Mason Remey

Charles Mason Remey (15 May 1874 — 4 February 1974) was a prominent early member of the Baháʼí Faith in America, and served in several important administrative capacities. He is well-known for an attempted schism of 1960 in which he claimed leadership and was rejected by the overwhelming majority of Baháʼís.[1][2] He was supported by a small but widespread group of Baháʼís,[3] mostly in the United States, who were excommunicated from the mainstream Baháʼí community.

Early Western Baháʼí pilgrims. Standing left to right: Mason Remey, Sigurd Russell, Edward Getsinger and Laura Clifford Barney; Seated left to right: Ethel Jenner Rosenberg, Madam Jackson, Shoghi Effendi, Helen Ellis Cole, Lua Getsinger, Emogene Hoagg

Remey came from a distinguished family and was among the first Baháʼís of the United States. He was a contemporary of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, one of the faith's three central figures, and traveled around the world as a teacher of the faith.[4] In 1951 he was appointed by Shoghi Effendi as a Hand of the Cause, and later as the president of the International Baháʼí Council. When Shoghi Effendi died in 1957, he was elected as one of nine Custodians to oversee the administration of the international Bahá’í community.

In 1960 Remey declared himself to be the second Guardian of the Baháʼí faith,[1] and expected the allegiance of the world's Baháʼís.[5] Though his claim was rejected by all the other Hands of the Cause due to his lack of scriptural authority,[6] it gained the support of a small group of Baháʼís and resulted in the largest schism in the history of the religion, with a few groups still holding a belief that Remey was the successor of Shoghi Effendi. Various dated references show membership at less than a hundred each in two of the surviving groups.[7][8]

Early life

Born in Burlington, Iowa, on May 15, 1874, Remey was the eldest son of Rear Admiral George Collier Remey and Mary Josephine Mason Remey, the daughter of Charles Mason, the first Chief Justice of Iowa.[9] Remey's parents raised him in the Episcopal Church.[10] Remey trained as an architect at Cornell University (1893–1896), and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France (1896–1903) where he converted to the Baháʼí Faith in 1899.[3] He was introduced to the Baháʼí Faith by May Maxwell the mother of Rúhíyyih Khánum.[11]

As a Baháʼí

In the American Baháʼí Community, Remey became prominent as an author, public speaker, and administrator. Remey traveled extensively to promote the Baháʼí Faith during the ministry of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi recorded that Remey and his Baháʼí companion, Howard Struven, were the first Baháʼís to circle the globe teaching the religion.[12]

A prolific writer, Remey wrote numerous published and personal articles promoting the Baháʼí Faith, including many works Remey produced while ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was still alive. Remey's life was recorded in his diaries, and in 1940 he provided copies and selected writings to several public libraries. Included in most of the collections were the letters ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote to him.[13]

Architectural designs

With a background in architecture, Remey designed the International Archives Building[14] and the Ugandan and Australian Baháʼí Houses of Worship, which still stand today.[3] Remey also created a design for a future Baháʼí Temple on Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel, which was approved by Shoghi Effendi. A photo of that model can be found in Baha'i World vol. XII,[15] p. 548.

Marriage

According to Juliet Thompson's diary, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá suggested that she marry Remey, and in 1909 asked her how she felt about it: "He told me He loved Mason Remey so much, and He loved me so much that he wished us to marry." They did not marry, although Thompson anguished over her decision, which she felt would cause ʻAbdu'l-Baha disappointment.[16] In 1932 he married Gertrude Heim Klemm Mason (1887-1933), who subsequently died a year later.[13]

Appointments by Shoghi Effendi

Remey lived for some time in Washington, D.C., in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950 Remey moved his residence from Washington, D.C., to Haifa, Israel, at the request of Shoghi Effendi. In January 1951, Shoghi Effendi issued a proclamation announcing the formation of the International Baháʼí Council (IBC), representing the first international Baháʼí body. The council was intended to be a forerunner to the Universal House of Justice, the supreme ruling body of the Baháʼí Faith.[17][18] Remey was appointed president of the council in March 1951, with Amelia Collins as vice-president,[17][19] then in December 1951 Remey was appointed a Hand of the Cause.[3][20] A further announcement in March 1952 appointed several more officers to the Council and Rúhíyyih Khánum as the liaison between the Council and the Guardian.[21]

