Teaching institute

See also: Training institute

Participants assembled at a teaching institute in the Chaco region of Paraguay, 1973.

A teaching institute, sometimes simply an institute, was a type of educational gathering held to impart knowledge about the Bahá’í Faith and related topics, with the goal of helping Bahá’ís to be of service to their communities. The term was also used to refer to quarters used for these events, especially in the case of purpose-built structures; however, the Universal House of Justice noted that an "institute" referred to a function, and not necessarily a building.

Beginning with the Ten Year Crusade in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bahá’í communities around the world experienced a rapid rise in enrollments as teaching efforts bore fruit. This influx of new believers necessitated the development of methods of deepening and consolidating their knowledge of Bahá’í teachings and beliefs, and of helping them to arise to serve their communities in various ways, including participation in continued teaching efforts. Thus, in addition to the seasonal schools which had existed for some time, events known as "teaching institutes" began to be held. They would bring together many individual Bahá’ís, who were often scattered across large areas, for joint study in a central location. Topics studied at teaching institutes included Bahá’í history, laws, teachings, and administrative order. Emphasis was put on common elements of Bahá’í life, such as teaching, prayer, fasting, Nineteen Day Feasts, elections, and the Bahá’í funds.

Teaching institutes figured prominently in the early Plans set forth by the Universal House of Justice shortly after its establishment, beginning in 1964 with the Nine-Year Plan. They were eventually superseded by training institutes, which became the focus of Plans beginning in the mid-1990s.

Purpose

The teaching institute was a grassroots affiliation of believers meant to teach the Faith to others and bring those individuals into the teaching institute process to perpetuate the activity in a sustainable way. It was meant to link the processes of expansion of the Bahá’í community through the enrollment of new believers with the consolidation of those new believers, and focused on "the individual's role in teaching". A core group was envisioned as meeting regularly for prayer and study, carrying forward a process of individual and collective education as well as the empowerment of individuals, the development of their capacities for service to the Cause.

Although a teaching institute might acquire a building at some point (at which some formal Bahá'í classes might be taught), this was not seen as a necessary component; they were considered to be "more than a mere building or a single activity".

Methods

The activities of a teaching institute were to consist of the following:

1. Spiritual preparation: prayer, memorization of passages from the Writings, study of the Writings about teaching, and deepening.
2. Teaching: process of action (teaching between meetings), and reflection (consultation on what worked, what still needs to be done, and what course of action to follow in the future).
3. Materials for expansion: Use of the Word of God and of other materials adaptation of existing materials or development of new materials based on the needs of the group of people the institute is trying to teach.

Origins

Members of Area National Teaching Committees gathered for a "conference institute" in Wilmette, USA.

While 'Abdu'l-Bahá's call for meetings for teaching occurred much earlier and the experimentation with teaching institutes is seen in Bahá'í documents as an instrument or part of an instrument conceived earlier by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, it was only later that the specific formulation of a teaching institute proper developed.

In February of 1950, members of Area National Teaching Committees assembled in Wilmette, Illinois for a gathering that would set a pattern for teaching institutes throughout the United States. Participants at this "Conference Institute", as it was called, studied materials prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly with the aim of deepening their understanding of the Covenant and the Bahá'í Administrative Order.

The effectiveness of this gathering became the subject of much discussion at the 1950 National Convention. Recommendations were made that the materials and methods it used be made "the bedrock of the teaching plan for the coming year", and that similar methods be used to prepare American pioneers to Latin America. These institute gatherings were eventually developed into a key element of the Two Year Plan of Preparation launched by the American National Spiritual Assembly to prepare the American Bahá’í community for the Ten Year Crusade. In a message announcing the Plan, the Spiritual Assembly described institutes as being "designed to prepare the individual soul, to give each individual the knowledge of the meaning of God's Covenant; quicken each soul through God's Creative Word; to orient each soul within the Bahá’í Community."

Spread of teaching institutes

A 1970 teaching institute gathering in Agoue, Benin, with Ruhiyyih Khanum in attendance (seated, right).

In its message of Ridván 1964 announcing the goals of the Nine Year Plan, the Universal House of Justice called for the establishment of thirty-two teaching institutes around the world.

Permanent quarters

Teaching institutes were held in a variety of locations. Although the Universal House of Justice did encourage National Spiritual Assemblies to acquire permanent quarters for their teaching institutes, it also noted that "such an Institute is a function and not necessarily a building", and that the work of teaching institutes could proceed in any place where the required number of teachers could be supported, such as in local Bahá’í centres or hired quarters. In certain areas, however, they suggested the acquisition or construction of a "modest structure...to obviate transportation expenses for those attending", specifically mentioning rural mass teaching areas.

Examples of Institute quarters around the world

• 
  Madina, Papua New Guinea
• 
  Otavalo, Ecuador
• 
  Kibamba, Tanzania
• 
  Kidapawan, Philippines
• 
  Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, Canada

Development of training institutes

Main article: Training institute

The modern concept of the training institute arose during preparations for the Four Year Plan, when the Universal House of Justice called for Baha'i communities to focus on the systematic development of human resources on a large scale, noting that this required "that the establishment of institutes be viewed in a new light". They referred to the teaching institutes that had arisen around the world as

“ organizational structures dedicated to systematic training... to endow ever-growing contingents of believers with the spiritual insights, the knowledge, and the skills needed to carry out the many tasks of accelerated expansion and consolidation, including the teaching and deepening of a large number of people... ” — Universal House of Justice

See also

• Training institute
• Meeting for teaching