Mr. Charles Wolcott,
Secretary National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís
of the United States
356 Sheridan Road Wilmette, Illinois
Dear Charles,
Enclosed I send you my Proclamation of My
Guardianship of the Bahá’í Faith. This declaration explains itself. I
send this to you to be read before the Bahá’í Convention so shortly to
convene at Wilmette.
I am pleased to have you letter of April 8, 1960
extending to me the invitation of your National Assembly to be present
with you at your coming Annual National Convention.
I have been preparing a Proclamation communication
addressed to the convention, a copy of which I enclose with this letter to
you asking that this be read to the delegates seated in this convention.
This document will explain itself.
If it be the wish of the convention that I go the
Wilmette at this time to meet with the Bahá’ís of America and further
proclaim, declare and explain my status for life as commander in chief of
Bahá’í affairs of the world as I was appointed to do by our late
Beloved Guardian as the Second Guardian of the Bahá’í 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. The importance, solemnity and the
dignity of the occasion in the Bahá’í Faith demands this formality.
I will be prepared to receive those three friends
at the home of my sister, Miss Remey, at 2101 Connecticut Avenue, North
West, Washington D.C. This
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delegation of three will let me know when and
where I can get word to them on their arrival in Washington and they will
make all arrangements for my traveling
to Wilmette and for my stay while I am there as
the guest of the National Assembly of the Bahá’ís of this country.
Faithfully yours,
in El Abha
Mason R. Guardian
of the Bahá’í Faith
Washington, D. C.
United States of America
Ridván 117 BAHÁ’Í ERA
BELOVED FRIENDS:
Believers have questioned me as to my
status as President of the Bahá'í International Council, appointed by
The Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi, the First Guardian of the Bahá'í
Faith. I take the means of this proclamation, to the coming annual
national convention to tell all Bahá'ís exactly what my position and
status is in the Faith.
The Bahá'í people the world around know
that The Beloved Guardian singled me, Mason Remey, out from amongst all of
the Believers upon earth to occupy the position of President of the
Bahá'í 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
Bahá'í International Council to be the forerunner of and the first step
toward the establishment of The Universal House of Justice, and
furthermore, that the Bahá'í International Council was the embryo of The
Universal House of Justice which embryo would eventually develop into The
Universal
House of Justice.
Although all Bahá'ís know that I, Mason
Remey, am the President of the Bahá'í International Council by the
appointment of The Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi, yet many of you may
not know me personally. I have been living at Haifa much of the time
during these past ten years. My visits to America being in the summers
when I have done but little travelling among the Bahá'í communities so
personally I
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may be a stranger to the many recently
registered in the Faith. Therefore, I will tell you something about
myself.
My forebearers were early American
Colonials of New England in the north and Virginia in the south. I was
brought up in the Christian Faith as taught by the Episcopal Church. The
members of this church, as you know, although always orthodox may be
anything from Catholic upon one hand to Protestant on the other. While
this church is usually classed as Protestant, its Prayer Book proclaims it
to be "The Holy Catholic Apostolic Church." My inheritance was
from the Catholic interpretation of Christianity rather than from the
Protestant attitude.
To the average American, The Catholic
Church usually means Roman Catholic, but there are other Catholic
communions. In The Holy Land, that is now my home and has been for these
past ten years, the Ministry of Religions of Israel lists eleven different
Catholic communions in that country—Roman, Anglican, Russian, Armenian,
Greek, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, etc. The Anglican Catholic Persuasion
corresponding to the so called High Episcopal Church in America.
With this Catholic background it was the
most logical and natural thing in the world for me to accept the Bahá'í
message without question as I did when I heard it in 1899-1900 from May
Ellis Bolles (later Mrs. Sutherland Maxwell), because the Holy Catholic
Apostolic
Church teaches the Second Coming of
Christ—The Christ to come manifesting as the Lord of Creation—the
Prince of Peace—coming to establish "His Kingdom upon Earth as it
is in Heaven."
From New England on the north and
Virginia on the south, my forebears came into the middlewest where I was
born in 1874 at a town on the Mississippi River, two hundred and ten miles
from Chicago, not far distant from the geographic center of the United
States, this land that our Beloved Guardian has called "The Cradle of
the Administration of the Bahá'í Faith." Thus do I introduce myself
to those of you who may know me but by name only.