After Shoghi Effendi
Main article: Baháʼí divisions

When Shoghi Effendi died in 1957, Remey and the other Hands of the Cause met in a private conclave at Bahjí in Haifa, and determined that he had not appointed a successor. During this conclave the Hands of the Cause decided that the situation of the Guardian having died without being able to appoint a successor was a situation not dealt with in the texts that define the Baháʼí administration, and that it would need to be reviewed and adjudicated upon by the Universal House of Justice, which hadn't been elected yet.[22] Remey signed a unanimous declaration of the Hands that Shoghi Effendi had died "without having appointed his successor".[23]

Remey's announcement and expulsion

Three years later, in 1960, Remey made a written announcement that his appointment as president of the international council represented an appointment by Shoghi Effendi as Guardian,[24] because the appointed council was a precursor to the elected Universal House of Justice, which has the Guardian as its president.

He also attempted to usurp the control of the Faith which the Hands had themselves assumed at the passing of Shoghi Effendi stating:

It is from and through the Guardianship that infallibility is vested and that the Hands of the Faith receive their orders ... I now command the Hands of the Faith to stop all of their preparations for 1963, and furthermore I command all believers both as individual Baháʼís and as assemblies of Baháʼís to immediately cease cooperating with and giving support to this fallacious program for 1963.[25]

He claimed to believe that the Guardianship was an institution intended to endure forever, and that he was the 2nd Guardian by virtue of his appointment to the IBC. Almost the whole Baháʼí world rejected his claim, although he gained the support of a small group of Baháʼís.[3] One of the most notable exceptions to accept his claim were several members of the French National Spiritual Assembly, led by Joel Marangella, who elected to support Remey. The Assembly was consequently disbanded by the Hands. The remaining 26 Hands of the Cause, after several efforts at reconciliation with Remey, unanimously declared him a Covenant-breaker and expelled him from the Baháʼí community.[26] Remey responded that he, believing to be the Guardian, is the only one allowed to identify a Covenant-breaker, and that those who opposed him were Covenant-breakers.[27]

The 1960s

Remey writes in his Daily observations, In the meeting of the Hands on November 20, 1957, Rehmatullah Muhajir, the Persian Hand, proposed that the Will and Testament of the Master, Abdu'l Baha be pronounced BADA (God changing His plan) and that the Guardianship be ended forever. This was immediately supported by all the Persian Hands who spoke supporting this motion, each repeating practically word by word the same argument.It was suggested by Ugo Giachery that the matter was decided beforehand during night-hours when these Persian hands met at Bahji. Since Ruhiyyih Khanum was with the Persian hands, majority of the hands approved the suggestion.[28][29]

Initially, Remey had about 100 followers in Pakistan, India, the United States, and parts of Europe. He settled in Florence, Italy, until the end of his life. From there he appointed three local spiritual assemblies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and Lucknow, India, then organized the election of two National Assemblies - in the united states and Pakistan.[30]

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.[31] 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". 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.[32]

Beginning in 1966-67, Remey was abandoned by almost all of his followers.[33] The followers of Mason Remey were not organized until several of them began forming their own groups based on different understandings of succession, even before his death in 1974.[34][35][3] The majority of them claimed that Remey was showing signs of senility.[33]


Subsequent groups

Most of Remey's long-term followers are now largely confined to the United States,[36] who distinguished themselves as "Baháʼís Under the Hereditary Guardianship".[26] His followers split into rival factions based on who they believed to be the third Guardian after Remey.[7][37]

Donald Harvey was appointed by Remey as "Third Guardian" in 1967.[3] Donald Harvey never gained much of a following.[38] When Harvey died in 1991, leadership went to Jacques Soghomonian,[39] and when he died in 2013 it passed to E.S. Yazdani.[40]

Joel Marangella claimed in 1969 to have been secretly appointed by Remey as Guardian several years earlier. Marangella gained the support of most of Remey's followers,[41] who came to be known as Orthodox Baháʼís.[3] One source estimated them at no more than 100 members in 1988,[42] and the group claimed a United States membership of about 40 in a 2007 court case.[43] Joel Marangella died in 2013.

Leland Jensen was initially a supporter of Remey and then left the group. After a stint in prison for sexual misconduct,[44] he made several religious claims of his own, and formed a sect known as the Baháʼís Under the Provisions of the Covenant.[3] He believed that Remey was the adopted son of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and that Remey's adopted son Joseph Pepe was the third Guardian, something that Pepe refused to entertain.[45] Jensen made headlines for predicting a nuclear holocaust in 1980, and his followers became the subject of academic studies in cognitive dissonance.[46][47] Membership never exceeded 200,[7] and the group declined in size significantly by 1990 and beyond.[48]

Rex King (d. 1977) was elected to Remey's NSA of the United States, and was later expelled by Remey.[49] King then rejected all claimants to the Guardianship after Shoghi Effendi including Remey. He claimed to be a "regent" pending the emergence of the second Guardian who was in "occultation". Hardly anyone followed King.[50] His group is concentrated in Tarbiyat, New Mexico. They called themselves the Orthodox Baháʼí Faith under the Regency, later changing their name to "Tarbiyat Baha'i Community".[39][51]

Death

On February 4, 1974, Mason Remey died at the age of 99.[9]

Remeum

From 1937 to 1958, Remey spent most of his fortune designing and building an underground mausoleum in Virginia as a memorial to his family called the "Remeum". It was replete with bas relief, statues, tombs, alcoves and reliefs depicting the lives of saints. The complex had electric chandeliers, ventilation and plumbing and, never finished because of legal issues, was frequently vandalized over the years.[52]


Works

Notes
  1. Momen & Smith 1989.
  2. Johnson 2020, pp. xxxi, 39.
  3. Smith 2000, p. 292.
  4. Stockman 1995.
  5. Remey 1960, p. 8.
  6. Gallagher & Ashcraft 2006, p. 201.
  7. Balch 1997, p. 271.
  8. Momen 1995, g.2.
  9. Johns Hopkins University Library Special Collections. See 'Biographical Note' . Retrieved September 7, 2008.
  10. Remey 1960, p. 2.
  11. Smith 2000, p. 242.
  12. Effendi 1944, p. 261.
  13. Summary and details of the collection of Remey's diaries at Johns Hopkins University Library. . Retrieved September 6th, 2008
  14. "World Order of Baha'u'llah". bahai-library.com. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  15. "The Bahá'í World" (PDF). p. 548. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  16. Thompson 1983, pp. 71–76.
  17. Smith 2000, p. 199.
  18. Smith 2000, p. 346.
  19. Effendi 1938, p. 8.
  20. Effendi 1938, p. 20.
  21. Effendi 1938, p. 22.
  22. Gallagher & Ashcraft 2006, p. 200.
  23. Smith 2000, pp. 68, 292.
  24. Remey 1960, p. 5.
  25. Remey 1960, pp. 6–7.
  26. Smith 2000, p. 69.
  27. Johnson 2020, p. 34-35.
  28. Vernon, Johnson (2020). Baha'is in Exile: An Account of followers of Baha'u'llah outside the mainstream Baha'i religion. Pittsburg, PA: RoseDog Books. pp. 10–12. ISBN 978-1-6453-0574-3.
  29. "Charles Mason Remey A Historical Chronicle 1874 - 1974". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  30. Johnson 2020, p. 40.
  31. "Baháʼís vs New Mexico Group". Bahai-Library.com. 28 June 1966. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  32. Momen 1995.
  33. Johnson 2020, p. 44.
  34. Barrett 2001.
  35. Warburg 2004.
  36. Momen 1995, §G.2.e.
  37. Smith 2000, p. 71.
  38. Johnson 2020, p. 95.
  39. Momen 2003, §G.2.e.
  40. Johnson 2020, pp. 100-101.
  41. Johnson 2020, p. 60.
  42. Momen 2003, G.2.e.
  43. , US District Court for Northern District Court of Illinois Eastern Division, Civil Action No. 64 C 1878: Orthodox Baháʼí Respondents' Surreply Memorandum to NSA's Reply Memorandum, p2 para 2 line 15
  44. State v. Jensen, 455 P.2d 631 (Montana, 1969)
  45. Balch 1997, p. 282, Note 6.
  46. Balch 1983.
  47. Balch 1997.
  48. Balch 1997, p. 280.
  49. Johnson 2020, pp. 75-76.
  50. Johnson 2020, p. 83.
  51. Johnson 2020, p. 78.
  52. Mills, Charles A. (2015-11-02). Historic Cemeteries of Northern Virginia. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439654385.

References
  • Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael, eds. (2006), "The Baha'is of the United States", Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-275-98712-4
  • Stone, Jon R. (ed) (2000), Expecting Armageddon, Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy, New York: Routledge, pp. 269–282, ISBN 0-415-92331-XCS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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