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| Joel J. Marangella... |
 Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:01 pm |
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THE PROCLAMATION OF JOEL BRAY MARANGELLA
November 12, 1969
To the faithful supporters of the Covenant of Bahášušlláh throughout the
world.
Dearly beloved brothers and sisters in El Abhá,
Well nigh a decade has passed since a spiritual catastrophe of undreamt of
magnitude revolving around the Guardianship of the Faith struck at the very
roots of the Cause of Bahášušlláh and swept away all but a handful of
stalwart defenders and champions of His Covenant. Following the passing of
the first Guardian of the Faith, a small band of steadfast and intrepid
supporters of the Covenant of Bahášušlláh who had refused to lose faith in
the inviolability of this mighty Covenant and in the immortality of the
"Child of the Covenant" the Will and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá penned by
the Center of that Covenant, recognized the second Guardian of the Faith
appointed under the provisions of that divinely-conceived Document. They
rallied to his support and defense and by their acts of courage, faith and
devotion added another unforgettable chapter to the annals of our Faith. How
very strange and unexpected it was for these faithful defenders of the
Covenant to find themselves, then, the target of a veritable onslaught of
vituperation and calumny launched against them by those believers who,
during the ministry of the first Guardian of the Faith, had gained such
widespread fame amongst their fellow believers for their devotion, fidelity
and service to him, the chosen first minister of that Covenant. How
paradoxical it was for these supporters of the second Guardian to be
maligned and blasphemed for having remained faithful to the Covenant. How
incomprehensible it was to them to find that so many of their fellow
believers had permitted themselves to be led astray from the protection and
safety of the Fold of the Covenant and the recognition of the second chosen
minister of the Covenant, the Guardian of the Faith, so soon after the
passing of the first Guardian. How saddening it was to learn that these
formerly faithful friends had passed out from under the shade of the
Covenant, had lost their faith in the inviolability and immortality of the
provisions of the Will and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá and had, however
unwittingly, joined the ranks of its enemies.
The first beloved Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, labored
unremittingly over the span of his thirty-six year ministry to establish the
Covenant on a firm foundation in the hearts and minds of the believers. His
copious and matchless writings contain numberless passages devoted to the
subject of the Covenant of Bahášušlláh and to that priceless heritage, the
Will and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá, whose provisions he said only future
generations would fully comprehend. Those of us who read and studied the
writings of Shoghi Effendi were thrilled by the sublime and supernal vision
that he imparted to us of the future World Order of Bahášušlláh based on the
divine System bequeathed to us in the Will and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá.
One might ask what more could Shoghi Effendi have said to bring to the
friends a fuller comprehension of the divine origin, the immortality and
immutability of the unique Institutions of that God-given System. What
language could Shoghi Effendi have chosen to more glowingly and befittingly
describe the sacred and divinely inspired character of that immortal
Document the Will and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá, a Document characterized
by him as the brightest emanation of His Mind, the divinely-conceived
offspring resulting from the mystical union between the Mind of Bahášušlláh
and the Mind of Abdušl-Bahá, and therefore the very Will and Purpose of the
Author of the Baháší Revelation, Himself. And what more superlative
appellation could he have given this Document than to extol it as a
supplement to the Most Holy Book, Itself The Aqdas and therefore a part
of the Divine Explicit Text whose Laws and provisions would remain
sacrosanct and unalterable down through the ages of the Dispensation of
Bahášušlláh. Supreme among the divinely-conceived Institutions bequeathed to
us in the Will and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá is the Institution of
Guardianship, for the incumbent of that Office in the language of the Will
and Testament is "the expounder of the words of God", the director of the
Hands of the Cause and the "sacred head and distinguished member for life"
of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme legislative Organ of the
Baháší Administrative System.
