ANNOUNCEMENT
TO
THE
HANDS OF THE FAITH
FROM
MASON REMEY
THE SECOND GUARDIAN
OF
THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
OF
HIS APPOINTMENT
OF GUARDIANSHIP
BY
THE FIRST GUARDIAN OF THE FAITH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The "assertions" that I present in this proclamation to the Hands of the Bahá’í Faith are of the same general nature as those of my many appeals. These paragraphs are in no chronicle order. These thoughts have come to me under different conditions and while in varying moods of thought. These appeals may be considered each to be but a continuation of my last appeal in which I emphasized the importance that the Hands of the Faith should give to preparing themselves to receive the Second Guardian of the Faith when he makes himself known to them for then he would take command of the Bahá’í world, he, the successor to the Beloved Guardian.

I now declare to the Hands of the Faith in this writ that I, Mason Remey, am the Second Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith by the appointment of the First Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, the Beloved Shoghi Effendi.

Written in part in

Room #60, Hotel Berchielli,

Florence, Italy

in December 1959

And in part in Apartment 2

1310 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.

Washington 6, D.C.

U.S, of North America

The time is up. The hour has struck, I must call upon the believers of the mass, not of the nobility of the Cause, to bring what pressure they can upon the Hands to relinquish their stand against the Guardianship and attempt to seek to find their Second Guardian.

This I will do shortly through the coming National Convention in America.

Much as I shrink from detonating such an explosion in the Convention, such is the only way that I can get my message as the protector of the Faith through protecting the International Council.

This I can do without breaking my promise of silence upon all matters discussed and decided by conference by the Hands, because the thing I will told about to the people will be me, myself, President of the International Council. This has never been mentioned by the Hands in conclave or in conference; therefore, Hands of the Faith, your judgment time is at hand. Be prepared to face me shortly in the National Convention of Bahá'ís in a call that I shall give to the people, a call that will resound through the Bahá'í world, preparing the Bahá’í world to discover for themselves the Second Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith; he, who is I— the Infallible One— who will guide the Cause on the spiritual victory after victory and then onto other victories of the Faith!

It is well known and accepted by the Bahá'ís that I, Mason Remey, a Hand of the Faith, was appointed President of the Bahá'í International Council by our late Beloved Shoghi Effendi, the First Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, and that for the past ten years or thereabouts, I have been living in the Holy Land.

I am now forced to bring this subject to the attention of the Bahá'ís because of the intention of the Hands of the Faith, as announced in their message of November 5, 1959, to elect their own International Council, which is a great violation of the appointments of the Beloved Guardian, for he, himself, appointed the International Council, the embryo of the House of Justice of the future with me, Mason Remey, as the President.

For two years I have outwardly and in appearance held my peace in Haifa, as I have been obliged to listen to the Hands of the Faith explain and tell to the visiting Pilgrims making them the promise of the infallibility that they would establish to guide the Cause and supplant the need of Guardianship as soon as would come this infallibility that they would establish in their plans for 1963.

What indignation surged within me as I was obliged to listen in silence to all this propagation of violation thus going out from the center of the Bahá'í Faith to the followers all over the world! I, myself, could do nothing to turn this tide of false hopes and false teaching that the Hands of the Faith were giving to the people. All that I could do at those times was to pray from my heart that soon a break would come in this propaganda of violation and the Faith would be gotten back again upon the way of the Administration which, of course, is the Guardianship and nothing else.

Thus this matter of the propaganda of this violation of the Faith I allowed to continue to proceed yet for a time from the Headquarters of the Faith in the Holy Land, but I am waiting no longer for that which will shake up, wake up and arouse the Hands of the Faith to clean out from the Faith this evil spirit that is eating away so diligently and persistently, controlling the actions of the body of the Hands of the Faith. For I, myself, am shortly taking over the command of the Faith and I will awaken the Bahá'ís to this danger. Such is my mission to perform and I know that I will be led and activated at the right moment to accomplish this act that will be for the salvation of the Faith.

Therefore, I am watching and waiting! Waiting with impatience. I supplicate daily for protection lest I be tempted to make and unwise move, harmful to the Cause, in my desire to better these conditions and make clean from all this violation the way for the announcement to the Bahá'í world of the Second Guardian, appointed in escrow, as it were, by our late Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi.

As is will known and accepted by all Bahá'ís that at the death of Shoghi Effendi, the Hands of the Faith assumed the directing of Bahá'í affairs. According to the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, there was no authority for them to assume the direction of Bahá'í affairs; nevertheless, there arose no question about this. The majority of the Hands decided that all proceedings and things discussed among the Hands were to be kept secret— nothing was to be divulged nor spoken of by any Hand nor was any to express their own opinion about any of the business of the Faith and to this the majority agreed.

As I have formerly explained in writing when the Beloved Guardian appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council, this appointment did not delegate to me any power to take any action toward inaugurating any work or activity of that body, for at that time he, Shoghi Effendi himself, was in his office of order and command as the Guardian of the Faith; therefore the only thing for me to do as President of the Council was for me to do nothing. Therefore so long as the Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, lived and reigned as the Guardian of the Faith, my Presidentship of the Council was but one of the potentialities of future responsibilities pertaining to this office to which he, the Infallible Guardian of the Faith, had appointed me.

Shoghi Effendi never gave me any further orders save to tell me and tell the Bahá'í world that I was the President of the Bahá'í International Council that was the Embryonic Universal House of Justice, which he at that time as Guardian of the Faith, established with me as its President, but without delegating to me any independent power to take any action or actions as President— for he, being then the Guardian of the Faith, held with his position all powers for the direction and command of the Faith.

But with the death of Shoghi Effendi, the potential responsibility that he had vested in me and in me alone (one individual believer out of all the Bahá'ís in this world) thus my potential responsibility during the lifetime of Shoghi Effendi automatically was transformed into authority. In other words, at the death of the Beloved Guardian, I, Mason Remey, became independently and in my own right as the President of the Bahá'í International Council, the embryo that was destined to increase and ultimately develop into the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith, with me as its President which prerogative only the Guardian of the Faith could hold.

Thus did Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, bequeath such powers to me as President of the Bahá'í International Council and Guardian of the Faith. I make no claim of myself, for myself. In this statement I merely call the attention of the Bahá'ís to this responsibility and authority that the Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi bestowed upon me.

Unity of spirit leads the Bahá'ís upon the path of concord. How often did the Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tell us that the unity of the friends should never be broken. The majority vote on matters should be supported by all. Even when the majority is wrong and when the wrong step has the majority vote, it must be followed by all rather that make a split and a division in the Faith— the principle of this Bahá'í unity being that when a united body of Bahá'ís find themselves upon the wrong track supporting the wrong thing, they can without losing their unity change their wrong course and adopt the right course without losing their unity; whereas, when this unity as a group or body of believers is once ruptured, then there is indeed a great trouble.

As one looks back over the perilous early days of the Faith in America, during the days of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, one sees and realizes the masterful way in which he steered the "Arc of the Bahá'í Covenant" through and over many tempestuous seas, his method always being to maintain the unity of the friends.

But in the case of the violation of the teachings by enemies within the Cause, those who violated the teachings and made division amongst the believers, here the Master used an entirely different method; for, in such cases, he cut these people off, root and branch, and cast them out from the Faith. This principle the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi acted upon also. We in America witnessed this in the case of Ahmad Sohrab where the Beloved Guardian broke into any unity that may have existed between Ahmad and those of the Faith, for he, the Guardian, forebade all association with other covenant breakers who were even members of the Master’s own family in Israel.