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As I travel about through the Bahá'í
world, the friends ask me many questions about the life of the believers
in Israel, and in particular about the Hands of the Faith in The Holy
Land? The Bahá'í people are just curious to know about things
transpiring there and of how the problems of the Faith are being handled?
There is some general information that I
can give them that is in no way confidential but I am not mentioning
anything of a confidential nature to any Bahá'í because as is well known
in Bahá'í circles from the first of the conclaves of the Hands the
majority of the Hands of the Faith were united in the opinion that
absolutely nothing said or done in these conclaves be divulged, disclosed
or revealed to any of the Bahá'ís outside of the body of the twenty
seven Hands. However, each Hand of the Faith is not only allowed but urged
to express herself or himself with perfect freedom within the four walls
of the chamber in which the Hands are gathered. It is the duty enjoined
upon each of the Hands to express her or his own convictions to the Hands
when seated in conclave. ( Conclave, according to the Oxford Dictionary,
is "Any meeting for secret consultation.").
I, as the President of the International
Council was one of those things that every Bahá'í knows but that just
never happened to be talked about nor even mentioned in any of the
conclaves or in the conferences of the Hands of the Faith; therefore, as
this subject was
never mentioned, I, having promised the
Hands never to divulge any of their discussions, proceedings or decisions,
am not breaking faith with them now by explaining to the believers about
this subject of my Presidentship of the International Council a subject
that was never even mentioned nor brought up for discussion by the Hands
of the Faith in any conference that I ever attended or know anything
about.
Before going into the subject of my
Presidency of the International Council and the stand that I take in the
cause and explain in this letter, I would preface my statement by giving
in a few words a picture of the set up of things in Haifa under the regime
of The Beloved Guardian when all the members of the International Council
including the
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resident Hands lived there and served the
Guardian daily. Each of us council members were given instructions by
Shoghi Effendi of what he wanted us to do and we reported to him as these
various services were underway and completed. The sole authority of all
these operations rested in the instructions given to each direct from the
Guardian himself, thus as a council, a functioning body, we never
undertook any services of any nature whatsoever.
After the appointment of the
International Council, many times one of the members would come to me
saying, "Mason, you are the President of the Council, get yourself
busy, call a meeting, you are the President of the Council, you should
take the initiative to organize this body and do something." To which
my response was always, "The Guardian of the Faith appointed the
Baha'i International Council and He will tell me what I should do and when
I should call the Council into action."
The First Guardian of the Faith left this
world without giving me any orders or instructions whatsoever regarding
the International Council. The Beloved Guardian gave me no authority to do
anything about the Universal Council during his lifetime for while He was
living He was the Guardian of the Faith and as infallibility then was
vested in him and in him only, my position was then only that of I myself
holding a potential responsibility. But with the death of Shoghi Effendi,
He no longer being the center upon earth of infallibility, I became the
acting President of the International Council in my own right as President
of this body, thus I came into active command of the council. Therefore I
am now but assuming the powers that came to me automatically upon the
death of Shoghi Effendi and that have been mine exclusively of all others
upon earth since the death of the First Guardian of the Faith.
This is the authority I am now exercising
when I refuse to recognize any interference from anyone in the affairs of
the International Council. This means from any one at all, person or
persons.
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The Hands of the Faith can only function
as protectors of the Faith when they are serving under the direction
following the commands of the infallible Guardian of the Faith. They have
no authority vested in themselves as Hands of the Faith to act in their
own capacity nor in any other capacity, save under the direction of the
living Guardian of the Faith.
The Beloved Guardian chose me to be the
President of the Bahá'í International Council that is according to his
explanation the President of the Embrionic Universal House of Justice.
Therefore I am the President of the Embrionic Universal House of Justice.
When this August body becomes the Universal House of Justice, if such
being during my lifetime, I will then be the President of the First
Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
Therefore, inasmuch as The Beloved
Guardian in His Infallibility has thus placed me in command of the Faith
to protect and to guard the Faith, I can do nothing but assume my place
that he has given me with all of the responsibilities, the perquisites and
emoluments that go with this position, therefore by his infallible orders
I now alone after him command the cause and guard its integrity.
