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January 1986: The Universal House of Justice announces the inception of the Fourth Epoch of the Formative Age

This new process, whereby the national goals of the next Plan are to be largely formulated by National Spiritual Assemblies and Boards of Counsellors, signalizes the inauguration of a new stage in the unfoldment of the Administrative Order. Our beloved Guardian anticipated a succession of epochs during the Formative Age of the Faith; we have no hesitation in recognizing that this new development in the maturation of Bahá'í institutions marks the inception of the fourth epoch of that Age. (The Universal House of Justice, A Wider Horizon, Selected Letters 1983-1992, p. 41)