WASHINGTON D.C.
U.S. OF NORTH AMERICA

To the Hands of the Bahá'í Faith calling their attention to the questions of some Bahá'ís in Europe and India; questions that without a doubt will again soon be coming up again for action before the body of Hands in their next conclave (whenever that may be?). Questions that will be precipitated by introduction that I made presenting my Proclamation to the recent National Convention of Bahá'ís held at Wilmette, Illinois, in United States of North America of this year 117 of the Bahá'í Era, introducing myself to that body of Bahá'ís as the President of the Bahá'í International Council and Guardian of the Faith, appointed by the Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, a copy of which introduction of myself to the convention and my responsibilities I here enclose to you. It explains itself—there is nothing secret about it; thus do I draw your attention to this fact but at the same time I reiterate to you that all the other documents that I am here sending to you are Bahá'í secrets because they touch upon matters received and talked over by the Hands of the Faith in conference. In other words, those communications coming to the Hands of the Faith from Bahá'í friends in Germany, Belgium and India, which questions are confidential between the Hands; however these same questions are also typical of the questions now in the minds of many believers in all parts of the world regarding the Guardianship of the Bahá'í Faith.

I send you all this enclosed Bahá'í data in order that you can, at your ease, read and carefully and prayerfully study these matters before the next coming conclave of the Hands of the Faith, whenever that may be?

I address you and send you these communications all in the most strict Bahá'í confidence because as I have written, these missives have to do with the secret affairs of the Hands of the Faith, to which all members of the body of the Hands of the Faith have solemnly promised not to divulge, disclose or reveal to the Bahá'í world; therefore, Dear Hands of the Faith, please be most carefully mindful of your silence before the world upon these matters that are for the Hands only to discuss between themselves in their present dilemma of the Bahá'í Cause.

To reiterate, as for this letter that I have written to the National convention in America that has gone out to Bahá'ís everywhere, there is no secrecy about this because it was issued at a time before the Hands of the Faith either in the conclave at Behje or in the conferences of the Custodian Hands in Haifa to my knowledge had ever mentioned in any of their conferences anything about the responsibility that our late Beloved Guardian had placed upon me, Mason Remey, when he appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council, all of which is explained to the Bahá'í world in this letter from me.

Again I adjure your silence upon all matters pertaining to the affairs of the Hands of the Faith, for you— Hands of the Faith— must solve all Cause problems in strictest confidence between all the members of your august body of the Bahá'í Faith.


Faithfully yours in the Cause of

Bahá’u’lláh, the Center of His

Covenant and the Guardianship of

the Faith

MASON REMEY

President of the Bahá'í International

Council

The time is now at hand when the Hands of the Faith should know and realize that the Beloved Guardian placed me in command of this situation when he appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council for he gave me the power and the clear authority to call a halt in these ruinous to-the-Cause proceedings of violation; namely the program of plans for 1963 that you, the Hands of the Faith, are foisting upon the Cause.

I forbid you to do anything at all about taking over the International Council as you announce that you are going to do.

You have thus appointed yourselves to take over the control of the Council. In your last general message to the believers, you state the Council "is to work under the direction and the supervision of the Hands of the Cause residing in the Holy Land".

What audacity!

As you know and as the entire world knows, the Beloved Guardian appointed me President of the International Council and I will not countenance any usurpation of my responsibilities, as you tell the Bahá'í world you are going to do in your program for 1963, signed by twenty-two of the Hands in conclave. You have no right whatsoever to perpetrate such violation upon the Cause and I, President of the International Council and Guardian of the Faith, will not permit you to carry through this particular step in your violation of the International Council established by our Beloved Guardian.

The Hands of the Faith have the responsibility of protecting the Faith and this command they have violated — the command to protect the Faith that was given to them by the Will and Testament of the Master! The Guardian alone wields the right to choose and to appoint a succeeding Guardian for the Faith, who alone can give the Cause the infallible guidance that the Faith must have in order to guide the Cause.

As for myself, the Beloved Guardian, in his infallibility bestowed upon me, Mason Remey, the power and the authority to halt your program for 1963 and this I am now doing in order to save the Cause from this violation of the Administration upon which you are launched, and which is apparently succeeding to such an extent that I am now compelled to exert the full power given me by the Infallible Beloved Guardian, to stop your program of activities for 1963 and to insist that this 1963 program be abandoned, and thus compel you to acknowledge me as the one appointed by the Beloved Guardian, to save the Bahá'í Faith in this emergency.

I am surprised that the Hands of the Faith have not realized this without my having to tell these things. I am not putting forth any claim of mine own for control of this body of Hands. My only claim to this authority was bestowed upon me by the Beloved Guardian when he appointed me President of the Council, later to be Guardian of the Faith.

Are you to question this?? For the First Guardian of the Faith gave me this authority and this power, by which I am now compelling the Cause to accept me as the Second Guardian of the Faith.

The International Council, and all of these were appointed by the infallible decree of the First Guardian of the Faith and in all cases of both the Hands and the International Council members, all were to be under the infallible guidance of the Guardianship of the Faith, which infallible guidance was vested in the First Guardian of the Faith, until his death—whereupon the death of the First Guardian of the Faith, this infallibility automatically passed to the Second Guardian of the Faith who, during this state of the dilemma of the interregnum, was in occultation. He was in the world but he did not make his presence known to the people of the Faith; therefore neither the Hands of the Faith nor the International Council can take any sure or certain action until the Second Guardian declares himself and comes forth to the believers as proclaimed by the Beloved Guardian to be his successor.

The credentials of the Second Guardian of the Faith will be found to have been given by the First Guardian of the Faith and my assurance of this is because in the Master’s Will and Testament it is so written; therefore, since the Beloved Guardian was infallible, he must perforce have complied with this order described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in his Will and Testament.

To be sure the Bahá'í world does not know as yet who and where the Second Guardian of the Faith actually is occultated, but we can be, or should be, sure and confirmed in our belief that the Beloved Guardian did not leave the Faith without infallible guidance to carry the Cause on into the future.

Therefore I, President of the Bahá'í International Council, have urged the Hands of the Faith to diligently seek to find the Second Guardian of the Cause, thus to prepare themselves to welcome him.

By virtue of my appointment as President of the Bahá'í International Council, our Beloved Guardian has bestowed upon me the authority and the power to call this halt that I do to the activities of the Hands of the Faith to take over to put aside the Council, appointed by the Beloved Guardian, elect another International Assembly and to put it into working order and then to dictate to the International Council what they shall do; all of which is stated as they intend to do in their message to the Bahá'í world from their third Behje Conclave and which was signed by twenty-two of the Hands of the Faith— that was all of those who were present at that conclave, save I, myself, who refused to endorse this violation.

The condition that forces me at this time to make this announcement to the Bahá'í world through this National Convention is precipitated by the announcement to the Bahá'í world of the Hands of the Faith in their third annual message to the Bahá'ís of east and west, dated November 4, 1959, that was signed by twenty-two of the Hands of the Faith.

In this document is outlined their plans for 1963 that are so flagrantly in violation of the Administration of the Faith, that I find myself obliged to guard and protect the Faith from all such violation.

