Charles Mason Remey (15 May 1874 – 4 February 1974) was a prominent member of the early American Baháʼí community, and served in several important administrative capacities.

[2][7] His claim was rejected by all the other Hands of the Cause due to his lack of scriptural authority, and he was excommunicated along with about 100 supporters, mostly from the United States.

[4] After embracing the Baháʼí Faith in Paris, Remey returned to Washington, D.C., and became a prominent author, public speaker, and organizer.

[1] Remey proposed the idea to the Baha'is in Washington to organize the first local Spiritual Assembly in the city, which he was elected to on 14 March 1907.

[4] He traveled extensively to lecture in the interests of the faith,[9] visiting Iran, Russia, and Central asia in 1908, and in 1910 became the first Baháʼí to circle the globe on teaching trips, along with his companion Howard Struven.

[13][14] Robert Stockman wrote of his journeys:[4] In November 1909 Charles Mason Remey and Howard Struven began the first Bahá’í teaching trip to circle the globe.

[4][14] In 1917–1918 Remey chaired a committee investigating the Chicago Reading Room, a study group that combined the teachings of Baháʼu'lláh with those of an Bostonian occultist, ultimately expelling its members as "violators".

[16] Remey's loyalty brought him praise from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and later Shoghi Effendi mentioned him as one of the most eminent Baháʼís in America.

[4] In part due to his fear of global cataclysm, Remey compiled much of his records and in 1940 he provided copies to several public libraries, requesting them not to be opened until 1995.

Wooden coffins and chests have been broken to bits and their charred remnants scattered.... Thousands of tiny glass fragments designed to form mosaics have been poured into the ground.

... What was planned to serve as a place of worship and remembrance is now the scene of nocturnal beer busts, drug parties, high school initiations and exploring expeditions.

An unknown number of urns containing the ashes of cremated bodies still lie amidst the trash in the mausoleum.By 1958 the church vestry became concerned, and in 1962 refused to grant permission for any more work to be done on the site.

Soon negotiations began to break the original contract; in 1968 the property reverted to the church, and Remey was given five years to remove anything of value from the site.

[11] After the last of the bodies was removed, the Remeum was demolished beginning in 1973 on the orders of the Episcopal church, and the last of the aboveground ruins was finally bulldozed ten years later.

[23] Little remains on the site to mark the former presence of the complex save an obelisk dedicated to Remey's parents and a pair of structures which served as chimneys or vents.

The Baháʼí world entered a leadership crisis upon the death of Shoghi Effendi, who died without children or an appointed successor.

[33][34] Their unanimous proclamation made 25 November stated,[35] Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, passed away... without having appointed his successor; AND WHEREAS it is now fallen upon us... to preserve the unity, the security and the development of the Baháʼí World Community and all its institutions; AND WHEREAS in accordance with the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá...;

Meanwhile the entire body of the Hands... will decide when and how the International Baháʼí Council is to evolve through the successive stages outlined by the Guardian, culminating in the call to election of the Universal House of Justice by the membership of all National Spiritual Assemblies.

When that divinely ordained body comes into existence, all the conditions of the Faith can be examined anew...Following these events Time magazine reported that there were debates about two possible candidates for Guardian.

[39] He wrote that his status as president of the International Baha'i Council was never mentioned in any of the conclaves,[40] and that the idea of not having another Guardian was introduced by Rahmatu'lláh Muhájir.

[4] At the third conclave (November 1959), Remey refused to sign the joint statement of the Hands, which was converting the International Council from an appointed to an elected body, an act that would end his position as president.

In his cover letter to Charles Wolcott, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, he wrote,[45] Enclosed I send you my Proclamation of my Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.

[46] In his intended announcement at the convention, he wrote,[47] The Beloved Guardian singled me, Mason Remey, out from amongst all of the Believers upon earth to occupy the position of President of the Baha'i International Council.

[50][51] Almost the whole Baháʼí world rejected his claim, which did not even address the requirements that Guardians be descendants of Baha'u'llah — making him ineligible — and that appointments must be clearly confirmed by the nine resident Hands of the Cause in Haifa.

The Hands sent Abu'l-Qásim Faizi to France as their representative, with specific instructions to dissolve the National Assembly and call for a new election.

[46][63] Remey wrote three letters to his supporters soon after his excommunication, sharing his belief that "the only true and legitimate Baha'is are those now serving under the Second Guardian of the Faith.

[46] In 1966, Remey asked the Santa Fe assembly to dissolve, as well as the second International Baháʼí Council that he had appointed with Joel Marangella, residing in France, as president.

In the late 1940s, he expressed his belief that nuclear war would destroy much of the world, and by the 1960s he stated publicly that the Earth's axis would tilt and produce global floods.

After a stint in prison for sexually molesting a minor,[83] he made several religious claims of his own and established himself as the head of an apocalyptic cult.

[91] King died in 1977 and left a will appointing his three sons and a daughter-in-law as a council of regents, who changed their name to "Tarbiyat Baha'i Community".