A New World Order

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A New World Order

• Within the Bahai Faith there are three levels of
  institutions organising and guiding the
  community.
• Local
• National
• International
• It is known as the Bahai administrative order,
• sometimes referred to as
• The World order of Bahaullah

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• All these institutions
• local,
• national
• and international
• are similar in form.
• All are elected by a totally secret ballot.
  There is no canvassing for votes, there are no
  manifestos and no pressure on the electorate.
  Nine members are elected to each of these
  institutions.

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• The Local Spiritual Assembly.
• The community elect nine members to serve on
  the Local Spiritual Assembly for one year.
• At the local level all Bahais aged over
  twenty one can vote. All Bahais aged over twenty
  one are also eligible for election.

Each individual votes for nine people that they
think are most suitable to serve on the
institution.
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The National Spiritual Assembly

• The National Spiritual Assembly is also
  elected annually.
• Delegates who have been elected locally, later
  meet together at a national convention to cast
  their votes in order to choose the new National
  Assembly.

Members of the 2008 National Spiritual Assembly
of the UK.
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The Universal House of Justice

• The Universal House of Justice is elected once
  every five years at an International Convention
  held in Haifa, Israel.
• All the National Spiritual Assemblies of the
  world take part in the election of the Universal
  House of Justice.

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How Bahais Vote.

• Bahais are encouraged to pray and meditate
  before voting.
• Bahais are encouraged to get to know as many
  of the members of their community as possible,
  only by doing this will they know something of
  the abilities and capacities of those
  individuals.
• After this they should then consider what nine
  people would be best able to serve together on an
  elected Institution.

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• All the votes cast are then counted and those
• with the highest number of votes go on to form
  the Institution, either,
• local,
• national
• or international.

Local
National
International
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A New World Order

• The Bahai administration is superbly
  flexible, it works all over the world in places
  wherever there are nine or more adult Bahais.
• Places as diverse as
• Los Angeles in California,
• Lerwick in the Shetland Islands,
• and villages in Botswana.
• All have working Bahai institutions.

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• Bahais meet locally every 19 days. This is the
  first level of Bahai administration. Everyone,
  no matter what age has the opportunity to consult
  about local, national and international issues
  and bring their own ideas to these meetings.
• These ideas can then, if required be passed on
  through all the administrative structures from
  local to international.
• It is not unusual for replies to come from
  the Universal House of Justice to a local
  community.

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The Universal House of Justice
The National Spiritual Assembly
The National Spiritual Assembly
This illustration shows how the individual can
send their ideas and suggestions throughout the
Bahai administrative structure and receive
answers.
The Local Spiritual Assembly
The Local Spiritual Assembly
The individual
The individual
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A New World Order

• The Bahai Faith is organised in a new way.
  There is no clergy that can preach to or tell
  the individual what to do.
• This is especially important when you consider
  the Bahai idea of the individual investigating
  truth for themselves.
• The Administrative Order is there to serve the
  community.

A group of young Baháís
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Bahaullahs New World Order

• The founder of the Bahai Faith,
  Bahaullah, compared himself to a divine
  physician and spoke about two great changes that
  had to take place to heal the illnesses of the
  human race.
• A revolution in our systems of government.
• A revolution in the spiritual lives of
  individuals.

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For just over a hundred years Bahais have been
putting in place this New World Order. Bahais
believe that this is incredibly important for the
future of all humanity. It is a whole new way
of running affairs. It is unlike any form of
government that has ever existed.
To date there are over 170 National Spiritual
Assemblies and over 17,000 Local Spiritual
Assemblies on the planet.