Dear Friends: To again reiterate, I leave one hope and thought with you to cling to during these difficult days of dilemma in the Faith, and it is that our Beloved Guardian of the Cause left the Cause amply protected for the period of interregnum and that he indicated beyond a doubt who his successor is— the Second Guardian of the Faith who automatically became the Second Guardian of the Faith at the death of Shoghi Effendi and that the Second Guardian of the Faith will disclose himself to the believers when his way so to do is made feasible for him by the spiritual condition of the Hands of the Faith.

The Hands of the Faith, ignorantly or otherwise, are apparently deceiving themselves and also are out to deceive many of the believers who, uninformed of the teaching, believe that this Universal House of Justice that the Hands will establish will give the Cause infallibility as promised by the Hands of the Faith!

This promise of the Hands of the Faith to the Bahá'ís of the world is indeed a most great violation and an affront to the infallible teaching of the Beloved Guardian who very explicitly explained to the believers that the International Assembly elected by the people as one of the pillars of the Faith had, in itself, no infallibility without or until it was functioning together with the Guardian of the Faith as its President or at his appointment when absent, his representative sitting in his place. Thus, the infallibility of the Universal House of Justice is vested in the Guardian who is its President. These two elements, the infallible Guardian on one hand and the International Assembly upon the other, chosen by and representing the people of the Faith; these two are the two pillars or two supports when thus functioning together give infallibility to the Universal House of Justice. But it is impossible to have this infallibility in the manner promised by the Hands of the Faith who are insisting that the infallible element is not necessary and that an International Assembly chosen by the believers has infallibility is pure violation of the accepted teaching of the Bahá'í Faith, and like other forms of violation, should be cut out and cast out from the Faith.

I personally dislike to have to stand and refute the statements of Bahá'ís, but it is most imperative that I take this stand before this convention to warn the people of the Faith against this pernicious teaching that has been circulated these two years and more by the chosen Hands of the Faith themselves against the Administration and against the Guardianship of the Faith. Such heresies are as an axe at the root of the Faith and as a dagger in the heart of the Cause. What more can I say? Any normal minded Bahá'í should be able to see and to understand this problem!

I, President of the Bahá'í International Council, have borne with this problem long enough— yes, too long— in the hope that I would not have to take the drastic step that I am taking now and alone and, so far as I know, with not one Bahá'í in the world to stand with me, for this will be the first time that I have spoken to any Bahá'í other that to the Hands of the Faith themselves about this, the greatest violation in the history of more than a century of the Bahá'ís and of the Bahá'í Faith.

This day is indeed the Judgment Day of the Bahá'ís of this world!

In the early history of our Faith the martyrs faced torture, imprisonment and death. These enemies of the Cause, they saw and met face to face, and they stood and died like faithful soldiers. But now this enemy—VIOLATION— is a subtle enemy who comes along quietly and slips into one’s confidence with promised of good things and of better times to come through supporting these plausible ideas and notions that promise so much. But all the time the damage is being done, the disease of violation is slowly eating away like a cancer destroying the vitality of the cause.

How long, O Lord God, how long are such things to be allowed to be ???

Beloved Hands of the Cause, my heart bleeds and suffers for you in this time that is a terrible time for you because it is your time of judgment, the judgment of each of the Hands of the Faith as whether they will continue on the path of their violation as declared by them and signed by twenty-two of them in their announcement to the Bahá'í world of their decisions made in the 1959 Behje Conclave!

You still have time and opportunity to make your retreat from this stand of violation to one of firmness in the Administration and support of the Guardianship! I personally, as a brother Bahá'í, implore and beg of each one of you to reconsider the stand you take in such violation as you have thus endorsed and published throughout the Bahá’í world.

The appeal that I make to you as a brother Bahá'í, I lay aside for the moment my authority as President of the International Council of the Faith, and I speak to you in this writ imploring you as a brother, to reconsider this matter— not as one having any authority— but upon the human plane as a brother. Should you hearken to this, my human appeal to each one of you and arise to support the infallible Guardianship of the Faith, ALL THAT IS PAST is forgotten; but if you continue in your violation, you will be lost to the Faith, for the wrath of God will surely descend upon you.

The assumption of the Hands of the Faith to order Bahá'í affairs as they have been doing since the death of Shoghi Effendi has no authority or support whatsoever in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and this Will and Testament is the foundation of the Administration of the Bahá’í Faith. Everything done by the Hands of the Faith which has been done in conclave since the death of the Beloved Guardian has been done in violation of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, upon the basis of which the Beloved Guardian built the Administration of the Faith. This , I have told repeatedly to the Hands.

Upon the other hand, the stand that I take and make thus, before this body of believers, as President of the Bahá'í International Council and that which I insist upon is not of me ( I, as an individual ) but stems from the authority and the power given to me and to me alone by Shoghi Effendi, when he appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council.

I claim nothing myself– all that I do now is to tell the Hands what they already know and acknowledge that the Guardian appointed me President of the International Council and with this appointment the responsibility IN POTENTIA of the affairs of the International Council that rested thus with me in status quo until the death of the Guardian, and which I now contend should still remain in status quo until there be an infallible guidance, acknowledged and accepted by the Bahá'ís to direct the affairs of the Bahá’í International Council or in other words, the Second Guardian of the Faith in office and accepted by the believers, who will then at his own good pleasure either do or do nothing for the time being about the Bahá'í International Council.

Realizing aforehand that this communication will be emotionally disturbing to the entire body of delegates and attendants, both Hands and others there assembled, and furthermore I, myself, shrinking from meeting such emotional storms as this letter will inevitably create in this convention, I, myself, have not planned to attend these conferences. If, however, the friends wish my presence amongst them on this, or upon any other occasion, I will be most happy and pleased to hasten to Wilmette to meet with them.

Another reason why I am thus in absentia addressing this convention is in order that thus my being absent leaves the field open to these Hands of the Faith who may be there that they may have the opportunity to consider and to reconsider with the delegates from all parts of America (the land that our Beloved Guardian blessed with the title of "The Cradle of the Administration of the Faith") in order that they, the Hands of the Faith, can get the viewpoint of the American believers who are firm in the administration, as opposed to the attitude of these Hands according to their proposition for 1963 about which questions are beginning to arise in many of the American believers, that I would rather than get into it myself; nevertheless, I’ll be very pleased to meet all the friends on the convention floor should the Officers of the Convention deem this advisable.

I as President of the Bahá'í International Council can remain silent no longer listening to the Hands of the Faith proclaiming their plans for 1963 that so flagrantly violate the Will and Testament of ’Abdu’l-Bahá and that are opposed to all that was built up by the Beloved Guardian upon the directions contained in the Will and Testament and so evidently supercede and put to naught the latter. Therefore I speak out in this communication, calling the attention of the Hands of the Faith to their mistake. This is a step necessary for me to take in order to save the Cause from this regression from the Bahá'í procedure— that is a violation of the Administration of the Bahá’í Faith.

In thus explaining myself and my position in the Bahá'í Faith, I of myself make no claims whatsoever for myself. all that I do is to tell the friends of the station in the Cause that the Beloved Guardian bestowed upon me at the same time placing a responsibility that no other soul in this world has— namely, the authority and the power to protect and to guard the International Council (that which is the embryo that will eventually develop into the Universal House of Justice) from being tampered with by the Hands of the Faith as described to the Bahá'í world in their plans for 1963.

