Institution of the Counsellors
appointed Bahá'ís, responsible for the protection and propagation of the Bahá'í Faith
The Institution of the Counsellors (Persian: مؤسسهٔ مشاورین, romanized: mošāwerīn) is the current appointed branch in the administrative system of the Baháʼí Faith. It consists of the 9 International Counsellors of the International Teaching Centre, the 90 Continental Counsellors, their Auxiliary Board Members, and assistants. The Counsellors, a respected and high-ranking position, are appointed to 5-year renewable terms, and organized into boards working on 5 continents that are coordinated by the International Teaching Centre.
The Institution of the Counsellors was created in 1968 by the Universal House of Justice to perpetuate the work done previously by the Hands of the Cause. The functions of the institution are generally "protection" from schism and "propagation", or spreading, of the religion at an international level. Members of the institution have no legislative or executive power, and do not fill the role of clergy, but they are tasked with "stimulating, counseling, and assisting" the elected institutions and Baháʼí communities generally. They fill a largely advisory and inspirational role.
The continental and international Counsellors are appointed by the Universal House of Justice, the supreme institution of the religion. Continental Counsellors appoint Auxiliary Boards, who in turn appoint assistants. When including the Hands of the Cause, the whole structure is sometimes called the 'appointed branch' of the religion, or the 'Institution of the Learned', to contrast it with the elected Spiritual Assemblies.
“Institution of the Counsellors” enters the record as appointed Bahá'ís, responsible for the protection and propagation of the Bahá'í Faith. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Institution, Counsellors and appointed can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6041137. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1968.
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