 Beloved friends, it's an honor to share with such a distinguished audience a few thoughts on the subject of the nine-year plan and the intellectual life of the Baha'i community. The revelation entrusted by the Almighty Ordainer to Baha'u'llah, Shoghi Effendi says, has been endowed with such potentialities as are commensurate with the maturity of the human race, the crowning and the most momentous stage in its evolution from infancy to manhood. Baha'u'llah's mission is to establish during this new era in the collective life of humanity a pattern of life on this planet that reflects the oneness of humankind with all its implications. Baha'u'llah explains that there are certain pillars which have been established as the unshakable supports of the faith of God. The mightiest of these, he asserts, is learning and the use of the mind, the expansion of consciousness and insight into the realities of the universe and the hidden mysteries of Almighty God. Baha'u'llah's revelation is destined to empower humanity to make the transition from the age of its collective infancy to the age of its collective maturity. The community of the greatest name is tasked with a mission in this regard. Its intellectual life thrives with every endeavor made for the fulfillment of this mission. The nurturing of a deeper appreciation of the purpose of Baha'u'llah's revelation, of Baha'i family life, including the raising of generations of children and youth upon whom the vitality of the faith and the future of humanity necessarily depend, of finding ways to empower Baha'i women to fully exercise their responsibilities and privileges as equals of men, of assisting the believers to free themselves of prejudices of all kinds, are but a few examples of efforts undertaken in past decades. In time, learning how to share the message to groups and to multitudes in a variety of settings, quickening souls and helping them on their own path of service, disseminating widely the Baha'i writings and engagement in a host of related processes, including academic endeavors, became an integral part of the community's spiritual, intellectual, social, material and administrative work aimed at laying foundations that would advance a community designed and destined to strive in a process of learning how to bring about establishment of that ever-advancing divine civilization promised by Baha'u'llah. The systematic unfoldment of the divine plan has also been an integral part of this endeavor. Consider the learning and the use of the mind that contributed to the development of early Baha'i communities around the world, the establishment of the 19-day feast as an essential grassroots institution, and the implementation of Baha'i electoral process through which Baha'i institutions are formed, reflect on the experience of raising up and the fostering of the development of the local spiritual assemblies with all the positive influence they exert on the life of Baha'i communities, ponder on efforts that brought into existence the nucleus of a divinely ordained administrative order, and the translation into reality of an approach that enables a global community with all its diversity to maintain its cohesion and integrity, and to function as a global entity in a world where division and conflict have been on the rise. Presenting the faith, its teachings, its concepts, its history, and its defense, all in response to a changing world, has been another important area of service in which the worldwide Baha'i community has been mindfully engaged. But to usher in the day of oneness of humanity as Baha'u'llah asserts, much more must be done, both in the area of the community's past endeavors and in new areas of need. As early as 1949, in a letter written on his behalf to an individual believer, Shoghe Effendi conveys this. The world has caught up by now with all the great and universal principles enunciated by Baha'u'llah, and so of course it does not sound new to them. But we know that the deeper teachings, the capacity of his projected world order to recreate society are new and dynamic. It is these we must learn to present intelligently and enticingly to such men. Therefore the process of reconstructing society, and all that this entails, has to be more deeply understood. More contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the many fields of human endeavor must be made. The advancement of civilization itself has to be more understood and more related initiatives will have to be pursued as this organic process unfolds. The Universal House of Justice, emphasizing the need to foster intellectual life of the community reminds us of the vastness of Baha'u'llah's revelation and the profound changes it calls for and invites the Baha'is to follow the faith with intelligence and understanding. It encourages every intelligent and thoughtful young Baha'i to investigate and analyze the principles of the faith and to correlate them with the modern aspects of philosophy and science. In terms of progress in spiritual, social, and intellectual life of the community, the decades leading up to 1996 were rich with advances and insights. But the transformation achieved since then is nothing less than colossal. Therefore, in order to consider the current 9-year plan and the intellectual life of the Baha'i community, it is necessary, even if only very briefly, to touch on the endeavors and achievements of the community over the past 25 years. Since it is in reference to this period that the House of Justice states in its 2021 Resvan Message that the lessons learned will shape the community's future and the account of how they were learned sheds light on what is to come. The Resvan 2021 Message of the House of Justice presents a masterly analysis of this period and in my presentation here, I quote frequently from that message. As we know, friends, in 