Local Spiritual Assembly

A Local Spiritual Assembly, often abbreviated to LSA, is a nine-member administrative and spiritual body responsible for overseeing the affairs of the Bahá’í community of a local area of jurisdiction, usually defined by the civil boundaries of a village, town, or city. LSA's are elected directly by every eligible Bahá’í in its jurisdiction who is eighteen or older on the first day of the Ridván Festival.

Functions

The LSA is elected annually, and elections occur in an atmosphere of prayer, with electioneering, nominations, campaigning, and all discussion of persons being forbidden. All eligible Bahá’ís are encouraged to participate in Assembly elections, and then to cooperate with the Assembly, as while it is democratically elected the LSA is invested with authority after the election takes place. An LSA elects its own Officers from within its membership, with essential officers being the Chairman, vice-Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer, and the Assembly may choose to elect additional officers if they are deemed necessary. The LSA may also appoint committees on an annual basis to assist it in carrying out its responsibilities.

The major duties of the LSA are to promote unity in the community, direct the teaching work and protect the community, arrange Feasts, Holy Days, and other regular meetings, promote the welfare of youth and children, communicate with the community and encourage suggestions, and to participate in humanitarian activities. They also oversee a wide range of domestic affairs, including facilitating communication between individuals and National Spiritual Assemblies, handling divorces, ensuring that the requirements of both civil and Bahá’í law are met before marriages take place, and to proactively make specific plans for their community to achieve goals related to teaching, proclamation, and consolidation. The Bahá’í principle of consultation is used in the deliberations of Local Spiritual Assemblies.

History

The concept of an administrative body for local Bahá’í communities was instituted by Bahá’u’lláh Himself. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas He wrote:

"The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein shall gather counsellors to the number of Bahá (9)... It behooveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth."

Early History in the East

The origins of LSA's in the East began in 1879 when the Bahá'í community of Tihran, Iran, attempted to form a House of Justice as described in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, however a prominent member of the community demanded that he be the governor of the body with his ratification being required for all decisions, and as this was not stipulated in the Aqdas no body was formed. In 1880 Ibn-i-Asdaq and Mirza Asadu'llah Isfahani traveled across Khurasan helping Bahá’ís establish consultative bodies. In 1897 the four Hands of the Cause appointed by Bahá’u’lláh formed a formal administrative body in Tihran which was the precursor for both the Local Spiritual Assembly of Tihran and National Spiritual Assembly of Iran, serving both local and national functions, and with the Hands of the Cause serving as permanent members of the body.

During the late 1890's ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged the Bahá'ís of Iran to establish a local administrative body in every town and village where there was a community, paving the way for further administrative development, and in Persian the term Majles-e Šūrā (consulting assembly) was used until around 1902/03 when Maḥfel-­e Rūḥānī (spiritual assembly) became the standard term. By 1912 there were administrative bodies established across Iran which elected at least nine men as members, but often more, and as of 1913 Assemblies in the East were elected bodies.

Early History in the West

In the West the Bahá’ís of America began to form administrative bodies very early, with the first Baha'i arriving in the United States in 1892 and the first administrative body being established in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1899. Other American communities also established their own administrative bodies, such as Chicago, but these bodies had various names, numbers of members, and administrative functions all of which were decided by the Bahá’ís themselves, rather than being based on authoritative Guidance. In 1901 the Chicago community named their body a House of Justice, however the following year ʻAbdu'l-Bahá advised them to rename their body a Spiritual Assembly so that the wider community would not misconstrue its purpose. The Chicago community renamed their body a House of Spirituality, and Spiritual Assembly was used as a term for a local Bahá’í community as a whole until 1920.

History after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

In 1921 Shoghi Effendi became the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, succeeding ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as Head of the Faith, and under his guidance the Administration of the community began to develop, with By-Laws for National Assemblies being developed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States & Canada in 1927, and published in the book Bahá'í Administration by Shoghi Effendi.

In 1931 the New York community drafted By-Laws for Local Spiritual Assemblies, which became the standard for all local Bahá’í constitutions. Shoghi Effendi regarded the New York By-Laws as containing the absolute essentials for Local Assemblies with additions being of secondary importance, and recommended that Bahá'í communities maintain elasticity and refrain from overly elaborating upon the By-Laws in order to avoid Administration between countries diverging too much, and the Faith becoming overburdened by procedures and rulings.

The Universal House of Justice has absolute authority in legislative matters and continues to provide elucidations on the functions of the Local Spiritual Assembly when required. As of 1963 there were 3,555 Local Spiritual Assemblies across the Bahá’í World. The number increased to 4,566 in 1964, 6,408 in 1968, 17,037 by 1973, 25,111 by 1979 and 32,854 by 1986, however it reduced to 11,746 by 2002. The Universal House of Justice had anticipated a reduction in the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies after it restricted the day for formation and election of Assemblies to the first Day of Ridvan in 1997.

Further Reading

• Local Spiritual Assemblies, compilation, the Universal House of Justice, 1970
• Trustees of the Merciful, Adib Taherzadeh,