The Beloved Guardian not only gave me the authority as President of the International Council to call a halt on such proceedings that would nullify his appointment of me as President and his appointment of the other members of this council, but also with this responsibility and authority he gave me the power to halt all such proceedings—thus to me, one believer against the entire "Cause, should it come to that, I am endowed with the power to stay such transgressions against that which was created by the Beloved Guardian of the Faith.

Therefore, in other words, do I intend to announce to the believers of the Faith assembled in this coming convention that I Mason Remey, as the President of the Bahá'í International Council, forbid the Hands of the Faith to put aside the other members of the present International Council that was appointed by our late Beloved Guardian of the Faith and that I insist that this present set-up of the International Council remain and rest an it now is until the Cause has an acknowledged source of infallible guidance to direct these actions— the inauguration of this International Council.

Like the subject of me, myself, as President of the Bahá'í International Council, this subject of the Second Guardian of the Faith never was mentioned nor did it come up for discussion in any of the conclaves or conferences of the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land; therefore, this subject of the Second Guardian of the Faith is not tabu for me as a Hand of the Faith to mention and discuss quite openly with the believers as I intend doing.

 

Dear Hands of the Faith:

I’ve been telling you one and all many times during the past two years and more that you were all wrong in your attitude toward the Administration and the Guardianship. In fact, I’ve talked with you about this so much and so earnestly that it is an old story to you and one that no longer interests you, coming from me.

In other words, my method of talking to you directly and out from the shoulder has ceased top penetrate your consciousness; therefore, I am planning an entirely different argument. I am going to place my argument for the continuation of the Guardianship before the American believers in the coming National Convention at Wilmette in a letter addressed to the convention with the special request that it be read from the platform of the convention, trusting that my plea not to depart from the admonitions in the Will and Testament of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá will so move these friends that they will be moved to bring such pressures upon the Hands of the Faith and to arouse them and make them stand up to support the Guardianship of the Faith and be looking about them trying to find where the Second Guardian of the Faith is and what is the hope of his coming out of his occultation before all the world to lead the Faith upon its victorious onward march of the Kingdom of God upon earth.

Since the Beloved Guardian has called America the Cradle of the Administration, the Administration in reality being inseparable from the Guardianship, I have every hope for the early coming forth of the Second Guardian into the arena of Bahá’í activities to take objective control of the Bahá'í Faith and lead us on the straight path of service in His Kingdom.

Thus my appeal direct to the believers themselves will, I trust, cause them to bring pressures upon you, the Hands of the Faith, that I trust will have more effect upon changing your violation of the Guardianship that I, alone, have been able to accomplish.

As President of the International Council, I feel that I have a power given and bestowed upon me by the First Guardian of the Faith that nothing can combat or stand against. The fact that I alone have arisen to take over the control of the Bahá'í Faith does not even put a question in my mind as to my success in this venture; the fact that I face this problem singly and alone doesn’t even put a question in my mind as to the successful outcome of this venture. I feel a perfect confidence in what lies before me. There is not the least uncertainty about it in my mind and this confidence seems all to stem within me from the fact that the Beloved Infallible Guardian called me and placed upon me the responsibility to which I must now arise and assume with the assurance of success, the absolute assurance of success despite the fact that until now, I am the only one in all the world who knows this; no one else even suspects it. Nevertheless I am given the courage and the assurance that this move that I am about to take, this coming forward to take command of the Bahá'í world and get it back again out of the hands of these violating Hands of the Faith and back again onto the right track and under the Guardianship of the Faith. The possibility of failure in this never enters my consciousness.

In fact I am quite conscious of success although I have nothing but my faith in the Guardianship to combat the united body of Hands that now are followed and supported by practically the united Bahá'í world— all of these are against me— yet I will succeed quickly, very quickly too. For the matter of this violation of the Faith has gone along now for too long, way too long after the eleventh hour. So come the solution of this violation of the Faith—it must come quickly, quickly indeed if it is to save the Faith and I am sure that it will save the Cause.

According to the Will and Testament, the Hands are not to be followed or are they to be obeyed. No, they, the Hands, are to be directed by the Guardian. They are not to direct anyone, but they themselves are to carry out the orders of the Guardian who will protect them from error. He is their protection. Thus they, the Hands of the Faith, will have no protection from error until they find themselves under the guidance of the Second Guardian of the Cause.

I, Mason Remey, President of the Bahá'í International Council, am the one whom the Beloved Guardian vested with the power and the right to protect the Hands of the Faith and the Bahá'í world at large from the violation of the International Council that these Hands of the Faith have announced that they are going to put through in 1963 . I am President of the International Council and I order them to stop these plans for 1963.

In other words, I am protecting the Hands of the Faith by thus shielding you in your violation against your rejection by the believers of the Faith should these believers find out, know and realize your violation of the Administration. I cannot hold much longer this protection that I am thus giving you. All that I can hope for is to hold out this protection to the Hands long enough for you to change your attitude toward the Guardianship, renounce you program for 1963 and announce this to the Bahá'í world, assuring them that you uphold the Master’s Will and Testament that means that you sill believe in the Guardianship, but that you just don’t know how it is to be continued.

When you do as I tell you to do you will then be in the position of firmness in the Bahá'í Faith in which you will be protected from making these mistakes that now so becloud your vision and confuse your mind and bewilder and put to test the Bahá'ís the world around.

I assure you that I am doing everything that I can do to make it in the end as easy as possible for you.

The Hands of the Faith receive, as do all Bahá'ís, infallible guidance through and only through the Guardianship. The Hands of the Faith have no infallible authority as Hands of the Faith because infallible Bahá'í authority is vested only in the Guardianship of the Faith. The body of the Hands of the Faith at all times need the infallible direction of the Guardian, for unless they have this unerring guidance, how can they protect the Faith?

 
WASHINGTON D.C.

U.S.A.

April___, 1960

BELOVED FRIENDS:

I have said and done all that I can to awaken the Hands of the Faith to the great danger they have brought upon the Faith, but all to no avail; so, from now on I must take command of the Cause myself, as President of the Bahá'í International Council, and right these matters myself, drastically putting aside and doing everything possible to put the Faith back into running order under the Guardianship as it was in the days of the Beloved Guardian who bestowed upon me the authority after him, to protect the Faith in this crisis by his appointment of me as President of the Bahá'í International Council to take over the duties of that trust that became my duties at the death of Shoghi Effendi. Thus, from now on, I am telling the Hands of the Faith that they should take orders from me.

My first order to them is that they desist in all of their preparations for 1963 and that they inform the Bahá’í world that I, the President of the International Bahá'í Council, have taken over the command of the Faith and that from now on I will direct the Hands of the Faith of how they are to conduct themselves and the manner of rendering their services to the Cause for its propagation and protection.

The direction of the Faith assumed by the Hands of the Faith during the interregnum is now over and at an end and I am directing the affairs of the International Council which affairs are the affairs of the Cause.

Since the Council is the embryo from which will evolve and develop the Universal House of Justice, I at present being the President of the embryonic House of Justice which in time will develop into the Universal House of Justice , Shoghi Effendi commanded me as President of the Council during his life as Guardian of the Faith, which command became, automatically, my command at the death of Shoghi Effendi and since his death, has been my command.

In my position as President of the International Council, I stand single and alone in all this world, Therefore my reason for standing single and alone upholding the Administration of the Faith and the Guardianship against the united stand of the Hands of the Faith.

