Three Year Plan (1993-1996)

Three Year Plan (1993-1996)
Epoch	Fourth Epoch
Coordinator	Universal House of Justice
Protagonists	All National Spiritual Assemblies

Divine Plan

Shoghi Effendi

First Epoch (1937-1963)

1st Seven Year Plan (1937-1944) Indian Six Year Plan (1938-1944) British Six Year Plan (1944-1950) 2nd Seven Year Plan (1946-1953) Indian 4½ Year Plan (1946-1950) Persian 45 Month Plan (1946-1950) Persian Women's Four Year Plan (1946-1950) Australian Six Year Plan (1947-1953) Canadian Five Year Plan (1948-1953) Egyptian Five Year Plan (1948-1953) German Five Year Plan (1948-1953) African Campaign (1950-1953) Iraqi Three Year Plan (1950-1953) British Two Year Plan (1951-1953) Indian Nineteen Month Plan (1951-1953) South American Two Year Plan (1951-1953) Central American One Year Plan (1952-1953) Ten Year Crusade (1953-1963) Northeast Asian Six Year Plan (1957-1963)

Universal House of Justice

Second Epoch (1964-2021)

Nine Year Plan (1964-1973) Five Year Plan (1974-1979) Seven Year Plan (1979-1986) Six Year Plan (1986-1992) Three Year Plan (1993-1996) Four Year Plan (1996-2000) Twelve Month Plan (2000-2001) Five Year Plan (2001-2006) Five Year Plan (2006-2011) Five Year Plan (2011-2016) Five Year Plan (2016-2021)

Third Epoch (2021-)

Twelve Month Plan (2021-2022) Nine Year Plan (2022-2031)

The Three Year Plan from 1993 to 1996 was one of a series of Plans carried out under the guidance of the Universal House of Justice.

The focus of the Plan was on encouraging and nurturing individual Bahá’ís, increasing the active human resources of the Faith, and developing Bahá’í institutions. Accomplishments of the Plan included an increase in teaching activity and pioneering, progress in developing the World Centre in the Holy Land, developing deepening programs, strengthening children's classes, and establishing training institutes.

History

Prelude to the Plan

In its November 26, 1991, message to the Bahá’í world the Universal House of Justice announced that a Three Year Plan would be launched during the Seventh International Convention in 1993. The message also announced that the national goals for the plan would be set through consultation between Continental Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies and made the following comment regarding its length:

The unusual character and rapidity of developments both inside and outside the Faith signify the necessity for a short, flexible plan attuned to the dynamic nature of the times.

In the 1992 Riḍván message the Universal House of Justice wrote:

How laudable it would be if, imbued by this desire to blazon abroad His Name, and as a demonstration of our special love for the Abhá Beauty, we could each of us mount a personal campaign of teaching, such that the collective force and results of it throughout the world would bring to a resounding conclusion the sacred exercises of this Holy Year and set the stage for the launching of the impending Three Year Plan at Riḍván 1993!

In a September 30, 1992, message the Universal House of Justice advised National Spiritual Assemblies to begin consultations to formulate specific goals to pursue during the Three Year Plan and identified three main themes to be pursued which were:

• Enhancing the vitality of the faith of individual believers.
• Greatly developing the human resources of the Cause.
• Fostering the proper functioning of local and national institutions.

The message also advised continued use of the seven objectives of the preceding Plan as the framework for consultation on national plans which were as follows:

• Carrying the healing Message of Bahá’u’lláh to the generality of mankind
• Greater involvement of the Faith in the life of human society
• A worldwide increase in the translation, production, distribution and use of Bahá’í literature
• Further acceleration in the process of the maturation of local and national Bahá’í communities
• Greater attention to universal participation and the spiritual enrichment of individual believers
• A wider extension of Bahá’í education to children and youth, and the strengthening of Bahá’í family life
• The pursuit of projects of social and economic development in well-established Bahá’í communities.

In addition the Universal House of Justice issued an appeal for the Bahá’í community to raise seventy-four million dollars during the Plan for the construction of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb, and invited National Spiritual Assemblies to formulate potential goals themselves to be submitted to the World Centre for consideration.