With the sudden and completely unexpected passing of the first Guardian of
the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, the believers suffered a tremendous shock,
followed almost immediately by the second shock of finding that Shoghi
Effendi had apparently failed to appoint a successor in the manner they had
anticipated based on their interpretation of the provisions of the Will and
Testament. Failing to find a successor so appointed, the great majority of
the believers, led by the then Hands of the Cause, forthwith concluded that
the Institution of Guardianship had ended with the passing of Shoghi Effendi
and that he had failed to appoint a successor in spite of all that he had
said about the immortal provisions of the Will and Testament of
Abdušl-Bahá. A small number of the believers had refused to accept this
view and clung to their faith in the continuity of the Guardianship in spite
of the signs at the time to the contrary. Some three years were to pass
before the faith of those who had remained firm was vindicated and rewarded
upon receipt of a Proclamation issued by the second Guardian of the Faith at
Ridván, 1960. This Proclamation struck as a thunderbolt in the Baháší World
and brought on the spiritual catastrophe aforementioned. To the faithful
few, it brought the joy of the realization that the line of Guardianship of
the Faith had remained unbroken as promised in the Will and Testament and
discovery of the unique manner in which Shoghi Effendi had provided for the
continuity of the Guardianship in complete conformity to the provisions of
the Will and Testament but not in accordance with the preconceived opinions
of the believers. These faithful friends hastened to embrace the second
Guardian and arose with renewed dedication to work for the victory of the
Covenant. Armed with the irrefutable arguments contained in the Proclamation
and Mason Remeyšs subsequent Encyclical Letters, as well as the enlightening
expositions in his "Daily Observations" penned during the painful and
fateful years of his residence at Haifa following the passing of Shoghi
Effendi, the faithful friends composed numerous treatises and apologia of
their own supporting the claim of Mason Remey to the Guardianship.
In spite of the fierce opposition which the Proclamation engendered and the
machinations of this new generation of violators of the Covenant of
Bahášušlláh, the true Faith under the hereditary Guardianship slowly began
to grow and win adherence to its ranks in the four corners of the earth. It
was not long before strong groups were formed on several continents followed
by the establishment of Local Spiritual Assemblies and the formation of
National Spiritual Assemblies in the United States and in Pakistan. The high
water mark in this progress was reached with the historic announcement made
by the second Guardian on 21 September 1964 of the creation of the second
International Baháší Council (announced in the October 1964 issue of the
Glad Tidings). Through the means of this historic announcement, the second
Guardian, similarly to the first Guardian, publicly announced to the
believers the one whom he had chosen as his potential successor to
Guardianship (i.e., by naming the President of the Council). But he had gone
a step further than Shoghi Effendi to reinforce this appointment and to
avoid any future doubt by placing in the hands of his successor-to-be well
in advance of this public announcement a document written in his own hand
naming him as his successor. This fact is herewith revealed publicly for the
first time. This act of appointment goes back to the year 1961, some
nineteen months after the Proclamation issued by Mason Remey. In December of
that year a letter was received from Mason Remey in whose outer envelope was
enclosed a smaller sealed envelope containing the following inscription
written by Mason Remey on its face:
"Joel: Please take care of this sealed envelope among your papers in the
Bernese Oberland. As I see things now it may have to do with the coming
world catastrophe in or after 1963. You will know when to break the seal."
In accordance with the instructions contained thereon, this letter was
deposited unopened in a safety deposit box in a bank near my permanent
residence in Switzerland. Its receipt was mentioned to no one.
It remained for Mason Remeyšs announcement on September 21, 1964, of my
appointment as President of the Second International Baháší Council (the
embryonic Universal House of Justice) to publicly make known to the
believers that I would be the third Guardian of the Faith unless, as he
stated, I was unable to assume this Office. In this eventuality and
apparently based on his conviction that the world catastrophe which he had
prophesied would have grave and unpredictable consequences, he also
designated the eight Vice-Presidents as potential successors in the order
named. Soon after this public announcement I journeyed to Switzerland where
for planning purposes I felt that the time had come to break the seal of the
document which had been deposited there some three years earlier. The
statement contained therein was handwritten at Washington, D.C. on December
5, 1961, and read as follows:
"Dear Joel:
This is to tell you to tell the Baháší World that I appoint you to be the
third Guardian of the Baháší Faith according to the Will and Testament of
the Master, Abdušl-Bahá.
Mason, Guardian
of the Baháší Faith"
Upon reading this statement of appointment, I was first struck by the fact
that it was addressed to me and not to the believers and that it
commissioned me "to tell" the Baháší World that I was the third Guardian.
The question which immediately arose in my mind was when I should tell the
believers of this appointment. I concluded then that such an announcement on
my part would only be appropriate after the passing of the second Guardian.
Also, it occurred to me that such an announcement made after the passing of
Mason Remey would then only be a confirmation of what had already been
announced to the believers by the second Guardian at the time the second
International Baháší Council was created. The thought did not cross my mind
at that time that it would ever be proper to make this announcement in
advance of the passing of the second Guardian. In this regard, Bahášís had
accepted as a matter of course that the incumbent of the Office of
Guardianship would hand over the spiritual scepter of this Office to his
successor only at the hour of his death (although an examination of the Will
and Testament of Abdušl-Bahá does not disclose that this is a
precondition). I did not mention opening this letter of appointment to
anyone at the time outside of my own family nor did I write to Mason Remey
about it.