1996 the community embarked on a new series of plans focused on this single aim of significant advancement in the process of entry by troops. Knowing that this process would not emerge spontaneously and that purposeful and systematic work would require the informed participation of a great many souls, the undertaking began by addressing the vast educational challenge that this participation entailed. A network of training institutes focused on generating an increasing flow of individuals endowed with the necessary insights, knowledge, skills and capacities to initiate a sustainable process of growth was established. Pursuing efforts in a learning mode became itself an object of learning and soon proved indispensable to progress, enabling many communities to advance along the path of capacity. Under the guidance of the House of Justice, individuals and collective efforts were undertaken by thousands of dedicated souls who in diverse settings began learning how to apply spiritual principles to effect remedies to the ills of mankind. They all strove to consult and understand, to act, to reflect and to move forward with their plans, plans that were modified when needed as based on experience. Each step of the way, the undertaking generated much learning and thereby evolved stage by stage. Activities created dynamics that could give rise to a vibrant pattern of community life. Later on the same activities came to serve as portals through which people from the wider society could encounter the revelation of Baha'u'llah. The activities therefore offered the friends not only a process of capacity building, but also an expanded approach to teaching the faith. Capacities for preparing simple plans for growth at the local level were cultivated and new learning took place as the friends implemented these plans in three-month cycles of activities. Further clarity of mind emerged that helped the friends to assess the dynamics of growth in their localities and chart a path towards increased strength, with recognizable features of the growth identified and with intensification of efforts occurring, various principles, concepts and strategies of universal relevance to the growth process began to crystallize into a flexible and continually evolving framework for action. A conception of the process of entry by troops emerged that relied less on theories and assumptions and more on actual experience. A vision of personal and collective transformation occurring simultaneously, founded on study of the creative word of God and an appreciation of each person's capacity to become a protagonist in a profound spiritual drama gave rise to a sense of common endeavor. The unprecedented capacity for growth and for community building that emerged over the past 25 years makes the Training Institute a resource of historic consequence to cite the House of Justice. That hundreds of thousands of individuals all over the world are now able to serve as tutors, animators or children class teachers attest the factuality of that assertion. In this respect I find the reminder of the House of Justice in the letter addressed to the auxiliary board members dated 3rd of January 2022 quite telling. The House of Justice states the youth who in the final year of the nine-year plan will be carrying out acts of service to ensure its ultimate success are in many cases the children who today need to be nurtured in their love of the blessed beauty and their understanding of his mission. An assessment of the full impact of the participation of large number of individuals and families in the Institute process is impossible at this time and certainly beyond the scope of my presentation. But I am tempted here to mention briefly a personal experience. Among a group of friends invited to the Baha'i World Center several years ago for consultation on the Institute process was a 19-year-old youth from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He had entered the Institute process as a junior youth and was now an active animator. Attracted by his contributions during the formal consultations I asked him in one of the informal dinners if he had any related personal life experience to share. In a most eloquent manner he described how his participation in the Institute process had given him a clear vision of the type of person he should marry. Responding to my joyful request for more elaboration he explained how the Institute process helped him understand the purpose of life, the significance of a life of service, and the importance of and the role that family can play in bringing about a coherent life of service. He then said clarity on the type of person you want to marry follows. This memory is fresh in my mind because when I read paragraph four of the message of the House of Justice dated 30th of December 2021 to the Continental Counselors in which it refers to the inkindled souls being raised up through the processes of the plan, my conversation with this delightful young man whose name I have forgotten came to mind. Questions that needed thoughtful and careful consideration for the progress of this undertaking over the past 25 years were diverse and numerous and the questions themselves changed as the process evolved and engendered insights equally profound and vitalizing. How to assist in some parts of the world an increasing number of youth to see themselves as protagonists in the process of civilization building? How in other parts of the world to assist youth of 12 to 14 years of age to overcome the destructive habits they are permitted to practice at school and instead focus on a spiritual empowerment program that aims at equipping them to navigate their lives? How to raise enough human resources adequate to the task? How to channel parents appreciation of the first glimmerings of positive change in their