Spiritual Assemblies of a country are linked together and co-ordinated through another elected body of nine members, the National Spiritual Assembly. This body comes into being by means of an annual election held by elected delegates representing the local Bahá’í communities. The delegates are elected by all the adult declared believers of a community in which a Spiritual Assembly exists. The National Convention in which the delegates are gathered together is composed of an elective body based upon the principle of proportional representation. The total number of delegates is fixed by Shoghi Effendi for each country, and this number is fulfilled by assigning to each local community the number of delegates called for by its relative numerical strength. These National Conventions are preferably held during the period of Ridván, the twelve days beginning April 21st which commemorate the Declaration made by Bahá’u’lláh in the Garden of Ridván near Baghdád. The recognition of delegates is vested in the out-going National Spiritual Assembly.
A National Convention is an occasion for deepening one’s understanding of Bahá’í activities and of sharing reports of national and local activities for the period of the elapsed year. It has been the custom to hold a public Bahá’í Congress in connection with the Convention. The function of a Bahá’í delegate is not limited to attendance at the National Convention and participation in the election of the new National Spiritual Assembly. While gathered together, the delegates are a consultative and advisory body whose recommendations are to be carefully considered by the members of the elected National Spiritual Assembly. Even after the Convention, this consultative function continues throughout the year, and by the close and intimate association of the deliberations of the National Spiritual Assembly with the delegates, the National Body is enabled to be more representative of the entire Bahá’í community of the land. Delegates unable to attend the Convention in person are permitted to vote for the new National Spiritual Assembly by mail.
The relation of the National Spiritual Assembly to the local Spiritual Assemblies and to the body of the believers in the country is thus defined in the letters of the Guardian of the Cause:
“Regarding the establishment of National Assemblies, it is of vital importance that in every country, where the conditions are favorable and the number of the