The momentum that is sure to build with each successive cycle 1 of the One Year Plan will be further augmented by the release of two films. The first of these, which will become available in time for the centennial commemoration, will be a portrait of the Person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Besides being a tribute to His life and work, it will explore how, by championing the oneness of humanity through His words and deeds, 2 He offered a challenge to the stale assumptions and prejudices of the age, and gave stimulus to a process of unification 3 which continues to this day. A second film, following soon after the first, will reflect on the expiration of the first hundred years of the Formative Age 4 from the vantage point of the heights to which the Bahá’í community has climbed, and from where it can now gaze upon new horizons.

The significance of the occasions being marked during the One Year Plan 5 will lend it a unique character, enhancing the work being undertaken in clusters and making this single year the ideal preparation for the global endeavour that is to follow. With a sense of joyful anticipation, we announce that the Bahá’í world will, at Riḍván 2022, begin a Nine Year Plan. Its requirements and provisions will be set out at a later date, but its duration already gives an unmistakable indication of the expansive prospect it will present. God willing, it will be heralded by the convocation of a series of conferences held over a span of months across the globe.

This, so far as it can be foreseen, is the course the Bahá’í community will seek to tread. For the present hour, we urge you to recommit your energies, keeping your focus on the mission immediately before you. We are immensely gratified to see the assured composure with which the community of the Greatest Name 6 has sought to offer the divine remedy 7 under all conditions, especially during this period when society’s established patterns of life 8 have been disrupted and risks of different kinds are being faced by so many. Withal, the friends must guard against being drawn into the ultimately futile conflict and strife that characterizes so much of the discussion of the affairs of society, 9 or—heaven forbid—allowing interaction of this type to permeate, even fleetingly, the conversations of the community. Yet such vigilance on your part in avoiding discord and in not becoming entangled in society’s controversies should under no circumstances be construed as aloofness from the many pressing concerns of this time. Far from it. You are among the most active and earnest of humanity’s well-wishers. 10 But, whether through deeds or words, the merit of your every contribution to social well-being 11 lies, first, in your resolute commitment to discover that precious point of unity 12 where contrasting perspectives overlap and around which contending peoples can coalesce. 13

  1. Universal House of Justice. “27 December 2005 – To the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors.” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed May 1, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20051227_001/1#054191037. [return]
  2. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá. The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ʻAbduʼl-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912. Edited by Howard MacNutt. 2nd ed. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1982, 461. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/promulgation-universal-peace/33#517472225. [return]
  3. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá. The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ʻAbduʼl-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912. Edited by Howard MacNutt. 2nd ed. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1982, 157-158. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/promulgation-universal-peace/12#969069370. [return]
  4. Universal House of Justice. “The One Year Plan 2021-2022: Messages of the Universal House of Justice.” Palabra Publications, April 2021, 27. [return]
  5. Universal House of Justice. “Riḍván 2021 – To the Bahá’ís of the World.” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed May 1, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20210420_001/1#583854197. [return]
  6. Effendi, Shoghi. This Decisive Hour: Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the North American Baháʾís, 1932-1946. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʾí Publishing Trust, 2002. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/decisive-hour/2#973511846. [return]
  7. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá. The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ʻAbduʼl-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912. Edited by Howard MacNutt. 2nd ed. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1982, 204. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/promulgation-universal-peace/14#873157010. [return]
  8. Universal House of Justice. “27 December 2017 – To an Individual.” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed May 1, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20171227_001/1#183910830. [return]
  9. Universal House of Justice. “1 March 2017 – To the Bahá’ís of the World.” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed May 1, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20170301_001/1#320665043. [return]
  10. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá. The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ʻAbduʼl-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912. Edited by Howard MacNutt. 2nd ed. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1982, 425. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/promulgation-universal-peace/31#518819356. [return]
  11. Universal House of Justice. “23 December 2008 – [To an Individual].” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed May 1, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20081223_001/1#282465619. [return]
  12. ʻAbduʼl-Bahá. The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ʻAbduʼl-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912. Edited by Howard MacNutt. 2nd ed. Wilmette, Ill: Baháʼí Publishing Trust, 1982, 152. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/promulgation-universal-peace/11#270449351. [return]
  13. Universal House of Justice. “25 November 2020 – To the Bahá’ís of the World.” Bahá’í Reference Library. Accessed April 29, 2021. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20201125_001/1#300076438. [return]