children's behavior as a result of their participation in children classes? At each stage of progress new challenges emerged. How to cultivate a nascent culture of mutual support in a society where relationships are often shaped by conflict and competition? How to assist the inhabitants of an area to appreciate the value of a neighborhood community life flourishing with elevated conversations that foster examination of time-worn assumptions? How to strengthen an educational program that has proven instrumental in assisting people of all ages to enhance their capacities to see the welfare of individuals in the welfare of society? How to consolidate an effort that has proven invaluable in mobilizing thousands of people all over the world from all backgrounds to participate in a process that seeks to raise capacity within a population to take charge of its own spiritual, social and intellectual development? As part of this undertaking some 10 years ago a few young people in one of the neighborhoods of suburban greater toronto initiated a program of growth by studying the institute courses. As the process evolved the neighborhood learned to overcome the challenges of strengthening within itself an educational system with all its component elements capable of expanding to welcome large numbers. Today there are more than 850 souls in that neighborhood involved in the process witnessing the glimmerings of a self-sustained system of education for a spiritual empowerment of a population. They are actively engaged in learning how a broader cross-section of the population in the neighborhood can be enabled to realize how society around them can be refashioned. To illustrate the nature of both transformation and challenges in a more advanced cluster I offer the example of a location in rural India. The start of the program goes back 14 years when a small group of youth in one village began studying the courses of the training institute to develop their capacities to serve as teachers in the spiritual education of children and animators of the junior youth empowerment program. The enthusiasm of the youth inspired parents and other adults to participate in the institute courses and soon collective worship also began to be welcomed by many. The process of learning in action spread the activities to the neighborhood villages. Parents began to cherish the changes they saw including the increased commitments of their daughters and sons to their studies. The case of a mother quitting smoking as inspired by her junior youth child is another good example of the influence of the younger generation on the adults in these villages. Today the area has more than 3,000 activities and over 21,000 people are involved in the ensuing conversation. The early emergence of change in patterns of thought, action and behavior among the population are many. For example, parents expressing concerns about the education of their children including their daughters. The establishment of community schools to facilitate better quality education. Junior youth acquiring greater confidence to join in discussions in their homes. On becoming youth increasing number of junior youth are giving priority to higher education and service to the community over earning cash to spend on material things. Among the population participating in the activities there has been a total halt to the practice of the marriage of girls below the age of 14. It is now common for marriages to be with the person of one's choice rather than arranged. Friendships are developing among people of different backgrounds including those of different religious affiliations by going to each other's homes and showing respect, cordiality and affection. In social settings such as weddings peoples of different castes sit together whereas in the past those from so-called lower castes would be seated separately. The first glimmering of emerging capacities in the community for taking responsibility for its own spiritual and material prosperity are discernible in this cluster. Current learning efforts in this cluster include how can increasing number of women irrespective of their educational background engaged in the institute process? How can young people be fruitfully engaged in income earning activities such as educational initiatives? How can more support be provided to the youth involved in the community building efforts so as to reduce the rate of their annual migration? The Bahá'í world learned that the greater the human resources a community can call on, the greater is its capacity to apply the teachings of the faith to the life of humanity. Midway through the 25-year period more direct attention was given to the community's involvement in the life of society and involvement seen in terms of two interconnected areas of endeavor social action and participation in the prevalent discourses of society. You no doubt recall that 20-21 Resvan message refers to the fact that thousands of social and economic projects of various kind are taking place today in the Bahá'í world. And the formation of Bahá'í International Development Organization BIDO, a new international institution of the faith based in the Holy Land, is a good indication of the potential expansion of this renaissance service in the years to come. Following is a brief overview of one ongoing social action initiative which illustrates the nature and the magnitude of the contributions made and the challenges it faced. The work to which I refer is an initiative of Kimania Ingeyo Foundation for Science and Education in Uganda, which aimed at advancing community development in rural and pre-urban regions of Uganda by raising up promoters of community well-being, that is individuals who view themselves as protagonists in the development of their community and who use the knowledge, skills, experience and