| The local administrative body of the Bahá'í community. The nine members are directly elected from among the body of the believers in
a community every Riḍván and serve for a period of one year. All adult believers in a given community are eligible
for election to the local spiritual assembly. The assembly elects its own officers
for the year and meets as often as it sees necessary. The local assembly oversees teaching
and other work of the Bahá'í community, conducts marriages and funerals, provides for the Bahá'í education of the children in its community, ensures the holding of the Bahá'í
Holy Days and the Nineteen
Day Feasts, and provides advice, guidance and assistance for those in difficulty.
All its decisions are made after consultation. |
| Bahá'u'lláh called for the creation of local spiritual assemblies in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:
'The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein
shall gather counsellors to the number of Bahá (9) . . .'5 The Local House of Justice is presently called the local spiritual assembly,
but it is clear that the two institutions are the same; '. . . the Spiritual Assemblies
of today will be replaced in time by the Houses of Justice, and are to all intents
and purposes identical and not separate bodies . . .'6 'For reasons which are not difficult
to discover, it has been found advisable to bestow upon the elected representatives
of Bahá'í communities
throughout the world the temporary appellation of Spiritual Assemblies . . .'7 |
| Shoghi Effendi has
characterized the local spiritual assemblies thus: 'instituted, without any exception,
in every city, town, and village where nine or more adult believers are resident; annually
and directly elected, on the first day of the greatest Bahá'í
Festival [Riḍván]
by all adult believers, man and woman alike; invested with an authority rendering them
unanswerable for their acts and decisions to those who elect them; solemnly pledged
to follow, under all conditions, the dictates of the "Most Great Justice"
. . . charged with the responsibility of promoting at all times the best interests
of the communities within their jurisdiction, of familiarizing them with their plans
and activities, and inviting them to offer any recommendations they might wish to make
. . . supported by local funds to which all believers voluntarily contribute . . .'8 |
| [BD 139] |
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| See also: |
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