Cluster

Presenting statistics from a cluster in Ethiopia at the regional conference in Nakuru, Kenya, 2008.

A cluster is an area with borders designated by Bahá’í institutions that take into account geographic, social, and economic factors. They exist in all countries where the Faith is permitted to operate.

The purpose of clusters is to allow plans for systematic growth to be formulated on a manageable scale. The Universal House of Justice has outlined three conceptual milestones of growth which are used to assess and classify clusters. The current goal of the Bahá’í community worldwide is advancing clusters through these milestones of development with a focus on the establishment of programmes of growth.

Worldwide there are currently 22,000 clusters. As of 2022 6,000 have passed the first milestone, approximately 5,000 have passed the second milestone, and 1,300 have passed the third milestone, and the Bahá’í community is aiming to have 5,000 clusters pass the third milestone by 2031.

Designation

A large city such as Singapore could be considered as a single cluster.

The borders of a cluster are determined by National Spiritual Assemblies and Regional Bahá’í Councils in consultation with the relevant Continental Board of Counsellors. The Universal House of Justice wrote the following regarding the composition of clusters in 2001:

"Most of these will consist of a cluster of villages and towns, but, sometimes, a large city and its suburbs may constitute an area of this kind. Among the factors that determine the boundaries of a cluster are culture, language, patterns of transport, infrastructure, and the social and economic life of the inhabitants."

The cluster model allows for further subdivision of a community for planning purposes. In 2003 the Universal House of Justice wrote the following:

"For the most part, large urban centers under the jurisdiction of one Local Spiritual Assembly have been designated single clusters, these in turn being divided into sectors, so as to facilitate planning and implementation."

Similarly in the 2010 Ridvan message the Universal House of Justice advised that in advanced clusters focus should be given to creating centres of intense activity in small pockets of the population noting an appropriate designation of a small setting may be a neighborhood within an urban cluster or a village in a rural cluster. In a 2021 message the Universal House of Justice noted that areas with small populations and low population density may be excluded from the cluster model.

Once a clusters borders are designated it is categorized according to its stage of development, using the three milestones of growth delineated by the Universal House of Justice.

A cluster which has passed the first milestone, and established a programme of growth, is one in which any of the core activities have been established and people are enrolling in training institute courses:

"Within every cluster, the level of cohesion achieved among the core activities must be such that, in their totality, a nascent programme for the sustained expansion and consolidation of the Faith can be perceived. That is to say, in whatever combination and however small in number, devotional gatherings, children’s classes and junior youth groups are being maintained by those progressing through the sequence of institute courses and committed to the vision of individual and collective transformation they foster. This initial flow of human resources into the field of systematic action marks the first of several milestones in a process of sustainable growth."

A cluster has passed the second milestone, and established an intensive programme of growth, when its training institute has a steady flow of new participants who are establishing core activities, teaching the Faith, and inviting new participants into core activities and the training institute:

". . . a steady stream of friends is proceeding through the courses of the training institute and engaging in the corresponding activities, which serves, in turn, to increase the number of fresh recruits into the Faith, a significant percentage of whom invariably enters the institute process, guaranteeing the expansion of the system. This constitutes another milestone that the friends labouring in every cluster must, in time, reach."

A cluster has passed the third milestone when it has produced enough human resources to begin undertaking social action in the wider community:

"The forms that such endeavours can assume are diverse and include, for example, tutorial assistance to children, projects to better the physical environment, and activities to improve health and prevent disease. Some initiatives become sustained and gradually grow. In various places the founding of a community school at the grassroots has arisen from a heightened concern for the proper education of children and awareness of its importance, flowing naturally from the study of institute materials. On occasion, the efforts of the friends can be greatly reinforced through the work of an established Bahá’í-inspired organization functioning in the vicinity. . .
This is another milestone for the friends to pass, the third in succession since the process of growth in a cluster was begun. It denotes the appearance of a system for extending, in centre after centre, a dynamic pattern of community life that can engage a people—men and women, youth and adults—in the work of their own spiritual and social transformation.

Functions

Detailed planning for a specific cluster at the regional conference in Bangalore, India, 2008.

Clusters allow Bahá’í institutions to make plans tailored to the size, composition, and local conditions in any given cluster. This is to ensure that plans facilitate a pattern of well-ordered expansion and consolidation in order to allow for systematic growth. The Universal House of Justice has identified training institutes as being the driving force behind the growth of a cluster.