other insights that they gain from the program to contribute in practical ways to their own growth and to the advancement of their communities. This was done by adopting and implementing a set of materials called the Preparation for Social Action PSA program, originally designed by the Foundation for the Application and Teaching of Sciences Fundaik in Colombia, and through the creation of community-based groups made up of populations facing similar realities, such as out-of-school youths, students, farmers and young mothers. Each group was to study the sequence of PSA materials and carry out accompanying activities. Over years of ongoing community engagement, these promoters of community well-being have initiated a range of activities aimed at improving their own social and economic realities, as well as enterprises intended to assist their communities in areas such as in the creation of small schools, sustainable community service activities, starting small businesses, and instituting a range of agricultural efforts. The Foundation collaborates with these populations with a view to learning from existing practices and also enhancing the ability of the promoters of community well-being to maintain coherence between what they have learned from the program and their personal initiatives. In the case of those working in schools, for example, the idea is to assist these educators to sustain and continue to evolve their new approaches to teaching, to lesson planning, and to community involvement. After thousands of individuals were assisted to study a range of PSA materials and to translate their experiences into community-based activities, external evaluation of Kimania's effort to establish community groups in the country speaks of the transformative potential of the PSA program as a tool for both education and community development. For instance, PSA participants were found to recognize the value of local ownership of development efforts, as opposed to relying on external handouts, to focus on the advancement of their community and not just their individual families, to embrace service activities, including offering free education classes for young children, as essential to advancing community well-being and to initiate a range of activities, both short and long-term in duration, aimed at income generation, community health education, and agriculture, among others. Encouraged by the qualitative accomplishment of the participants of the PSA program and motivated by a desire to see a much wider reach of its efforts, the foundation considered the next line of action. Rather than bringing tutors into schools to study the program with the students directly or to study the program with the students outside of school as a substitute for the poor quality of learning taking place inside the schools, the goal was to train teachers. Its year-long teacher training program is designed to help teachers enhance their capacity to teach by expanding their understanding of the purpose of education and the role of educators and promoters of community well-being. Teachers participate in hands-on research programs within their own communities. These activities help them see value in linking classroom learning with students' lives, provide them with opportunities to learn alongside parents and other community members, and demonstrate to them the importance of fostering critical thinking and other forms of higher-order learning so that students take ownership of their education. This teacher training has now expanded the reach of the program with nearly a thousand teachers trained in this manner. A working paper entitled Learning to Teach by Learning to Learn by authors that include a Nobel Prize-winning economist reports that the program has had positive and meaningful impact not only on the teacher level but also on the student learning outcomes, which is a very rare result in the field of social development. The long-term goal of this teacher training initiative is to see that teachers, students, and families shift from a passive view of education that characterizes learning in schools as the transmission of information to a view that instead regards education as a means by which schools and communities can contribute to students' intellectual, social, emotional, and moral growth, and to the development of their capacity to have a lottery impact on the communities around them. The worldwide Baha'i community's participation in the prevalent discourses of society similarly bounds in stories of success. As we know, the nature of this particular field of service lends itself well to the efforts of many individual believers involved in academic and other fields, who alongside their notable contributions in various specific fields of endeavor offer their personal understanding of related Baha'i perspectives to myriads of issues. The formal participation of national Baha'i communities in selected discourses within their respective countries flourished over the past 25 years. An office in the Holy Land, the Office of Public Discourses, closely follows this work which comprises part of the responsibilities of Baha'i offices of external affairs or public affairs as they are called in some countries, which function under the aegis of their respective national spiritual assemblies. Today it is safe to say that the majority of our national spiritual assemblies are engaged in one or more discourses of society. The Office of Public Discourse in Haifa also works closely with our much admired Baha'i international community, whose increasingly sophisticated contributions to global discourses in the past 25 years have necessitated the addition of new bureaus in Africa, Asia and Europe. Again with a view to highlighting the nature of the contributions being made and the challenges involved, let me give as an example