As time went on Mason Remey assigned increasing responsibilities to me in my
capacity as President of the Council. A culmination was reached in the
summer of 1965 when I visited him in Florence, Italy, and he instructed me
to announce to the Baháší World the activation of the second International
Baháší Council. He left the wording of this announcement to me. I recall
wondering to myself at the time how I would word such an announcement as
Mason Remeyšs Proclamation had made it very clear to all of us why Shoghi
Effendi had never instructed him during his lifetime to activate the first
International Baháší Council (created in 1951), for had he done so Mason
Remey, as its President (i.e., the head of the Universal House of Justice),
would have at that instant automatically become the second Guardian. Upon
returning to France where I was residing at the time and reflecting further
on how I should phrase the announcement activating the Council, I prepared
the statement which appears in the Glad Tidings of October 1965 under the
heading of "Council Assumes Task". This statement was forwarded to Mason
Remey for approval, although he had not asked me to do so. A review of this
statement will show that I attempted to resolve my dilemma by using such
phrases as: "the second International Baháší Council (the embryonic
Universal House of Justice under the hereditary Guardianship) will not be
convened at this time as a collectively functioning body" and "The President
will assign responsibilities and tasks to individual members of the
Council". However, recalling the circumstances surrounding the creation of
the first International Baháší Council in 1951, it will be remembered that
Shoghi Effendi, himself, had issued all instructions and assigned tasks to
individual members of the Council. Therefore, Mason Remey, the embryonic
Head of the embryonic Universal House of Justice, remained in this embryonic
state destined only to emerge and come into active life as Guardian of the
Faith upon the passing of Shoghi Effendi. My situation was different for it
is now apparent that the procedure which I conceived and placed into effect
with the aim of circumventing activation of the Council really did not
accomplish this purpose at all. For the moment I assumed responsibility for
directing members of the Council in the performance of their tasks the
Council was actively functioning and activated under its President (its
activation not necessarily being contingent upon a collective convocation of
its members in a given place). The head of this functioning body could only
be the Guardian of the Faith. Whether Mason Remey, himself, at the time,
grasped the implications of his instructions to me to activate the Council
is not known to me. If he did not, however, a subsequent announcement which
he directed I prepare and release to the faithful Bahášís indicated that he
had turned the affairs of the Faith over to me. In a letter under date of
February 18, 1966, he stated: "I am turning the affairs of the Faith over to
you as the President of the second Baháší International Council to handle
this for me you having the other members of the International Council to
assist you" and further in this same letter "from now on I will leave you
free to conduct the affairs of the Faith, I making suggestions when
necessary". (Published in the Glad Tidings of May 1966).
It is difficult to point to a specific date when the fortunes of the Faith
under the hereditary Guardianship began to falter and then later to decline
rapidly, but it was soon after the formation of the second International
Baháší Council. I, myself, suffered considerable consternation on more than
one occasion at that time upon receiving letters from Mason Remey which were
increasingly condemnatory of everything that the first Guardian of the Faith
had said and accomplished during his ministry and which presented views
diametrically opposite from many of those which he had expressed in his
Proclamation, Encyclical Letters, Daily Observations and other writings
penned during the early years of his ministry. In several instances I felt
moved to write to Mason Remey on these matters pointing out in some cases
that I felt this continued criticism of the actions of the first Guardian
would serve no useful purpose, even if justified, and would in the eyes of
the believers weaken the basis of his own claim to the Guardianship. I felt
increasingly frustrated and helpless at the time, a feeling I am certain was
shared by many of the faithful believers, as one by one the victories which
we had won for the Covenant so recently, began to slip from our grasp. It
was not long before the Baháší administrative institutions under the
hereditary Guardianship were dismantled by Mason Remey and the second
International Baháší Council which had been activated only some twelve
months earlier was summarily dismissed without the slightest prior
intimation to its President of his intention to do so. In a letter addressed
to me on October 18, 1966, Mason Remey instructed: "At your leisure will you
kindly turn over to me such records as you have of the second Council that
no longer exists,"
As sad as the situation had now become within the fold of the faithful
believers, there remained for Mason Remey to make what to me was a startling
and inexplicable announcement which had the effect of suddenly and fully
awakening me to the gravity of the situation. This was an announcement in
August 1967 that a person other than myself and not one of the original
members of the second International Baháší Council whom he had designated as
potential Guardians, had been appointed the third Guardian of the Baháší