The delay until now of my calling the
attention of the believers to the provisions for the protection and the
guarding of the cause, made some years ago by our Beloved Guardian when He
appointed me to be the President of the Bahá'í International Council,
has given the Hands of the Faith and the believers of the Faith ample time
to discover for themselves, had that been possible for them to have
discovered my unique position in the Faith. But until now no one, other
than I has discovered that such authority was vested in me by Our Beloved
Guardian. To the moment of my sending out into the Bahá'í world of this
proclamation, I have taken no one into this confidence — I have stood
single and alone in all the world guarding the Faith.
That I was to occupy this August position
in The Bahá'í Faith that The Beloved Guardian has chosen me to occupy, I
have definitely
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known for the past twelve years more or
less, without ever mentioning it to anyone until very recently when
privately and in secret, I made this declaration to the Hands of the Faith
in the Holy Land. In this proclamation statement to you I am now declaring
my position of command in the cause to the Believers here in America,
"The Cradle of the Administration of The Bahá'í Faith," and
through this convention to all the Bahá'í World.
In this time of confusion of thought and
purpose that so threatens the Bahá'í world, now is the propitious moment
for me to make the announcement that I do in this writ. I cannot delay any
longer. 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
havePage 5 arisen to do so for I alone in all this world have been given
the authority and the power to accomplish this.
Be it understood. I of myself make no
claims for myself. I am but telling and reminding the Hands of the Faith
and the Bahá'ís of all the world of the responsibilities that The
Beloved Guardian placed upon me as President of the Bahá'í International
Council.
It is well known throughout the Bahá'í
world and accepted by all Bahá'ís that the protection of the Faith and
the propagation of the Faith are special and particular functions of the
Hands of the Faith, they working and serving under the direction of the
Guardian of the Faith. It is from and through the Guardianship that
infallibility is vested and that the Hands of the Faith receive their
orders.
The Program for 1960 as announced by the
Hands of the Faith in their message to the Bahá'í world of November 4,
1959 signed by twenty two of the Hands, as well as the same program
announced in their former messages, so flagrantly violate and puts to
naught the Will and Testament, the Guardianship, and the Administration of
the Faith that the Beloved Guardian so laboriously and painstakingly built
up during his long ministry, that I can no longer condone such actions
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upon the part of the Hands of the Faith..
I have remained silent now for over two years hoping that they would give
up this destructive propagandizing but all to no effect so now it is
necessary that I call a halt upon their activities.
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 Bahá'ís and as assemblies of Bahá'ís to
immediately cease cooperating with and giving support to this fallacious
program for 1963.
I have delayed as long as I dare delay
before issuing this command to the Bahá'í world—I, hoping that the
Hands of the Faith would see for themselves that the will and testament of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá was being violated and that they would of themselves
abandon their stand. I, standing single and alone against the entire
Bahá'í world but confirmed and steadfast in my assurance of ultimately
saving the cause from this calamity. My assurance is based upon the
authority that The Beloved Guardian gave me as President of the Council,
the authority enabling me to act and assume command of the Bahá'ís that
came to me at His death.
It is meet right and timely that I should
make this announcement in this convention of Bahá'ís of America which
land the Beloved Guardian called the "Cradle of the
Administration." I make this call here and now standing single and
alone before you but fully confident of your support and cooperation in
all Bahá'í matters for you understand the Administration of the Faith
and that I guard it from all violation and harm.
Because the Beloved Guardian called
America the Cradle of the Bahá'í Administration, the American Bahá'ís
have a very special and particular responsibility to which I am calling
them now at this particular time.
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I expect the friends in this convention
to consider with prayer and with thought this declaration addressed to
them, that is a declaration to the entire Bahá'í world. I expect them to
accept me without question as their Commander-in-Chief in all Bahá'í
matters and to follow me so long as I live for I am the Guardian of the
Faith—the Infallible Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.
The line of the Guardianship of the
Bahá'í Faith is unbroken for I have been the Guardian of the Faith since
the death of the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi.
* * * * * * *
At their earliest convenience the
National Assembly of the United States should communicate with me so that
I can arrange to receive them. Since they are the first amongst the
National Assemblies to be called into spiritual action by me their
responsibilities are very great for I am calling this American National
Assembly first from all other National Assemblies of the world to support
me in my command of the Bahá'í Cause.
Dearly Beloved Friends, seated in
convention in the land of the Cradle of the Administration of the Faith,
this is all that I have to tell you now at this time.
With much love to you.