a brief description of the participation of the national Baha'i community of Canada in a discourse on the role of religion in society. The focus of the Canadian Office of Public Affairs is on examining ideas that can give direction to processes of social change and potentially shape public policy. The elements of the approach in the discourse on the role of religion in society include an exploration of the oneness of religion, challenging the secular religious binary and a focus on the positive role of religion in society. The exploration of the oneness of religion is done mostly by identifying shared spiritual principles and ethical concepts as well as considering their application to the needs of society, challenging the prevailing notion that our public conversation should be primarily secular and that religious matters ought to be limited to one's personal life, family and religious community, is done arguing that this binary clearly limits the way we talk about the challenges confronting our society. And for a positive aspect of religion, the office works with many like-minded individuals and groups in a process of learning from the insights and experiences of religious communities across the country. In relation to each of these elements, the office collaborates with several like-minded organizations. The community is represented on a number of organizations, rendering it opportunities to contribute to the contents of a number of programs and to discussions on various subjects as well as to write concept notes and panel descriptions. Its own recent podcast program has also proven an effective way to stimulate discussion on various topics. The challenges faced in this particular discourse are often related to use of language, how to introduce the idea of religion as a language that can bring together people at both ends of the spectrum by giving them a way of talking about the spiritual dimensions of human beings and the qualities we want to create in our communities, how to foster interfaith dialogue that goes beyond the kind of dialogue of difference or simple cooperation in a society that is ignorant of and increasingly hostile to religion, how to assist religious groups to work together to promote a discourse about the ways in which religion contributes to the common goal. A discussion on the enhancement of the intellectual life of our community in the past 25 years would of course not be complete without mention of the noteworthy efforts made by the Association for Baha'i Studies, focusing in particular on helping to build the capacity of their friends to contribute to the prevalent discourses of society in their academic fields and in their profession. Multiplying the spaces in which participants can collaborate, generate collective insights and share learning, helping young people to view participating in professional and academic discourses as a core dimension of their services that is coherent with the imperatives of the divine plan, or assisting a growing number of authors to publish articles and books exploring various themes in the light of teachings and on insights emerging from the experiences of the community, are all effective ways the Association is learning how to play its role more efficiently and in a manner that enriches the capacity of the Baha'i community to discharge its mission. The nine-year plan will no doubt provide ample opportunities for the Association to help Baha'is in this vital field of service. The significant achievements related to the establishment and to the endeavors of the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity, ISGP, also require special mention here. The Institute has more than one line of action. Many, however, know the Institute by its program which is now operating in more than 100 countries of the world, helping young people further develop their capacity to make significant contributions to their field of study or professions and to generate knowledge about the contemporary issues that are crucial to the life of society. Regarding the past 25 years, the House of Justice says in reviewing the entire 25-year period, we are awed by the many kinds of progress the Baha'i world has made concurrently. Its intellectual life has strived, as demonstrated not only by its advances in all the areas of endeavor already discussed, but also by the volume of high-quality literature published by Baha'i authors, by the development of spaces for the explorations of certain disciplines in the light of teachings, and by the impact of the undergraduate and graduate seminars systematically offered by the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity. This is, dear friends, the Baha'i community at the end of the first century of the Formative Age, a community that has rapidly gained strength and is ready to take great strides forward. And this, at a time when we see in the larger society lingering habits of contest, self-interest, prejudice, and close-mindedness that continue to hinder the movement towards unity, despite growing numbers in society who are showing in words and deeds how they too yearn for greater acceptance of humanity's inherent oneness. The achievement of the community in the past 25 years, in the words of the House of Justice, is a firm foundation upon which the nine-year plan will build. As we know, the nine-year plan is focused on a single aim, the release of the society-building power of the faith in ever-greater measures. The pursuit of this aim, building on the achievements of the past 25 years, as the House of Justice states, requires first and foremost, still further advances in the process of entry by troops in every part of the world. The range of fields in which the believers are being asked to serve within their clusters in order to release the society-building power of the faith in