Re: Scope of the House of Justice

[Smaneck]

In a message dated 1/27/2005 5:28:29 A.M. Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "In the early days of the House, that is, for the first few years, every communication was signed by the House.  The idea of the "Secretariat" came later as the number of such communications increased." Dear Ahang,   Might that not suggest that earlier House members did not have staffers to help them with these tasks?   "There is no question that both kind of communications represent the will of the House and are binding, and both are produced through the supervision of the House.  But there are differences."   Earlier you made the analogy to this practice and that of letters written on behalf of the Guardian. If what you are saying is that such decisions are binding but not infallible, are you also saying that all the interpretations made in letters on behalf of the Guardian are likewise not infallible? Because if so, there goes the bulk of our authoritative interpretations!   "One requires only 5 members of the House to approve (by initialing), while the other often requires the full membership of the House to approve and to initial. "   The more important letters signed by the Secretariat are likewise approved by all members, and often two or three drafts are made before it goes out. My understanding are that the only ones that go out with the initials of only five members are those on which the House has made an earlier ruling, and often portions of previous letters on that topic are then used.   "But how do you that when you have to produce several hundred letters a day (and whole lot more in the years to come)?  Simple:  You create a secondary body that will act as your mouthpiece, but is not burdened by the infallibility issue. "   That's an interesting theory but I wouldn't assume it to be true without the House explicitly stating something to this effect.   warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu