Australian Baha'i Sites

‘Advance as one’: Ridvan 2024 message released 

The international governing council of the Baha’i Faith, the Universal House of Justice, has released its Ridvan 2024 message to the Baha’is of the world, encouraging the friends to “advance as one” amid a world of “escalating tensions”. 

Read the message in its entirety here. 

In its latest message, the Universal House of Justice states that as the conditions of the world are growing “more desperate” and “its divisions more severe”, the Baha’i community must focus on building communities “that offer hope in place of despair, unity in place of conflict.” 

“We see it in every account of a heart being enkindled with the love of God, a family opening up its home to new friends, collaborators drawing on Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to address a social problem, a community strengthening a culture of mutual support, a neighbourhood or village learning to initiate and sustain the actions necessary for its own spiritual and material progress, a locality being blessed with the emergence of a new Spiritual Assembly.” 

The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2024

The message places emphasis on the role of youth in building vibrant communities, stating that while “All must surge, the youth must soar.”

The Universal House of Justice releases a message to the Baha’is of the world every Ridvan. The Ridvan festival is celebrated for 12 days at the end of April and beginning of May and marks the anniversary of the days Baha’u’llah spent along the River Tigris in Baghdad. It was here He announced to the friends gathered with Him that He was God’s Messenger for a new age, foretold in the world’s scriptures. He called the garden in which they were gathered “Ridvan”, meaning “paradise”.

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The Universal House of Justice

The Universal House of Justice is the international governing council of the Baha’i Faith. Ordained by Baha’u’llah in His book of laws, the Kitab-i-Aqdas, it is a nine-member body elected every five years by the entire membership of all national Baha’i assemblies. 

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Published in April, 2024, in Baha'i Institutions > Guidance

Available online at: horizons.bahai.org.au/bahai-institutions/advance-as-one-ridvan-2024-message-released/

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