ever-greater measures has brought it. Both developing capacity to contribute to the Baha'i community's various areas of endeavor and helping the friends to demonstrate in action the capacity they have acquired remain essential. Further advances in the process of entry by troops, with attention being paid to the release of the society-building power of the faith, implies a shift. A shift in the way community-building efforts should be seen and conducted. Among other things, it demands the services of families and individual believers working together and making a conscious decision to see themselves as belonging to an expanding nucleus. And the mobilization of a sizable number of Baha'is, who are creatively and intelligently applying the plan's framework for action to the reality of their own circumstances, wherever in the cluster they live. More provisions are provided in the plan to facilitate a swift acceleration of the work expansion and consolidation and to assist more communities to become ready to shoulder important responsibilities and intensify a broad collective process of learning by the spiritual and material progress. Further refinement and more systematization of disseminations of experience and the learning process as a whole at the cluster level is called for. The capacity for preparing simple plans at the level of the cluster that began to be cultivated over the past 25 years is now to be extended to the setting of befitting short-term cluster goals and making a path to achieve each goal. All in relation to a deep understanding of the two essentially spiritual undertakings of diffusing the light of Baha'u'llah's revelation ever more widely and extending the roots of his faith ever more deeply into the soil of society. Efforts at the cluster level aimed at increasing effectiveness in the reading of one's reality and attaining greater clarity of mind about the organic development of the process of community building are emphasized as they will make it easier to learn from the experience of the friends in a community that is a step further along the same path. This is what in a way applying provisions of the plan creatively and intelligently to one's own cluster imply in my understanding. By so doing the community while learning from other clusters develops a vision for its own model of a thriving cluster and make a cluster plan to make the progress forward step by step. The challenge is to identify the capacities needed to develop an understanding of how to build them and to devise ways to help more friends to take action that draws on the capacities they are building. The training institute which proved indispensable for advancing the process of growth will now also be preparing the protagonist of the plan for an ever deeper engagement in the life of the wider community. We are encouraged to take a more expansive view of the training institute and to see it also as a potent means for the society building power of the faith to find release. The importance of the task of developing curriculum material to support this expanded view is highlighted by the House of Justice and we know friends that with the existing institute materials proven efficacy in building capacity for a broad range of initiatives and with the rich insights generated by thousands of friends in different parts of the world about aspects of community development the Baha'i community under the guidance of the House of Justice is ready more than ever to face the multifaceted challenge of extending systems for the preparation and refinement of educational materials. However bringing the institute to a higher level of functioning in the early periods of the nine-year plan will require the support of many individuals the institute itself and the Baha'i institutions all of whom will necessarily have to address a range of related questions. How to empower an increasing number of youth to take a cherished commitment to the support of the institute activities as outlined by the House of Justice? How to attract an increasing number of people from the larger society to the institute courses? How to integrate the arts more systematically into all the communities endeavors? The capacity for use of which was so beautifully demonstrated during the recent conferences? How to assist larger number of believers to acquire an outward-looking approach that shapes their way of life and their services? How to employ the intellectual resources of the community to enhance the further development of the institute? These are among the pressing needs of the earliest days of the plan and which the Baha'i community will necessarily have to continue to explore throughout the coming years. In the letter of 30th of December 2021 the House of Justice points out how progress in the three areas of endeavor pursued over the past 25 years implied a conception of religion very different from those holding Shui in the world at large. A conception which recognizes religion as the potent force propelling an ever-advancing civilization. In its guidance on the nine-year plan the House of Justice also reminds us of how different settings and circumstances lend themselves to different approaches of teaching defeat and that the friends need help to reflect periodically on effective ways of teaching the faith in their surroundings and to be occupied in an ongoing process of learning about what is most effective in the place where they are. The efficacy of the institute process in expanding the approach to teaching in increasing the intensity of teaching in multiplying sustained programs of growth has been well demonstrated. Additionally the pattern of vibrant community life it promotes encourages large number of people at the grassroots who are otherwise skeptical of religion but concerned with the accelerations of social disintegration