Mason Remey
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Charles Mason Remey (May 15 1874-1974) was the second Guardian a shism of the Bahá'ís called the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith. His claim was disputed by the Bahá'í majority. Born in Burlington, Iowa he was the eldest son of Rear Admiral George Collier Remey, U.S.N., and. Mary Josephine Mason Remey (daughter of Charles Mason, the first Chief Justice of Iowa).
Remey became a Baha'i in Paris in 1899, at the age of 25 having previously been active in the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement. An Washington DC based architect trained at Cornell and the cole des Arts in Paris, Remey rapidly rose in prominance in the early American Baha'i Community. He was appointed a Hand of the Cause of God of the Baha'i Faith by its head, Shoghi Effendi, and was chosen to design the Bahá'í House of Worship to be built at the Baha'i World Center in Haifa, Israel. He was the principle designer for the Baha'i Houses of Worship of Kampala, Uganda and Sydney, Australia. Later he was appointed to the First International Bahai Council which Shoghi Effendi proclaimed to be the embryonic Universal House of Justice. Remey was appointed by Shoghi Effendi to be the President of the International Baha'i Council.
When Shoghi Effendi passed away in 1957, the Hands of the Cause determined that there could never be another Guardian. Remey signed a unanimous declaration of the Hands that Shoghi Effendi had left no will, and that there was no one of the blood line that he could have appointed. Remey himself laid down his claim to the Guardianship in 1960. Given that he did not renounce his attempt, the Hands of the Cause of God decided to expel him from the Faith for violating the Covenant. There is great disagreement among the Orthodox and the larger group as to the meaning of the document. The present Guardian of the Orthodox Baha'i Faith maintains he could even sign the document today, as it is maintained by those who obey Mason Remey that it merely stated no written appointment had been made. As to the claim that there could never be another Guardian, Rúhíyyih Khanum, the wife of Shoghi Effendi, in her book, the Custodians, said that Mason Remey did maintain throughout the Conclave, that the Hands should be searching and looking for a new Guardian. The council of the hands called for the election of the Universal House of Justice which presently governs those who followed the Hands.
Mason Remey in 1960 claimed that Shoghi Effendi had appointed him to be the second Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith in the life-time of Shoghi Effendi by means of his appointment as President of the not yet activated embryonic Universal House of Justice. He stated that only the Guardian could be the President of the Universal House of Justice and that with the death of Shoghi Effendi, the full Presidency of that House had passed to him. Those that followed Mason Remey became known as the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith.
Mason Remey had been declared a Covenant-Breaker in 1960 and his small fellowship today are shunned by the larger Bahá'í group. (See also: Bahá'í Faith)
His period of service as the Second Guardian of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith was from 1957 to October 1965. In 1964 Mason Remey appointed Joel Bray Marangella President of the Second International Bahai Council, and then activated the Council in October 1965 thereby making its President the third Guardian of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith. Mason Remey died in 1974, at the age of 100.
The appointment of Marangella is disputed by a few within their ranks. See Minor Baha'i divisions for more information
See also
- Bahá'í Faith who dispute Mason Remey's claim to Guardianship.