March 31. On this date in 1949, Shoghi Effendi wrote German Bahá'ís "Bahá'u'lláh and the Master mention only Local, National and an International House of Justice. There is no provision for divisional ones....Spiritual Assembly is the name at present for the body which in future will be called 'House of Justice'."
31 March 1949
First, let me say that one of the reasons God has given us the institution of Guardianship is to prevent men from crystallizing the Cause of God into a rigid system. Your questions are mostly along the line of trying to lay down a fixed pattern for future society, long before the time for such a pattern is ripe. Remember that Bahá'u'lláh says what is not already revealed, the International House of Justice must in the future legislate, and it can make, and abrogate if necessary, its own laws. This means not fixity in guiding society, but fluidity!
No. 1 Bahá'u'lláh and the Master mention only Local, National and an International House of Justice. There is no provision for divisional ones. Each city will have its own Spiritual Assembly, not a number of district ones. Naturally, district 19 Day Feasts can be held where there are very many Bahá'ís in one city.
No. 2 The Hands of the Cause will have executive authority in so far as they carry out the work of the Guardian.
No. 3 Spiritual Assembly is the name at present for the body which in future will be called "House of Justice".
No. 4 The Badí' Calendar will be used generally. The Bahá'í week has seven days.
No. 5 There is nothing about "ground organization". These details are left for future legislation.
No. 6 No. Such things are for the consideration of the legislative bodies in future.
No. 7 No. But 'Abdu'l-Bahá stated there are other worlds than ours which are inhabited by beings capable of knowing God.
No. 8 The Bahá'í Temple in America has been dragging on, uncompleted, since 19..(figures unreadable); its completion is absolutely essential. We are builders, we have confidence in the protection of God. We cannot give up our work just because the atom bomb has been invented! This would be cowardly! The United Nations disposes of millions and millions of dollars and part of its work is to educate humanity towards peace and against war. Our completion of the Bahá'í Temple will cost 3/4 of a million; what could this sum do in comparison to the efforts of the United Nations?
The thing the German believers must do is to deepen themselves in the Covenants of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Mere intellectual understanding of the teachings is not enough. Deep spirituality is essential, and the foundation of true spirituality is steadfastness in the Covenant.
On March 16, 1900, the nascent Chicago Bahá'í community selected a ten-member Board of Council. Neither Ibrahim George Kheiralla nor any of his supporters were selected to serve on the Board.
On May 15, 1901, the Chicago Bahá'ís elected a nine-man Board of Council for a term of five years.
On May 20, 1901, the number of members on the Board of Council was raised to 12. On May 24, 1901, the name of the Chicago Board of Council was changed to the House of Justice.
One year later, on May 10, 1902, on the request of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the all-male Chicago House of Justicechanged its name to the House of Spirituality. The body remained all-male. The Chicago House of Spirituality was complemented by the Women’s Assembly of Teaching.
On March 7, 1903, the House of Spirituality in Chicago, upon hearing from Mírzá Asadu’llah Fádil Mázandarání of the construction of the first Bahá'í House of Worship in Ashgabat, wrote 'Abdu'l-Bahá of their decision to build a House of Worship for Chicago.
In 1909, at the first American Bahá'í National Convention in Chicago, Bahá'í Temple Unity was incorporated to hold title to the Temple property and to provide for its construction. Women are allowed to serve on this body. A constitution was framed and an Executive Board of the Bahá'í Temple Unity elected.
In 1922, on the instructions of Shoghi Effendi, Bahá'í Temple Unity was renamed the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada.
On February 25, 1902, Corinne True wrote 'Abdu’l-Baháabout the exclusion of women from the Chicago Bahá’í governing body, Chicago House of Justice, noting that "many" felt it should be a "mixed board" because "women in America stand so conspicuously for all that is highest & best in every department." In his response 'Abdu’l-Bahá stated that while "in the sight of God, the conduct of women is the same as that of men" and there was "no difference" between the sexes, nevertheless the "House of Justice" had to consist only of men and that the "reason will presently appear, even as the sun at midday." True accepted 'Abdu’l-Bahá’s ruling–which also affirmed the equality of the sexes–and poured her energy into the Chicago Bahá’í women’s organization, which 'Abdu’l-Bahá highly praised. For the next eight years Chicago had two parallel Bahá’í organizations, one confined to men, the other to women.
On November 30, 1930, Shoghi Effendi wrote "In fact Bahá’u’lláh clearly states that affairs of state as well as religious questions are to be referred to the Houses of Justice into which the Assemblies of the Bahá’ís will eventually evolve."
Regarding the question raised in your letter, Shoghi Effendi believes that for the present the Movement, whether in the East or the West, should be dissociated entirely from politics. This was the explicit injunction of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. . . . Eventually, however, as you have rightly conceived it, the Movement will, as soon as it is fully developed and recognized, embrace both religious and political issues. In fact Bahá’u’lláh clearly states that affairs of state as well as religious questions are to be referred to the Houses of Justice into which the Assemblies of the Bahá’ís will eventually evolve."
(30 November 1930)
On October 5, 1950, Shoghi Effendi wrote that "the Assembly is a nascent House of Justice."
270. Assembly is a Nascent House of Justice--Individuals Toward Each Other Governed by Love, Unity, etc.
"...There is a tendency to mix up the functions of the Administration and try to apply it in individual relationships, which is abortive, because the Assembly is a nascent House of Justice and is supposed to administer, according to the Teachings, the affairs of the community. But individuals toward each other are governed by love, unity, forgiveness and a sin-covering eye. Once the friends grasp this they will get along much better, but they keep playing Spiritual Assembly to each other and expect the Assembly to behave like an individual...."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, October 5, 1950: Living the Life, p. 17)
When today's Local and National Spiritual Assemblies become local and national Houses of Justice, their membership will once again become exclusively male.