At the present time of this writing (April 5, 1950) I am the only person in the world who knows this, but I shall soon have to explain these matters to the Bahá'í world. For the time of silence, confusion, and violation is ended.

Thus, I give the Hands of the Faith but a few hours before I announce my intentions to the friends of the Faith.

If such is not forthcoming, I will direct the believers myself, referring them to the words of the Beloved Guardian, spoken many times, referring to the International Council, its functions, its future development with me, Mason Remey, as its President.

Wake up, Hands of the Faith, see and understand that which the Beloved Guardian has told you about the position in the Faith that he has given me and into which I automatically stepped at the death of the First Guardian of the Faith. I herewith command you, the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land, to make this Proclamation to the Bahá'í world through the National Bahá'í Assemblies of the world. I give you this instruction now in secret, according to the understanding between all the Hands of the Faith that all of our deliberations be held strictly in confidence.

In the meanwhile where are matter about myself as President of the International Council that were never mentioned by the Hands of the Faith in any of their conferences that I am preparing to write in a letter that I am asking that it be read before the convention. This letter, a copy of which I will send you very shortly, will prepare the Bahá'ís for whatever you may have to announce or proclaim to them regarding me and my unique position in the Cause.

Should you comply promptly with this, my order—you, the Hands of the Faith, will be greatly blessed with blessing that will descend immediately upon you and upon the Cause the world around, but should you delay or oppose me, you will make your way difficult.

In the letter that I am preparing to be read before the coming National Convention at Wilmette, I have most scrupulously not mentioned anything about any of the things that transpired in the conclaves and conferences of the Hands. Were I mentioned anything involving the Hands, it was those matters that the Hands had published officially throughout the world. Such as, for instance, their violation of the International Council, appointed by the Beloved Guardian, violated by them when they declared that they would elect an International Council to "work under the direction and the supervision of the Hands of the Cause residing in the Holy Land". What arrogance and foolishness is that, and it was signed by twenty-two of the Hands of the Faith! And it was circulated all over the world!

Indeed the Hands of the Faith have violated and overstepped. Now is their time of judgment come upon them and this judgment is coming to them, not administered by me, but by the mass of the believers whom they have been leading astray and deceiving.

I have tried and am now trying to conceal their violations as long as I can from the Bahá'í world, hoping that at last they will change their attitudes and arise to support the Administration of the Faith. The time is now getting very short for them. Let them make haste to do as I tell them to do, for only by following me will they find Bahá'í favor and forgiveness, for when violation takes over and dominated a group of Bahá'ís, as it has dominated the Hands of the Faith since that first Behje Conclave; when this plague of violation thus takes over, those affected by this plague are no longer able to help or to cure themselves. They must be cured by a power that is from without their own group; therefore I arose single and alone to deal the Hands of the Faith, and this I am trying to accomplish now, but I must have your cooperation too. If you cooperate with me now at this time when the eleventh hour is well past, I can and will get you out of your trouble, but if you still persist in turning down and turning your backs upon the Will and Testament and trying to destroy the Bahá'í International Council, appointed and established by our Beloved Guardian; if you still persist in turning his works down, you will then just have to bear the consequences.

He, the Second Guardian of the Faith, has been the Guardian of the Faith since the death of the First Guardian of the Faith, unknown, single and alone he has stood on guard to protect the Faith from violation. Thus will he continue to stand, guarding and protecting the Faith alone and unknown; he, now in exile from his home given him by the Beloved Guardian as his home, awaiting to be recognized as the Guardian of the Faith. It is not for him thus to reveal himself to the believers, for the Beloved Guardian has thus declared him.

This is a most difficult time for the Cause, difficult because this time of interregnum has been so prolonged, difficult for the Faith itself, difficult for the believers and of these believers, most difficult of all for the Hands of the Faith, for they who have been honored and blessed above all believers, have also the greatest sacrifices to make—spiritual sacrifices to make— sacrifices of their own human spirit in order that they can serve and make themselves worthy servants next to and under the direction of the Second Infallible Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.

It is the Hands of the Faith for whom my special prayers are directed at this crucial moment of the Cause. I am trying to make the right-about-face-change in the policies of the body of Hands as easy for them as possible , and I trust that all of the believers will do the same by cooperating in all friendliness and Bahá'í love with these Hands of the Faith, that in the end none fall by the wayside, for the Hands of the Faith are fallible, as are all other believers. It is only the Guardian of the Faith who is infallible. Please, dear friends, hear and hearken to what I, President of the Bahá'í International Council, am telling you!

I hold that the only source of infallibility that this Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh will ever have is vested in the Guardianship of the Faith and in the Guardianship of the Faith only, whether he, the Guardian of the Faith, should wield this infallibility by himself or whether in conjunction with the International Assembly of Bahá'ís of the world— infallibility is vested only in the Guardian of the Faith; for he, in his office of Guardian of the Faith, is the only infallible one ever to be in this Bahá'í Dispensation.

Furthermore, we, as Bahá'ís, know that this Cause will always be under the infallible guidance of God; therefore there must always be a Guardian at all times to wield this power of guidance–therefore, there must always be a Guardian of the Faith –one following the other, leading the Faith on into the future and directing the Cause of its spiritual victories to come, victory after victory.

Therefore, the Bahá'í world should be assured that our Beloved Infallible Guardian Shoghi Effendi’s death did not leave the chair of the Guardianship of the Faith vacant, but that he, in his infallibility, had appointed and left the Cause in the care of the Second Guardian of the Faith, now in occultation, yet to come forth and proclaim himself to the Bahá'í world as the Infallible Guardian of the Faith.

But when he, the Second Guardian of the Faith, will find it possible for him to come forth from his occultation, I don’t know. Perhaps someone else does know? If so, let him or her tell the Bahá'í world for the firm believers will welcome his appearance—he, the Infallible Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith!

I am but one out of all the believers of the Faith to stand against the stand of the Hands of the Faith now supported by the believers of the Faith but, remember dear friends of the Faith, that the Beloved Guardian so placed me that at his death the protection of the Bahá'í International Council, the embryo that was eventually to develop into the Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í Faith, would be under my protection because of my office as President of the Council. Therefore, I will explain to all Bahá'í friends in this convention that I, as President of the Council, cannot allow any interference from any one or ones of this responsibility that the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi placed upon me as President of the International Council.

I, of myself, am making no claims. I am telling you how the Beloved Guardian left this situation to me to defend.

During the lifetime of Shoghi Effendi I had no right or power whatsoever to do or to decide anything at all about the International Council, for then all power and right to act was vested in Shoghi Effendi himself, the First Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith; but, with the death of Shoghi Effendi, the First Guardian of the Faith, automatically the right and power and my duty to protect and guard the Faith from any violation of the International Council and its functioning descended from him to me because of his appointment of me to the Presidency of this Bahá'í Institution; thus, the International Council was designed and created by the word of the Beloved Guardian himself, to be the forerunner and the first step taken by him toward the formation of the embryonic Universal House of Justice, the potential responsibility of which creation, by his infallible command, he placed upon me when he appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council which, as I have said, was not a power that devolved upon me until the death of the First Guardian of our Faith, when automatically this power then descended from the First Guardian to the Second Guardian of the Bahá'ís, who is I, Mason Remey. So from now on, for so long as I live upon this earth, I am the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and I shall expect and demand that the Hands of the faith and that all other believers accept me as their Commander-in-Chief of the activities of the Holy Cause of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the world.