Efforts to develop a cluster are the responsibility of cluster agencies which consist of one or more individuals appointed to coordinate study circles, children's classes, and junior youth groups, and an Area Teaching Committee appointed by a Regional Bahá’í Council or National Spiritual Assembly. The cluster agencies are guided and supported by Regional Bahá’í Councils and regional training institutes and assisted by Local Spiritual Assemblies in achieving their goals. The Bahá’í community as a whole supports developments by participating in cluster-wide reflection meetings at which accounts on methods and approaches are shared and presented allowing for collective ownership over processes to develop.

In the 2014 Ridvan message the Universal House of Justice wrote the following regarding the strength of the cluster model:

"The very fact that each set of circumstances presents its own challenges is enabling every community not simply to benefit from what is being learned in the rest of the Bahá’í world but also to add to that body of knowledge. Awareness of this reality frees one from the fruitless search for a rigid formula for action while still allowing the insights gleaned in diverse settings to inform the process of growth as it takes a particular shape in one’s own surroundings. This entire approach is completely at odds with narrow conceptions of “success” and “failure” that breed freneticism or paralyse volition.

History

The Universal House of Justice introduced the concept of the cluster in a message to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counselors dated 9 January 2001 in which it instructed the Counselors to help national communities to divide their communities into clusters and to formulate plans focusing on these small geographic areas.

In a January 2002 message to a Youth Congress in Brazil the Universal House of Justice noted that clusters had been successfully established and that advancing clusters into new stages of development was the primary challenge of the institutions, and in the 2002 Ridvan message noted that 150 countries had established clusters. In January 2003 the Universal House of Justice reported that 17,000 clusters had been established worldwide and that there was significant diversity in how they had been allocated across the world with India having 1,580 clusters but Singapore consisting of a single cluster.

In a December 27, 2005, message the Universal House of Justice noted that in advanced clusters the quality of the Nineteen Day Feast had improved and cluster reflection meetings were becoming forums for discussions on community needs and plans. In the Ridvan 2007 message the Universal House of Justice reported that adoption of the cluster framework was resulting in hundreds of enrolments every few months in some clusters.

In the Ridvan 2021 message the Universal House of Justice reviewed the evolution of the cluster model:

"As the efforts of the friends intensified, various principles, concepts and strategies of universal relevance to the growth process began to crystallize into a framework for action that could evolve to accommodate new elements. This framework proved fundamental to the release of tremendous vitality. It assisted the friends to channel their energies in ways that, experience had shown, were conducive to the growth of healthy communities. But a framework is not a formula. By taking into account the various elements of the framework when assessing the reality of a cluster, a locality, or simply a neighbourhood, a pattern of activity could be developed that drew on what the rest of the Bahá’í world was learning while still being a response to the particulars of that place. A dichotomy between rigid requirements on the one hand and limitless personal preferences on the other gave way to a more nuanced understanding of the variety of means by which individuals could support a process that, at its heart, was coherent and continually being refined as experience accumulated. Let there be no doubt about the advance represented by the emergence of this framework: the implications for harmonizing and unifying the endeavours of the entire Bahá’í world and propelling its onward march were of great consequence."

In its December 30, 2021, message the Universal House of Justice advised the Counsellors to assist National Spiritual Assemblies and Regional Councils in reassessing clusters in order to redraw the borders if necessary to allow for Bahá’í activities to be better managed. The message also noted that sparsely populated geographical regions do not need to be assigned to a cluster although Bahá’ís living in those areas would still be encouraged to utilize elements of the cluster model in their activities. The reassessment of clusters was completed by Ridvan 2022 with the House of Justice announcing the following in its Ridvan message that year:

". . . the outcome of these adjustments is that the total number of clusters in the world has risen by a quarter and now stands at over 22,000. Judging by the forecasts received, it is estimated that, by the end of the Plan, a programme of growth at some level of development will exist in around 14,000 of these clusters. From among them, the number where the programme of growth could be considered intensive is projected to climb to 11,000 over the same time period. And of these, it is anticipated that the number of clusters where the third milestone has been passed will rise above 5,000 by 2031."

Further Reading

• 9 January 2001 from the Universal House of Justice to the Continental Boards of Counsellors
• April 2002 from the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’í world
• 17 January 2003 from the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’í world
• 29 December 2015 from the Universal House of Justice to the Continental Boards of Counsellors