Editing Shoghi Effendi (section)

===Ministry of the Custodians===
In Shoghi Effendi's final message to the Baha'i World, dated October 1957, he named the Hands of the Cause of God, "the Chief Stewards of Baháʼu'lláh's embryonic World Commonwealth."{{cn|date=February 2025}} Following the death of Shoghi Effendi, the Baháʼí Faith was temporarily stewarded by the [[Hands of the Cause of God|Hands of the Cause]], who elected among themselves nine "[[Hands of the Cause|Custodians]]" to serve in Haifa as the head of the Faith. They oversaw the transition of the [[International Baháʼí Council]] into the [[Universal House of Justice]].{{sfn|Smith|2008|pp=176–177}} This stewardship oversaw the execution of the final years of Shoghi Effendi's ordinances of the ten year crusade (which lasted until 1963) culminating and transitioning to the election and establishment of the Universal House of Justice, at the first Baha'i World Congress in 1963.

As early as January 1959, [[Mason Remey]], one of the custodial Hands, declared that he was the second Guardian and successor to Shoghi Effendi, even though he met none of the criteria of Abdu'l-Bahá's will and had signed the Proclamations of the Hands of the Cause affirming that Shoghi Effendi had not, and could not have, appointed a successor.{{sfn|Heller|2021|p=422}}{{sfn|Johnson|2020|pp=26–27}} That summer after a conclave of the Hands in Haifa, Remey abandoned his position and moved to Washington D.C., then soon after announced his claim to absolute leadership, and attracted about 100 followers, mostly in the United States.{{sfn|Gallagher|Ashcraft|2006|p=201}} Remey was excommunicated by a unanimous decision of the remaining 26 Hands. Although initially disturbed, the mainstream Baháʼís paid little attention to his movement within a few years.