Faith. As Mason Remey had not nullified in any way his former appointment in
1961 of myself as third Guardian, it was inconceivable and incomprehensible
that he should make an alternate appointment. For the first time I felt
impelled to write to Mason Remey apprising him of my knowledge of his
appointment of me as third Guardian on December 5, 1961, enclosing a
photostatic copy of same asking for an explanation. His reply offered no
explanation and served to confirm my worst fears that something was
seriously wrong if Mason Remey had forgotten, as was obviously the case,
this all-important appointment. This sad turn of events, needless to say,
caused a great commotion in my heart and soul. After meditating on the
situation for some time in an effort to find a rational explanation, it
dawned on my consciousness that the reason for this, as well as the
lamentable state of affairs in the Faith and the conflicting statements
which were coming from Mason Remey lay in the fact that the mantle of
Guardianship no longer reposed on the shoulders of Mason Remey nor had it
done so since the autumn of 1964 when I had opened the letter addressed to
me by Mason Remey telling me to tell the Baháší World that I was the third
Guardian of the Baháší Faith. As earlier explained, I had considered at the
time that this was an announcement that I would only make after the passing
of Mason Remey. But as I have already pointed out Mason Remey had on two
occasions provided me with the opportunity, however unbeknownst to himself
and unrecognized by me to take over the reins of the Faith (i.e., when the
Council was activated in October 1965 and in February 1966). In some
respects, my own failure to perceive my accession to the Guardianship
parallels the experience of Mason Remey as it will be recalled that some
three years elapsed (from 1957 to 1960) before he perceived that he had been
the Guardian of the Faith since the passing of Shoghi Effendi.
Having finally come to the realization late in 1967 that I had actually been
the Guardian of the Faith since 1964, the faithful friends may well ask why
I did not forthwith claim this fact to them then and there. I can only say
in reply that the thought of plunging the Faith into a fresh crisis over the
matter of successorship was abhorrent to me. Moreover, I was certain that my
claim to the Guardianship would now most certainly be openly repudiated by
the very one who had appointed me to this supreme Office my predecessor in
the Office of Guardianship and one whom I had deeply loved and endeavored
with all my heart and soul to faithfully serve. Further, I reasoned that
this situation would be seized upon by the sans-Guardian Bahášís as proof of
the falsity of Mason Remeyšs claim to the Guardianship following Shoghi
Effendišs passing and would be considered by the non-Baháší world as further
evidence of schism and division within the Faith. With these thoughts in
mind, coupled with my feeling that the faithful friends were not yet
prepared to accept my claim to the Guardianship, I elected to remain silent
and await the course of events.
Encouraged and emboldened by the remarkable fact that a few believers have
recently had the spiritual perception to recognize, without any solicitation
on my part, my accession to the Guardianship, I have decided to break my
self-imposed silence, to present herewith the basis of my claim to the
present Guardianship of the Faith and to hereby proclaim this to the Baháší
World. In doing so, I am keenly aware that once again the faithful
supporters of the Covenant and the Guardianship will be severely tested. My
one consolation lies in the thought that this new test may for once and for
all cause the believers to realize that the Institution of the Guardianship
of the Faith is independent of and apart from the individual who occupies
this Office at a particular time. Down through the ages to come, different
persons will sit upon the spiritual Throne of the Guardianship a Throne
upon which is focused the light of the Holy Spirit. Only when the one who is
the "chosen branch" of the Tree of the Covenant is seated thereon does he
become irradiated with that eternal Light and is he enabled to discharge the
sacred Trust with which he has been invested.
Dearly beloved friends, the hour is late very late indeed. The fortunes of
our precious Faith have perhaps reached their lowest ebb since the fateful
and tragic events of more than a century ago when following the martyrdom of
the Báb, the heroes of this early epoch, were struck down one by one by the
ferocious and pitiless attacks of the external enemies of the Faith. Has not
our beloved Faith during the past decade sustained successive blows of an
internal spiritual nature no less severe in their own way then those
physical blows which decimated the heroic Dawnbreakers during the
Dispensation of the Báb and as dire in their consequences? Rest assured,
however, that these successive tests which have afflicted this infant Faith
in accordance with Godšs inscrutable purpose can only further fortify the
faith of those who stand fast and firm in the Covenant and spiritually
prepare these faithful friends to more befittingly discharge their services
to the threshold of Bahášušlláh.
The third Guardian of the Baháší Faith supplicates God that the faithful
friends will accept his Guardianship, unite as never before, forget past
differences, march forward together to regain our lost victories and
continue onward to establish the World Order of Bahášušlláh on a firm and
lasting foundation.
Your faithful and loving brother in El Abhá.
Joel Bray Marangella
Third Guardian of the Baháší Faith |
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