Execution of the Plan

In a June 24, 1993, message the Universal House of Justice announced a new approach to pioneering would be employed during the Three Year Plan writing:

It has become apparent that, with the growth of the Bahá’í world and the increased mobility of the friends, new methods are required for advising and routing pioneers. The pioneering call for the Three Year Plan therefore assumes a character different from that to which the friends have been accustomed and will, we confidently expect, permit a far more fruitful use of the energies and devotion of the friends.

In a May 19, 1994, message to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States the Universal House of Justice made the following recommendation:

A new burst of energy would accrue to the operation of the Three Year Plan if the friends, both individually and collectively, could feel a greater sense of freedom to engage in a wide range of activities originating with themselves. Even if you are doing nothing deliberately to discourage such freedom, their accumulated impression of institutional disapproval, however derived, and their fear of criticism are, to a considerable extent, inhibiting their exercise of initiative.

In the 1995 Riḍván message the Universal House of Justice made the following observation regarding the progress of the Plan:

Even more thrilling than the leap in external affairs activities at local and national levels are the evidences of a qualitative change in the response of believers everywhere to the call to teach. A deeper understanding of this inescapable, individual duty is implied by the rise in teaching activity, a heartening situation resulting from several stimulating factors which all together augur well for the long-awaited influx of troops of new believers.

Factors contributing to the above listed in the Riḍván message are:

• Attention being given to the compilation Entry by Troops.
• Movement of International and Continental Counselors across the world.
• Evolution in the functioning of Auxiliary Board members and assistants.
• Emphasis being placed on the education of children.
• Vigor of the youth in initiating teaching projects and engaging in a range of Bahá’í activities.

In a December 31, 1995, message the Universal House of Justice made the following comment about the approach of the end of the Plan:

An auspicious beginning for the new Plan will largely depend on the results of the current one, which will end in just a few months. The adequacy of these results will owe much to the degree to which the Local Spiritual Assemblies and the friends carry out the directions of their National Spiritual Assemblies, the generals of every Plan. Time is slipping away. This reality should prod us all to maximum action. Hence, in preparation for what beckons us on the near horizon, we cannot, we must not, hesitate to expend every energy to bring the Three Year Plan to a successful conclusion. The urgency which intensifies our desire for such an outcome is not merely pride of victory, gratifying as that may be. There are divine deadlines to be met. Our work is intended not only to increase the size and consolidate the foundations of our community, but more particularly to exert a positive influence on the affairs of the entire human race. At so crucial a moment in world affairs, we must not fail in our duty to take timely action on the goals set before us in the Three Year Plan.

Outcome of the Plan

In the 1996 Riḍván message the Universal House of Justice reviewed the achievements of the Three Year Plan. Some of those listed were:

• Progress of construction projects on Mount Carmel.
• Seventy-four million dollars raised for the construction of Terraces for the Shrine of the Báb.
• Formation of twelve National Spiritual Assemblies.
• General increase in teaching activity.
• High number of pioneers.
• Collective teaching and well-focused long-term teaching projects more fruitful and evident than ever before in a number of countries.

In the message the Universal House of Justice commended the International Teaching Centre writing the following:

The energy and creativity attendant to the various developments in expansion and consolidation owed much to the spirit of enterprise shown by the International Teaching Centre. Its constant direction and encouragement of the Continental Boards of Counselors; its recommendation of new methods for the deployment of pioneers, as endorsed by the Universal House of Justice in the pioneer call released in the early months of the Plan, and its regular assistance to the Continental Pioneer Committees placed in its charge; its unflagging attention to the educational needs of the community as expressed in its interactions with Counselors concerning the inclusion in teaching projects of deepening programs for new believers, the devising of courses and workshops for training in different capacities, the training of children’s teachers, and the multiplication of children’s classes; its stimulation of efforts to establish training institutes in different parts of the world—all have produced resounding results. Major credit must also go to the Teaching Center for the influence it exerted through the Counselors on the adoption of core literature programs in an increasing number of countries.