to investigate the faith and the life of Bahá'u'lláh. The development of materials that present the faith and its ideas in the context of a new conception of religion commensurate with the age of the maturity of humanity and relating to local conditions including the community building experience appears to me as a challenge at least in some parts of the world. The statement of the House of Justice in its written 2021 that society building power of the faith of Bahá'u'lláh is being manifested with ever more clarity in my understanding is referring to the emergence in a modest number of places in the world of capacities that allow the glimmerings of this power to be seen. These are places where a pattern of Bahá'u'llh community life has attained a level of prevalence such that the inhabitants now possess a substantially increased capacity to steer the course of their own development and the institutions and agencies of the faith have an expanded vision of their responsibilities. These processes should be intensified in these locations and the experience must also be extended to more localities facilitating a better understanding of the signs of greater release of the society building power of the faith. The House of Justice reminds us that the ways in which the society building power of the faith will find expression in different settings will vary and says a clear sign that the society building power of the cause is being released in a cluster is that efforts are being made by a growing band of its inhabitants inspired by the teachings of the faith to help improve the spiritual character and social conditions of the wider society to which they belong. The House of Justice further explains that this is a capacity that comes into greater demand as closer association with the population brought about through the work of expansion and consolidation leads to increased consciousness of an area's prevailing social problems as well as the aspirations of its people to overcome them. As the member of those participating in community building activities rises so does the need for the Baha'i community to offer as a unified body its considered perspective on obstacles to social progress and on issues that weigh on the minds and spirits of those with whom it interacts. This is a new dimension to the work of participation in the discourse of society. It is a welcome challenge to the work of local spiritual assemblies and necessarily requires the intellectual and other contributions of individuals at the cluster level. How can the intellectual contributions of the community be enhanced so as to further enrich our participation in the discourses of society? In the thriving clusters at present the community has an informal collaborative arrangements to the surrounding society. It is becoming a highly visible protagonist in society and at the same time the wider society is beginning to embrace many aspects of Baha'i community life and absorbs its unifying spirit thereby allowing diverse groups to come together in a combined movement inspired by Baha'u'llah's vision of the oneness of humanity. In such clusters what is the nature of the relationship of the Baha'i community as represented by its formal structures of administration? This requires deep thinking and complex learning. What are the conditions at the grassroots in general for the society building power of the faith to be released in ever greater measure? And how do we help create them? How do relationships among the three protagonists of the plan within the Baha'i community itself influence the release of society building power of the faith in greater measure? And how to better use our intellectual energies on building sound relationships among individuals, communities and institutions? Key to success in all of this in my understanding is a deeper spiritual and intellectual understanding that within clusters these areas of activities expansion and consolidation social action and contributing to prevalent discourses of society are dimensions of a single unified outward-looking endeavor carried out at the grassroots of society. They are not endeavors intended to serve as alternatives to community-reading efforts but are rather inherent elements within the process. All are pursued according to a common framework for action that brings coherence to the overall pattern of activity. How an increased measure of intellectual energy can be extended from the grassroots to the international level to achieve greater coherence in these three areas of endeavor? That a natural outcome of the participation of individuals and families in the institute process in many parts of the world has been an increased attention paid to the importance of education in all its forms is another thrilling achievement of the past 25 years. With the launch of the nine-year plan this provides experience-based and timely empathy to the start of a path to organic learning on the matter of how to initiate a more systematic long-term approach with the aim of investing, in the words of the House of Justice, in those who will assume responsibility for collective social progress, supporting the youth in their efforts to fulfill their noble aspiration to acquire the education and training that will allow them to offer a lifetime of meaningful service to their society. In some parts of the world initial efforts at acquiring this learning may take the form of assisting dedicated active youth to overcome the social and economic obstacles in their aim to access education. In other regions it may be more a question of empowering the youth to make the right choices in a highly competitive educational system heavily influenced by ingrained materialistic assumptions about the nature of life a system that offers relatively easy access to education but which often provides little