The Bahá'í International Council was a creation of the First Guardian of the Faith, the ultimate accomplishment of the development and functioning and directing of which the Beloved Guardian left to his successor or successors in Guardianship to complete and carry on. When Shoghi Effendi appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council, giving me the responsibility of its Presidentship and explained to the Bahá'í world that he was thus taking the first step toward instituting the embryonic Universal House of Justice, he placed in my hands a responsibility that I am undertaking to carry, and a responsibility in which I need the cooperation and the help and the devotion of the Hands of the Faith and of the entire body of believers the world around; therefore, I am first explaining and telling you that I am your Guardian, and that I wish you top announce this to the believers in all parts of the world.

In their message to the Bahá'í world following the last conclave, the Hands of the Faith announced that they would shortly hold an election to elect a Bahá'í International Council, etc., which announcement was signed by twenty-two of the Hands of the Faith, but not by me, the President of this Council, appointed by the Guardian of the Faith.

Therefore, as I, as President, and other members of this Council were appointed by the Infallible Guardian of the Faith , I refuse to relinquish my Presidency of the Council and I refuse to allow the other members of the Council to be removed from their membership of the Council. I will recognize no authority but that of infallibility; therefore I guard this institution of the International Council in fact as it is — although it now be positively inactive — until the Second Guardian of the Faith comes forth from his occultation, directing with infallibility the affairs of the Cause.

I shall hold my position as President of the International Council, as well as recognize the personnel of the Council as appointed by the Infallible Guardian of the Faith until ordered to do so by the one having the right of infallibility tells me what to do. Therefore, since the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi is dead, all the affairs of the International Council must continue to remain in status quo until there be an accepted (by the Bahá’í World) infallible guidance necessary to change the present status quo of the Bahá'í International Council.

In thus explaining myself and my position in the Bahá'í Faith, I, of myself, am making no claims whatsoever to any authority in the Cause. All that I am doing is to tell you what the station in the Cause that the Beloved Guardian bestowed upon me and at the same time placing a potential responsibility upon me that no other soul in all this world has; namely, to protect and to guard the Cause from the error of tampering with the International Council and putting to naught that which the Beloved Guardian himself created when he appointed me President of the Council—the embryo that would eventually develop into the Bahá'í Universal House of Justice of the world.

Has the twenty-two members of the body of the Hands of the Faith not put their signatures to their published intention to put aside that which the Guardian ordained, in order that they might elect a Bahá'í International Council of their own, I might have remained in silence for a time longer about this matter; but in view of thing as they are now in the Bahá'í world, there is nothing for me to do but to explain this matter frankly to the believers at this time soon to be gathered in the approaching convention at Wilmette, at the same time begging them to desist from any criticism of the Hands of the Faith for having thus overstepped their province in their attempted program for 1963, for even at this late date I hope they will change

The Hands of the Faith, without the infallible guidance and the direction of the Guardian, are not able to handle this matter. The believers in general have expected too much from the Hands of the Faith; therefore let all the friends recognize this mistake and seek to find out and to recapture the protection for the Faith that the Beloved Guardian himself arranged for, when he appointed me President of the Bahá'í International Council.

The Proclamations of the Guardians of the Faith come not from the Guardians’ different individuals or personalities but are given as impersonal announcements coming from the infallible station of the Guardianship to the people of the Cause. This infallibility is fixed and is a function only of the impersonality of the Guardianship of the Faith.

In other words, that which one Guardian may proclaim, there being no distinction between the infallibilities of the various pronouncements of the various Guardians who will occupy the chair of Guardianship throughout the ages to come of this Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh. In other words, the import of the commands of any one of the Guardians of the Faith rests not upon the personality of that particular Guardian but upon the station of Guardianship that was vested in him as a personality while he who was an individual soul sat in the chair of the Guardianship of the Faith.

Therefore, this function of Guardianship passes on from one who thus guards the Faith to his successor. Thus there can be but one voice of Guardianship at any one time — that which any of the Guardians may pronounce is the infallible pronouncement to be followed without question by the Hands and the believers of the Faith

As times pass and conditions in the Cause change, the orders and commands of the Guardian of the Faith change to meet and to minister to these changes, as in a battle, the orders of the commander-in-Chief are ever changing and shifting from moment to moment to out-maneuver the maneuvers of the enemy. Such is also the method on shipboard in times of storm or battle. The Commander’s last order is always to be obeyed first, in order to meet the ever-changing and shifting conditions of the struggle against the enemy or preservation in the storm.

The life of the Bahá'í Cause is a continuous battle against attacks coming from the human world. Therefore as in battle, the last order coming from the Guardianship is to be obeyed first and is to take precedence over all former orders in order to meet the ever changing and shifting conditions that surround the Faith to be met and to be overcome, that the Faith can win the battle against the powers of the world, under the infallible guidance of the Guardian of the Faith.

Much as I shrink from thus stepping forth thus before the Bahá'í world at the convening of this convention and calling a halt of all these plans and preparations of the Hands of the Faith for instituting a House of Justice in 1963, much as I personally dislike to make this stand; nevertheless, conditions now force me to put into force the prerogatives that are mine, because of my position as President of the Bahá'í International council. Therefore, I forbid the Hands of the Faith and all who support them in this their program for 1963— they should abandon this program. The very life of the Bahá'í Cause depends upon my thus taking command of this situation since I, as President of the Bahá'í International Council, am the only person in this entire world who has the authority and the power to protect and to guard the Faith was conferred upon me by the Beloved Guardian of the Cause by his appointment of me a President of the Bahá'í International Council.

The death of the First Guardian of the Faith placed me in command of the International Council in the position of an active and functioning institution of the Bahá'í Faith under the orders of the President of the Council. But all such action I deferred for some time hoping that the Hands of the Faith residing in the Holy Land would announce me as Guardian of the Bahá'í world, that the Bahá'í world might know and accept the authority that I hold, but no— the Hands of the Faith were caught by the spirit of violation and were confused by it.

It is therefore my duty now and at this time before these plans for 1963 proceed any further to call a halt upon all such plans and remind the people of the Faith that the Beloved Guardian placed me in command of this matter and that I have no intention of relinquishing my command of this situation.

I have the authority and the power to command this situation. It is for me to guard the institution of the International Council from any and all usurpers who would violate that which the infallible Guardian of the Faith created and then at his death, became my responsibility to carry on towards its completion.

Thus do I feel constrained to share with the believers now at this time this hope that I have for you in this moment of dilemma among the believers when they don’t know which way to turn to find the infallibility necessary for the direction of those of the Faith. I am thus constrained to extend this hope to you at this time, so difficult for you, lest you might even lose the hope that you should continue to hold to keep your faith until the Second Guardian of the Faith comes forth from his occultation to be received by the Cause and to lead the Bahá'í Faith on its afore-promised victory.

This hope is hope that none of the other Hands of the Faith have, save I myself, of until now have they, any of them, ever suspected that I had such hope. Therefore, I take this auspicious occasion to tell the Hands of the Faith, as well as to tell you of this hope and explain to you the logic of my reason of how and why, from the Beloved Guardian’s own words, and I feel so confirmed in this, my belief that the Second Guardian of the Faith is now here upon earth with us, awaiting to reveal himself to the believers of the Cause.

