When there are nine or more Bahà'is over the age of maturity (21 years in the Bahà'i Faith) living in a local area, a Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) of nine members is elected by the confidential and democratic ballot of all adult Bahà'is in that area.

The election takes place on April 21st each year, this being an important day within the Bahà'i calendar.

Since the LSA is a registered charity in York, the nine elected members are officially ``company directors''. Their function is to meet together to conduct the affairs of the community for the year. This they do by prayerful consultation. In difficult cases, a majority vote will be accepted by the community as being the final decision (trusting in God to guide matters in the best possible way), or the matter may be referred to the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA), or other appropriate bodies.

The LSA will endeavour to guide and encourage all members of the community. It will organise events to promote the Faith (e.g. public talks, exhibitions, etc), or events such as the International Meal (organised by the Bahà'is of York for over 20 years), or a programme of spiritual readings and discussion for the World Religion Day in January every year.

The local Bahà'i community, both collectively and individually, are encouraged to develop awareness of the principles of their faith (there are no clergy or churches in our religious organisation) and to put these tenets into action with services of all kinds among the Bahà'i and non-Bahà'i friends, such as supporting local and national organisations (e.g. United Nations Association, Agenda 21, Interfaith Group, etc, to mention but a few!).

York has had an LSA for over 40 years, often suffering against apparently impossible odds! Since Bahà'is are expected to work to provide for their material needs and to the Bahà'i fund (which only Bahà'is may contribute to), most Bahà'is soon move on from York to seek work. Most of the Bahà'is who have remained in York have been or are employed in the Health Service.

The LSA tries to meet, on average, once a fortnight. In between there will be the (spititual) `feasts' (every 19 days) to attend as well as any day schools, talks or events arranged by our own community, or any other Bahà'i community, that we can support in their efforts.