A rich consultation sharing direct insights from the ground

Delegates at the 2026 National Baha’i Convention have remarked on this year’s rich consultations that are providing insights into the learning and experience generated across neighbourhoods all over Australia. 

According to one delegate, there hadn’t been as much focus on suggestions and recommendations to the national governing body of the Baha’i Faith, the National Spiritual Assembly, as had been the case in previous conventions.

 “It’s not so much anymore that we need to lean on the institutions or the National Spiritual Assembly for the sake of growth,” he said. “There’s a sense that the learning is being generated and it’s a matter of putting it into practice.” 

One delegate remarked on the maturation of the consultations over the years while another said there had been a “very rich consultation” at the Convention with everyone addressing the “key pressing elements” related to how to progress the community-building efforts particularly as the country entered the second phase of the Nine Year Plan – a concerted worldwide campaign that aims to advance the social, spiritual and intellectual affairs of society.

The consultations looked at how communities are contributing to social transformation, how families are coming together to contribute to the wellbeing of their neighbourhoods, how educational processes are driving growth, and how communities are collaborating with civic leaders to bring about the vision of unity.

“Everyone has been right on point and consulting based on their experience,” she said. “The consultation is settled; the plan is understood. Everyone is on the same page.” 

One delegate said consultation in Baha’i spaces was always about the collective and moving forward as a community. 

“Baha’is are considering the whole, the collective, the whole body.” 

She said she was eager to take the questions from Convention back to her community to help guide the local community-building endeavours and connect everyone with the Nine Year Plan.

One delegate added that he had noticed a “stark difference” in the level of contributions at this year’s Convention. “The hearing of expeiences and insights have been remarkable and these insights are transferable skills and learning that we can take to our community.”

Member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for Australasia, Dr Vahid Saberi, echoed the delegates’ sentiments, stating that “this convention is different”, with the capacity to learn and share made manifest through the “sharing of direct experience”. 

“You’re focused on grassroots action,” he said. “It’s the grassroots action that drives the process forward and generates the experience and the learning.”