Thus do I share with the believers at this convention in the land of the Cradle of the Administration, the hope that I, President of the Bahá'í International Council, have had given to me and made clear to me. I as yet speak and tell you these things from the viewpoint of logic that the deductions, the process of which I here explain at length, which as you follow with me will see, is built up upon a firm foundation — this process that will give you the courage, hope and the assurance that I have that all of our Bahá'í Problems of this period of interregnum will be solved and can only be solved when the Second Guardian of the Faith comes forth from his occultation to give to the Faith the infallible guidance that he alone can now give to the Bahá’í world.

Although Milly Collins sticks yet with and by the united group of the Hands in their decisions and pronouncements and endorses all that they are doing and trying to do toward 1863, yet Milly makes one reservation when she talks with me, saying that she believes and has faith that in the end, God will show the Hands what He wants them to do. I agree with Milly upon this, my contention, only contention with her being that in the past I was trying to put the pressure on God to hurry up the matter a bit too soon, but now this time limit is about over. The moment has arrived when, for the welfare for the Cause, there should no longer be delay. I must bring these problems to a finish, ere the Faith of the believers be overtaxed more that they can bear; therefore, I must now compel the Hands of the Faith to bow to the authority conferred upon me by our late Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, and call a halt to all these proceedings of your violation of the Bahá'í Administration.

I put this matter to you very bluntly and in this very direct way, but I tell you these things with a heart full of love and compassion toward you Hands of the Faith as a body and also to each of you as individual Hands of the Faith.

You Hands of the Faith must accept me as your protector to guard you in your position as Hands of the Faith and to protect you in this exalted rank, bestowed upon each of the Hands by the Beloved Guardian. You have make a great mistake in inaugurating your program for 1963, but this may not all together be your fault, for you, like all other Baha’is, were bewildered at the death of Shoghi Effendi. It is not to be surprised at not to condemn under such extenuating circumstances as surrounded the believers that were precipitated by the departure of the Beloved Guardian. But now, all that confusion is of the past. The way is made straight and open by my explanation to the world of the unbroken line of the Guardianship that still leads the Faith onward to the predetermined and sure victory — for such is the assurance vouchsafed to the world in this prophetic Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.

The only protection that you, as Hands of the Faith, will find will be in your support of me as your Guardian; therefore, hasten to announce this to the Bahá'í world. Should you hesitate to do this you will indeed be making more trouble for yourselves. The only way you can avoid the humiliation that will be yours when the world knows of the failure of your aspiration for 1963 is now, for you to announce to the world the Second Guardian of the Faith that will bring such joy to the Bahá'ís in all parts, that all the mistakes of the Hands will be forgotten and the way will be assured for the triumph of the World Crusade initiated and put into action by the First Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.

Should the spirit of violation so dominate any of the Hands of the Faith to suggest to them to refuse to harken to this, my proclamation that I, Mason Remey, am now the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, let them consider how my Guardianship of the Faith gives me the power to stand alone against any and all opposition. Therefore let all of the Hands realize this and recognize that I command the Faith and that I will brook no opposition from anyone.

Until now I, Guardian of the Faith, have remained in my occultation and because of my forbearance, have, in silence, allowed the Hands to follow their chosen path of violation. But now that hour of mercy and forbearance is at an end. The hour of justice has struck. This is the day of equity. the Hands of the Faith are the first to be called to this bar of divine justice of which the Guardian of the Faith is the judge here upon earth; therefore, let the Hands of the Faith be the first to pass, that they resting firm in the Faith may be the first to arise to serve their Second Guardian and thus be prepared to carry out his first command to them, that they immediately and without loss of time announce to the Bahá'í world through all the National Assemblies that I, Mason Remey, am their Guardian and that I have been Guardian of the Faith since the death of the Beloved Guardian, awaiting in occultation until the propitious moment to make my appearance before the Bahá'í world.

I have been the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith since the death of Shoghi Effendi and single and alone until now, I have guarded it; but from now on I will expect the cooperation of the Bahá'í world in the carrying on to its fulfillment the World Crusade initiated by the Beloved Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi. Until now I have stood alone with all against me. From now on I shall expect the support of the believers of the Faith.

The status of the Hands of the Faith is the same after the death of Shoghi Effendi as during his lifetime such as described in the Will and Testament of the Master ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. Whereas, in the case of I, myself, as the President of the Council, during the lifetime of Shoghi Effendi I had no authority to act (that is )during his lifetime, for then he was the infallible director of all Bahá'í affairs and the direction of the International Council was his and his only, for he never shared this infallible authority with any one.

During the lifetime of the Beloved Guardian of the Faith, all infallible command of the International council was vested in him as the Guardian of the Faith. While I was President of the International Council, my command of the Council was but a potential command, since infallibility was vested only in the Guardian of the "Faith; but with the death of Shoghi Effendi my period of potential command became the actual command of the Council. So, from the death of the Beloved Guardian, I became the commander of the Bahá'í International Council and the one to direct its activities that will develop into the Universal House of Justice.

This unique position amongst all Bahá'ís of guarding the Faith has been mine since the death of the First Guardian of the Faith.

Let all Bahá'ís know, realize and accept that the Beloved Guardian in his infallibility bestowed this responsibility upon me, Mason Remey.

Now and then, during these past eleven years and more, I have occasionally mentioned to friends a vision that I had some years ago in which I had a flash glimpse of the Faith at some time yet in the future from now; a vision of the Faith in progress on its way of triumph, infallibly led over all difficulties and problems. In my vision I saw no intermediate developments, only the end which was the triumph of my Guardianship of the Faith and the vision of this end, the triumph of the Faith has stood me well and given me hope in times of trial and trouble that have been my share and that sill are my share as I approach the realization of my vision of the Faith, triumphant in this world under the rule of the Second Guardian of the Faith.

These Bahá'í affairs are eventually coming out all as I saw them to be. The Beloved Guardian appointed me to this position in the Faith, President of the Bahá'í International Council. Have confidence in me. I am directing this matter and I am guarding the Cause, so please do as I tell you and give all the love you can to the Hands of the Faith, for they have assumed the responsibility of the protection of the Faith in the period of this interregnum and their problems and troubles are many.

By the Beloved Guardian’s appointment of me as President of the International Council, Shoghi Effendi placed in my hands the unique authority and the power to protect and to guard the Hands of the Faith against the violation that the Hands of the Faith are now trying to perpetrate upon the Cause. Thus, I, as President of the International Council, have by virtue of this position not only the reign but the duty to forbid all violation against myself in this office. Now it is my right and duty to guide, regulate, control and reign over the action or actions of any and all Bahá'ís, either Hands or common believers— to protect the Faith from violation of the Guardianship— that is of the Administration— that is of the Will and Testament— that is of the interpretations of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh— that is of the Revealed Word of God as given to the world by Bahá’u’lláh.

All this has the Beloved Guardian bestowed upon me.

During his lifetime, Shoghi Effendi singly and alone held these prerogatives of control of all Bahá’í affairs upon earth. This position of command was his and his only, by virtue of the fact that he was Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith; for these qualities and prerogatives were those of the Guardian of the Faith and were vested in him and in him only above all other Bahá'ís in the world.

With the death of Shoghi Effendi, this position of command that he held during his lifetime automatically passed to me — to whom he by his appointment of me as the unique one to protect and guard the Faith AFTER HIM but not during his lifetime — but to follow him as the Guardian.

