The Orthodox Bahá'í Faith is a movement which started within the Bahá'í Faith, though now independent of it. Total membership is estimated at up to a few thousand. Although the beliefs of the main division and the Orthodox Bahá'ís are for the most part identical, they differ on the issue of ongoing leadership.
In 1960, the Bahá'í Faith underwent a severe test of succession. Shoghi Effendi was the Guardian of the Faith until his death in 1957, and he died without explicitly appointing a successor. The Hands of the Cause ...
According to the members of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith, Joel Bray Marangella became Guardian of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith based on the activation by Mason Remey of the Second International Bahá'í Council with Marangella as its appointed President in October 1965, and by Remey's earlier written appointment of him as Guardian.
See Bahá'í divisions for subdivisions within the Orthodox Bahá'ís that have disputed this appointment.
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During the time immediately following the unexpected death of Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, Charles Mason Remey declared himself the successor to Shoghi Effendi in his Proclamation in 1960. In this Proclamation he commanded, as Guardian, that the plans to elect the Universal House of Justice by the methods proposed by the Hands of the Cause cease immediately. Remey had signed the unanimous statement of the Hands that no document appointing a successor Guardian had been found, and that no such appointment of a bloo ...
Remey remained silent to the general Bahá'í community until 1960 when he stated that unity could not be preserved at the cost of the Guardianship. He maintained that he would not be able to convince the Hands that a living Guardian was indispensable, according to his interpretations of the Writings of the Faith.
In 1960 he proclaimed to the Bahá'ís that Shoghi Effendi had appointed him Second Guardian of the Bahá'í World Faith, and outlined the means by which the late Guardian had appointed him. According to Mason's Proclamation ...
