ent social and cultural backgrounds. Often, differences of view
about even such elementary matters as the use of time or simple social
conventions created gaps of understanding that made communication
extremely difficult.

Initially, such problems proved stimulating as both Baha'i institutions
and individual believers struggled to find new ways of looking at
situations--new ways, indeed, of understanding important passages in the
Baha'i Writings themselves. Determined efforts were made to respond to the
guidance of the World Centre that expansion and consolidation are twin
processes that must go hand in hand. Where hoped for results did not
readily materialize, however, a measure of discouragement frequently set
in. The initial rapid rise in enrolment rates slowed markedly in many
countries, tempting some Baha'i institutions and communities to turn back
to more familiar activities and more accessible publics.

The principal effect of the setbacks, however, was that they brought home
to communities that the high expectations of the early years were in some
respects quite unrealistic. Although the easy successes of the initial
teaching activities were encouraging, they did not, by themselves, build a
Baha'i community life that could meet the needs of its new members and be
self-generating. Rather, pioneers and new believers alike faced questions
for which Baha'i experience in Western lands--or even Iran--offered few
answers. How were Local Spiritual Assemblies to be established--and once
established, how were they to function--in areas where large numbers of new
believers had joined the Cause overnight, simply on the strength of their
spiritual apprehension of its truth? How, in societies dominated by men
since the dawn of time, were women to be accorded an equal voice? How was
the education of large numbers of children to be systematically addressed
in cultural situations where poverty and illiteracy prevailed? What
priorities should guide Baha'i moral teaching, and how could these
objectives best be related to prevailing indigenous conventions? How could
a vibrant community life be cultivated that would stimulate the spiritual
growth of its members? What priorities, too, should be set with respect to
the production of Baha'i literature, particularly given the sudden
explosion that had taken place in the number of languages represented in
the community? How could the integrity of the Baha'i institution of the
Nineteen Da