- See also: List of National Spiritual Assemblies
A National Spiritual Assembly is a nine-member administrative body tasked with overseeing the affairs of the Bahá’í community of a particular country. Like Local Spiritual Assemblies, all National Spiritual Assemblies have nine members and are elected annually, usually during the Ridván Festival (April 21-May 2). All Bahá’í elections occur in an atmosphere of prayer where nominations, campaigning, and all discussion of persons is forbidden.
The members of the National Spiritual Assemblies collectively serve as the electoral college for electing the Universal House of Justice.
History[edit]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá's era[edit]
National Spiritual Assemblies are first mentioned in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's Will and Testament, but the fact that they would be established circulated for years before the contents of the Will became publicly available in early 1922. In 1909, Hippolyte Dreyfus wrote extensively about the role of the national House of Justice (as it would have been known then) in his The Universal Religion: Bahaism, Its Rise and Social Import.[1] In that year, also, the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada elected a nine-member “Executive Committee” for the Bahá’í Temple Unity, a continental consultative body formed to build the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Subsequently the Bahá’í Temple Unity, which held annual conventions, appointed committees to publish Bahá’í literature, coordinate the spread of the Bahá’í Faith across North America, and review Bahá’í publications for their accuracy. By the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing in November 1921, the Bahá’í Temple Unity functioned as a “national” Bahá’í coordinating body.
Shoghi Effendi's era[edit]
In the same March 5, 1922 letter to the Bahá’ís of the world that called for the election of Local Spiritual Assemblies, Shoghi Effendi called on them to “indirectly” elect National Spiritual Assemblies. He also enumerated committees that a National Spiritual Assembly should have in order to carry out its responsibilities. “Indirect” elections referred to the process, mentioned in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, of the Bahá’ís electing one or more delegates from each locality, who would represent them at a national convention and would vote for the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly.
The 1928 issue of The Bahá’í World listed nine National Spiritual Assemblies: Persia (Iran); the United States and Canada; Germany; Great Britain and Ireland; India and Burma; Egypt; Turkistan; Caucasus; and Iraq. Of these, the Iranian body was still the “Central Spiritual Assembly” in Tehran, elected by the Bahá’ís of that community; it wasn’t until 1934 that a national Bahá’í membership list could be drawn up that allowed the election of delegates and convening of a fully representative national convention. It is possible that the Turkistan and Caucasus bodies were preliminary as well.
Beginning in the 1950's Administrative bodies were established in regions where individual countries did not have communities large enough to require a National body, for example in 1951 all of South America elected a single body, and these were called Regional or National Spiritual Assemblies interchangeably. Regional Spiritual Assemblies were gradually disbanded as the Bahá’í communities of their constituent countries developed, for example by 1963 nearly every nation of South America had an independent National Assembly. Conversely some National Spiritual Assemblies have been formed for areas which are not independent countries, such as Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. This is usually because an area is geographically separated from the rest of its nation. Sicily has an independent National Assembly because Shoghi Effendi said major islands in the Mediterranean should elect independent National Spiritual Assemblies.
Progression[edit]
Starting from three in 1923, the number of National Spiritual Assemblies increased slowly over the next thirty years; at the outset of the Ten Year Crusade in 1953, only 12 were in existence. The Ten Year Crusade, however, saw a dramatic increase in the number of Spiritual Assemblies—with a nearly fivefold increase by 1963. A further twofold increase was recorded by 1973.
| Year | Number of NSAs[2][3][4] |
|---|---|
| 1923 | 3 |
| 1928 | 9 |
| 1936 | 10 |
| Year | Number of NSAs |
|---|---|
| 1953 | 12 |
| 1963 | 56 |
| 1973 | 113 |
| Year | Number of NSAs |
|---|---|
| 1979 | 125 |
| 1988 | 148 |
| 2001 | 182 |
References[edit]
- "National Spiritual Assemblies". 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
- ↑ Hippolyte Dreyfus, The Universal Religion: Bahaism, Its Rise and Social Import (London: Cope and Fenwick, 1909), 126-51.
- ↑ Notes on Research on National Spiritual Assemblies Asia Pacific Bahá’í Studies.
- ↑ Bahá’í World Statistics 2001 by Bahá’í World Center Department of Statistics, 2001-08
- ↑ The Life of Shoghi Effendi by Helen Danesh, John Danesh and Amelia Danesh, Studying the Writings of Shoghi Effendi, edited by M. Bergsmo (Oxford: George Ronald, 1991)
