Where Bahá'í communities are unable to free themselves from
an orientation to Bahá'í life that has long outlived whatever value it once
possessed, the teaching work will lack both the systematic character it
requires, and the spirit that must animate all effective service to the Cause.
To mistakenly identify Bahá'í community life with the mode of religious
activity that characterizes the general society--in which the believer is a
member of a congregation, leadership comes from an individual or individuals presumed
to be qualified for the purpose, and personal participation is fitted into a
schedule dominated by concerns of a very different nature--can only have the
effect of marginalizing the Faith and robbing the community of the spiritual
vitality available to it.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 22 August 2002, written on
behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)
