Editing Mason Remey (section)

==Claim to Guardianship, 1960–1974==
As early as January 1959, Remey believed that he was the second Guardian and successor to Shoghi Effendi.{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=26-27}} According to Remey, this idea developed gradually since the first conclave of the Hands, and at the second conclave (November 1958) he warned the others that they were violating the Covenant by not allowing the continuation of the Guardianship.{{sfn|Stockman|1995}} At the third conclave (November 1959), Remey refused to sign the joint statement of the Hands, which was converting the International Council from an appointed to an elected body, an act that would end his position as president.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=69}} He then abandoned his position, moved to Washington, and began to circulate the claim that he should be recognized as the second Guardian.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=69}}

===Proclamation===
In April 1960, Remey wrote an announcement that he was the successor to Shoghi Effendi, and requested that it be read at the upcoming national convention. In his cover letter to Charles Wolcott, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, he wrote,{{sfn|Schlatter|2005|pp=54–55}}
{{blockquote
|text=Enclosed I send you my Proclamation of my Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.
...
If it be the wish of the convention that I go to the Wilmette at this time to meet the Baha'is of America and further proclaim, declare and explain my status for life as commander in chief of Baha'i affairs of the world as I was appointed to do by our late Beloved Guardian as the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, I will be very pleased indeed to meet the convention.
Should the convention wish this, let them send three believers of their choice to Washington bringing me their invitation to come to them – these three representatives of the convention to usher me to the convention in waiting for me...
}}

Remey believed his appointment as president of the international council represented an appointment by Shoghi Effendi as Guardian, because the appointed council was a precursor to the elected Universal House of Justice.{{sfn|Warburg|2006|p=206}} In his intended announcement at the convention, he wrote,{{sfn|Schlatter|2005|pp=56–63}}
{{blockquote
|text=The Beloved Guardian singled me, Mason Remey, out from amongst all of the Believers upon earth to occupy the position of President of the Baha'i International Council. This is the only position suggestive of authority that Shoghi Effendi ever bestowed upon anyone, the only special and specific appointment of authority to any man ever made by him.
The Beloved Guardian declared the Baha'i International Council to be the forerunner of and the first step toward the establishment of the Universal House of Justice...
...
Therefore, inasmuch as The Beloved Guardian in His Infallibility has thus placed me in command of the Faith... I can do nothing but assume my place that he has given me with all of the responsibilities, the prerequisites and emoluments that go with this position...
}}

Remey wrote that his delay in announcing his status was to give others "ample time to discover for themselves", but "until now no one, other than I have discovered that such authority was vested in me".{{sfn|Schlatter|2005|p=61}} He claimed in the proclamation that he made the declaration as Guardian to the Hands previously (which they claimed was false{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=29}}), and that he had "definitely known for the past twelve years more or less".{{sfn|Schlatter|2005|p=61}} He said that,{{sfn|Schlatter|2005|p=61}} 
{{blockquote
|text=All these plans of the Hands of the Faith for 1963 that are so absorbing and confusing to the people of the Faith must be dropped and stopped immediately. I am the only one who can command this situation so I have arisen to do so for I alone in all this world have been given the authority and the power to accomplish this.
...
I now command the Hands of the Faith to stop all of their preparations for 1963 and furthermore I command all believers... to immediately cease cooperating with and giving support to this fallacious program for 1963.
}}

===Expulsion===

His letter to the convention was refused. After a brief attempt at reconciliation and some hesitation among the Hands, he was declared a [[Covenant-breaker]] by all 26 remaining Hands of the Cause on 26 July 1960, along with anyone actively supporting his claims.{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=26,33}}{{sfn|Rabbani|1992|p=223}} Almost the whole Baháʼí world rejected his claim, which did not even address the requirements that Guardians be descendants of Baha'u'llah — making him ineligible — and that appointments must be clearly confirmed by the nine resident Hands of the Cause in Haifa.{{sfn|Adamson|2009|pp=124–125}}{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=45}}

Remey gained very little support around the world, and himself noted that "almost the entire Baha'i world" rejected his claim.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=69}} He sent his proclamation to other National Spiritual Assemblies, and a majority of the one in France accepted him.{{sfn|Stockman|1995}} The 11 other extant National Assemblies rejected him. He gained supporters mostly from the United States,{{sfn|Smith|2000|p=292}} but also in parts of Europe, Pakistan (mostly in [[Faisalabad]] and [[Sialkot]]{{sfn|Fareed|2015|p=130}}), and in [[Lucknow]], India.{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=40}} Estimates of Remey's initial following range from 15,{{sfn|Adamson|2009|p=404}} to 100,{{sfn|Brachear|2009}} to 150,{{sfn|Gallagher|Ashcraft|2006|p=201}} to several hundred<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Melton |last2=Baumann |date=2010 |title=Religions of the world : a comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/711782366 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |others=J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann|isbn=978-1-59884-204-3 |edition=2 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|pages=262|oclc=711782366}}</ref> individuals.