time to attend to one's desired life of service while studying and ends with heavy loans to be repaid thus tempting young people to search for higher paid jobs rather than the professions and careers of their own choice. The institutions of the faith have a challenging responsibility in this regard to consider how to assist these youth as they grapple with the attending questions. Related to the institute's contribution to further education is that it generates a love for interaction with the world of God. It encourages the creation of the habit of reading the writings every day and seeks to foster a desire for deep study of the creative world. The House of Justice points out that one strong indicator of an institute's effectiveness is the thirst it cultivates within those who engage with its materials to continue to study the cause of Bahá'u'lláh emphasizing that the training institute has no parallel as an instrument for the systematic exposure of limitless numbers of souls to the life-giving waters of the revelation and the inexhaustible meaning of the word of God. This thirst cultivated by the institute is quenched through study of the courses offered by the training institute by participating in the reflection spaces arranged within the institute process and by other efforts to study the writings whether individually or in formal spaces created by the institutions for this purpose or in more informal settings arranged by individuals or groups. But with the release of society building power of the faith depending upon insights from the knowledge system of both science and religion, study of the writings is one of the aims and integral components of the nine-year plan as well as essential to the intellectual development of the community. At the end of its message 30th of December 2021 the House of Justice refers to the nine-year plan as the first major undertaking in a sacred 25-year venture generational in its scope and significance. There are of course many facets to this generational aspect of the work but surely one is the building of the intellectual capacity of a generation of Baha'is so that they can fulfill their responsibilities for the spread of the faith and the release of its society building power in greater measures thus contributing to the world transformation. The work advancing in every corner of the globe today indeed represents the latest stage of the ongoing Baha'i endeavor to create the nucleus of the glorious civilization enshrined in the teachings of Baha'u'llah. But clearly Baha'i intellectual life must advance in many ways if it is to meet the challenges of the nine-year plan. A major question in this respect is how to build and strengthen a system of education including the training. How to enhance the necessary administrative capacities particularly at the local level is clearly another one. Learning to enhance community's capacity to have a sense of focus that accommodates many lines of action all of which must advance without being in competition is mentioned as another in the message of the House of Justice and there are more. The House of Justice says as the contribution being made by the faith to the progress of society in different parts of the world gains greater visibility the Baha'i community will increasingly be called upon to explicate the principles it advocates and to demonstrate their applicability to the issues facing humanity. The more the intellectual life of a community blossoms and thrives the greater its capacity to answer this call. It will be up to the followers of Baha'u'llah to provide in the worlds of ideas the intellectual rigor and clarity of thought to match their commitments to spiritual and material progress in the world of deeds. Dear friends this brings me to the end of my presentation but if I may I would like to add a final point it's a point related to the intellectual life of our community that I find myself thinking about more and more in the last few years and it is this. There are statements in the writings that vividly describe the depth of the transformation humanity will have to undergo and the magnitude of the change the world will have to see and there are also things that the faith simply cannot accommodate as elements of that divine civilization envisaged by Baha'u'llah. The challenge for us as Baha'is as I see it is that on one hand we cannot overlook these issues whether intentionally or unintentionally no matter how controversial they may be in today's society or no matter how uncomfortable people or at times even we ourselves may feel about them. On the other hand we need to learn to discuss these matters with others when and if necessary. The greater our personal conviction that the message of Baha'u'llah in its entirety is the only remedy for the ills of mankind the more motivated we will be to learn how to ensure that the direction of our thoughts is set at all times by two factors that the House of Justice often brings to our attention an ever-growing appreciation of Baha'u'llah's stupendous vision for humanity and an ever-increasing clarity regarding the nature of the forces operating in the world. Taking heart in the beloved's guardian assertion that the salvation of a world in travail must ultimately depend upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the revelation of Baha'u'llah reinforced on one hand by a spiritual communion with his spirit and on the other by the intelligent application and faithful execution of the principles and laws he revealed. I would like to end with a sole steering statement of the House of Justice from its letter of 30th of December. How immensely blessed are those souls who alive to the greatness of this day and the significance of their actions strive to the emergence of a society shaped by the divine teachings. Dear friends, thank you very much.