Now these prerogatives which were only his during his years of Guardianship, passed to me — prerogatives that only could belong alone to the protector of the faith. Therefore, from the moment of the death of Shoghi Effendi, I have been the inheritor of these prerogatives of the protector of the Faith.

Therefore, I now declare that I am the Guardian of the Faith, the Second in line after the Center of the Covenant, appointed by Bahá’u’lláh to interpret and to guide and protect the Cause from all error, the infallible Guardian of the Faith; and that I, Mason Remey, have been the Guardian of the Faith ever since the death of the First Guardian of the Faith— this line of Guardianship has not been broken by Shoghi Effendi’s death. It has but gone into this PERIOD OF OCCULTATION in order that the followers of the Faith, Hands and other believers, be prepared to understand to receive and to accept me as their Second Guardian

This period of occultation has been a distressing one in the Bahá'í world but under the condition of the very sudden death of Shoghi Effendi, it could not have been avoided.

While I speak very frankly, brutally frank but with all love in my heart, to the Hands of the Faith when I tell them (that I have done many times) that they are violating the Will and Testament of the Master ’Abdu’l-Bahá, that is all in private to them only and is a secret to be kept fro the Bahá'í world.

The Hands of the Faith should have all faith in me, their Guardian, and they should hold silence before the believing world lest they be criticized and lose face before the Bahá'í world of the present and of the future on down through the ages to come. For this day is your day of judgment before the people of the Faith and by the people of the Faith.

Therefore, you Hands of the Faith, by holding silence about your own indiscretion and your falsification of the evident intent of the Beloved Guardian (that the Guardianship of the Faith continue on an unbroken line of infallibility without interruption — by holding this silence you will be giving yourself a last opportunity to reorganize and rearrange your attitudes of the violation of the Administration of the Faith by coming now without hesitation under the protection of the Second Guardian of the Faith, who is your sole and only protector in this day of your judgment.

Thus do I, your Guardian, make this last effort to save you. This is all that I can do. The rest is in your hands. I can save the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh from you and from your violation, but I am helpless to save you, for the Hands of the Faith can only save themselves. Now is their opportunity to wipe out past violation and remain in the service of the Guardian of the Faith, the infallible one.

You Hands of the Faith would do will to call an emergency conclave of the Hands of the Faith to convene as immediately as possible at the Bahá'í Temple in Wilmette, called in support of the continuation of the Guardianship of the Faith; for such a demonstration on your part would give you the acclaim and assure you of the love and the admiration of the believers throughout the world— a matter that now hangs in the balance.

For you attitude favouring the abolition of the Guardianship forever, as declared in the "Chicago Manifesto", so pleasing in its substance at that time to the majority of the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land, Is known by the believers in many places. Should this be brought up against you by the believers at large, you would have no protection. Even I could not protect you from criticism of your indiscretion. You can only do this of yourselves and as I suggest a conclave of the Hands in the nearest future. Should you remain firm in the Bahá'í Administration-Covenant, this would clear up now, once and for all, this present dilemma of the Cause throughout the world and put all things to right to insure the triumphant success of the world crusade upon which the Faith is now engaged, that was inaugurated by out late Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi.

But this matter of an immediately called conclave I do not command of you. This, I, your Guardian, only suggest. You Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land must make this decision for yourselves.

About a year or eighteen months, or thereabouts, before the Beloved Guardian called me to Haifa and told me that I was the President of the Bahá'í International Council and that from then on my home was to be in Haifa in the Holy Land, I had a dream or to be more explicit, an instantaneous "flash-vision" as if it were of things that were to be. In this vision I saw myself with a group of believers upon the terrace of the Shrine upon Mount Carmel and I was walking toward the Shrine together with this group. I, as the Second Guardian of the Faith, was in command of the Cause, Shoghi Effendi was dead, and that was all. I tried to dismiss it all fro my mind as a figment of my imagination, but the remembrance of it stuck with me.

There had been no element of time in this "flash-vision" of things to be and no suggestion of the intervening happenings between the then present and this picture of things, people and events, and conditions of thing in the Faith—just this one flash-vision of something to happen, parts of which vision have and are now transpiring but that have not yet all taken place.

As I have written, I paid no or little attention to this vision of things to come; in fact, I couldn’t believe that such could ever be — not for some time did I think of it; not until the Beloved Guardian appointed the Bahá'í International Council, with me as its President. This was the first big happening that seemed to fit itself into the interim of the then present and the fulfillment of my vision. From then on, things have so happened in the Cause, thus forming a build-up of events, as it were, convincing me of the truth of the prophetic vision that I had had; so when Paul Haney called me up, down at Pohick in Virginia where at that time I was living, saying that he must see me — that something terrible had happened in the Cause, so terrible that he hesitated to mention it over the telephone, I know instantly that Shoghi Effendi was dead.

I went into the First Conclave of the Hands of the Faith at Behje thinking that surely our Beloved Guardian had let written instructions for appointing me his successor — the Second Guardian of the Faith. But no, it was not the divine plan that the Hands of the Faith be told in this way. For, by piecing together and fitting into an overall picture the Administration principles of the Will and Testament, together with the application of these principles made by the Beloved Guardian in the establishment of the Administration of the Guardianship and the actual thing that he inaugurated in the Cause (amongst which was the International Council with me as its President), the Hands of the Faith will find a very clearly defined picture of the Faith in its present state of confusion. The authority is theirs to announce to the Bahá'í world the one in their midst who is the Second Guardian of the Faith and their acknowledgment of his authority to be their Guardian, the Commander-in Chief of the Bahá'í Faith — the Guardian of the Cause.

Thus do I, Mason Remey, place before you my claim to the Guardianship, not coming to me by any wish or desire of mine own, but bestowed upon me by the action of our Beloved Guardian and confirmed by his action, one of which, the most easy to understand, was his appointment of me as the President of the International Council.

Thus and upon such grounds do I, Mason Remey, declare myself to be the Second Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and do now issue my first command that the Hands of the Faith make this announcement to the Bahá'í world.

To reiterate, in none of the conclaves and conferences that I know anything about has my name as President of the Bahá'í International Council ever been so much as mentioned much less ever discussed in any, in connection with my appointed capacity of President of the Council, though as I state all of the Hands of the Faith knew of my appointment to this position; yet, no one ever mentioned or alluded to it in any of our conferences.

Although I was very conscious of the International Council through these deliberations, very conscious indeed that no one of the Hands thought to make my allusion to my Presidentship of the International Council, the why for of this omission I can only guess. I have no substantiated ideas about it.

As for myself and my unique position in the Bahá'í world as President of the International Council, I reiterate that I cannot remember ever having broached this subject for discussion to any of the Hands of the Faith residing in the Holy Land, either in the meetings or individually in conversation with any of these friends; therefore, if I speak to this point, to again reiterate myself, I will take the stand before this Ridván convention I do in this letter, that I am not breaking trust or promise of silence before the Bahá'í world of anything said in the conclaves or conferences of the Hands of the Faith in now explaining my relation to the people of the Faith. I am revealing nothing that has transpired in the conferences among the Hands of the Faith in now explaining my relation to the people of the Faith. I am revealing nothing that has transpired in the conferences among the Hands of the Faith or has been spoken of by any of them in my presence.