The Hands sent [[Abu'l-Qásim Faizi]] to France as their representative, with specific instructions to dissolve the National Assembly and call for a new election.<ref>[https://www.bahai-encyclopedia-project.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:hands-of-the-cause-of-god&catid=36:administrationinstitutions Hands of the Cause of God]</ref>

Although initially disturbed, the mainstream Baháʼís paid little attention to his movement within a few years.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=71}}{{sfn|Gallagher|Ashcraft|2006|p=201}} The Universal House of Justice was elected in 1963, and the Custodians officially passed their authority as the head of the Faith to the Universal House of Justice,{{sfn|Smith|2000|p=117}} which soon announced that it did not have the power to appoint or legislate to make possible the appointment of a second Guardian to succeed Shoghi Effendi.{{sfn|Warburg|2006|p=206}}{{sfn|Smith|2000|pp=346–350}}

===Consolidation===

Remey wrote three letters to his supporters soon after his excommunication, sharing his belief that "the only true and legitimate Baha'is are those now serving under the Second Guardian of the Faith."{{sfn|Johnson|2020|pp=35–36}} He initially called his sect the Orthodox Baha'is Under the Hereditary Guardianship.{{sfn|Smith|2000}}

Remey settled in Florence, Italy, until the end of his life. From there he appointed three local spiritual assemblies in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]], [[Rawalpindi|Rawalpindi, Pakistan]], and [[Lucknow|Lucknow, India]], then organized the election of two National Assemblies in 1963 – in the United States and Pakistan.{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=40}}

In 1964 the Santa Fe assembly filed a lawsuit against the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of the Baháʼís of the United States to receive the legal title to the Baháʼí House of Worship in Illinois, and all other property owned by the NSA. The NSA counter-sued and won.{{sfn|No. 64 C 1878|1966}} The Santa Fe assembly lost the right to use the term "Baháʼí" in printed material. Remey then changed the name of his sect from "Baháʼís Under the Hereditary Guardianship" to "Abha World Faith" and also referred to it as the "Orthodox Faith of Baháʼu'lláh" or "Orthodox Abha World Faith",{{sfn|Melton|2012}}{{sfn|Barrett|2001|p=247}} and himself as the "Guardian of the Orthodox Baha'is".{{sfn|Warburg|2006|p=206}} In 1966, Remey asked the Santa Fe assembly to dissolve, as well as the second International Baháʼí Council that he had appointed with Joel Marangella, residing in France, as president.{{sfn|Johnson|2020|pp=40–42}}{{sfn|Stockman|1995}}

===Fracturing===

Beginning in 1966–67, Remey was abandoned by almost all of his followers,{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=44}} and his movement began to weaken and decline rapidly.{{sfn|Fareed|2015}} Besides dissolving the institutions that he had organized, Remey began focusing on impending global catastrophe and criticizing Shoghi Effendi.

In the late 1940s, he expressed his belief that nuclear war would destroy much of the world, and by the 1960s he stated publicly that the Earth's axis would tilt and produce global floods. He encouraged his followers to move to high ground in the [[Rocky Mountains]] to avoid the imminent floods.{{sfn|Balch|1983|p=131}} These beliefs were the foundation of why he deposited copies of his memoirs in several prominent libraries in 1940, to ensure that a set would survive.{{sfn|Stockman|1995}}

In 1966 he became very critical of Shoghi Effendi. In a letter that year he reasoned that Shoghi Effendi had been practicing the religion of the Báb, and that,{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=43}}

{{blockquote
|text=The first Guardian of the Faith so construed the Master Abdu'l Baha's Will and Testament that he formed his Administration upon the Babi Faith and not upon the Baha'i Faith. This mistake has caused so much confusion and misunderstanding and trouble that the only thing for the second Guardian to do, to set matters aright, is to discard all which Shoghi Effendi did and to institute a New Faith which shall be the Orthodox Faith under the Holy Name of ABHA in order to carry out the conditions that will lead to the establishment of the TRUE Baha'i Faith (of Baha'u'llah) which Faith has not yet been established in the world.
}}

In a further letter the following year, Remey again repeated that, "the First Guardian Shoghi Effendi built his Administration about the Babi Faith and not about the Baha'i Faith. Shoghi Effendi was a very confused soul. He was an ego maniac. He flaunted and disobeyed the laws of the Aqdas and created all this confusion himself."{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=44}}

These ideas came as a surprise to Remey's small band of followers, and nearly all of them abandoned him. They were not organized until several of them began forming their own groups based on different understandings of succession, even before his death in 1974.{{sfn|Barrett|2001}}{{sfn|Warburg|2006|p=206}} The majority of them claimed that Remey was showing signs of senility.{{sfn|Johnson|2020|p=44}} The number of people who recognized his claim had greatly diminished by the time of his death.{{sfn|Momen|Smith|1989}}

===Burial===
From 1962, Remey resided in Florence, Italy, and died there on 4 February 1974, at the age of 99.{{sfn|Johns Hopkins University|2021}} Having been abandoned by all of his followers, he was buried by his non-Baháʼí secretary without religious ceremony in Florence.{{sfn|Adamson|2009}}{{sfn|Stockman|1995}}{{sfn|Johnson|2020|pp=56–57}} His obituary in the ''Washington Star'' accidentally gave his name as '''George''' Mason Remey.{{sfn|Fairfax Genealogical Society|2021}}