FREEMASONRY TODAY
Book Review
A book about freemasons is one
thing. A book about people
prominent in their civic roles is
another. It takes a special kind of skill
to blend the two, and the author of this
volume has certainly tried his best,
through his undoubted enthusiasm for
his subject and the thoughtful,
sensitive and thorough way he deals
with it.
David Sermon starts his
acknowledgments by saying ‘This is a
book about people’. That is always a
welcome sign, and the author does
indeed treat in a very sensitive way of
the many people who have graced the
civic and masonic scenes in Winchester
over the past two hundred years. Yet
this is essentially a bicentenary history
of the Chapter of Economy (however it
is spelt) with, admittedly, some
extremely well researched material
surrounding many of the prominent men
who have served both the city and the
chapter. As such, it is likely to be of
interest only in Winchester. But lodge
and chapter histories are notoriously
pedestrian affairs, and here we have one
that is written with a good deal of skill.
The author has resisted writing in the
doggedly chronological fashion, a sure
sign of an amateur historian.
Chapter Five, ‘A Procession of
Mayors’, worries me a bit. A newlymade
mason reading this, or a nonmason
come to that, might find the
age-old prejudice confirmed, that of
freemasons as self-satisfied, selfimportant
and self-serving. This is not
to say that the individual men who
served both chapter and mayoralty
were not in some cases men of
integrity who genuinely had the
interests of the community at heart.
But the reader is left with the suspicion
that had these men not made it to civic
prominence, their masonic identity
would not have been worth mentioning
either. We wondered about those
members of the chapter who were not
in the public eye – were they not
worthy of mention? But perhaps this
was outside the author’s remit.
One of the best parts of this little
volume is the robust but thoughtful
defence of Freemasonry in the face of
the present Archbishop of Canterbury’s
confused and offensive ramblings, and
for that the author is to be commended.
Julian Rees
Issue 25, Summer 2003
|
© Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008
|
|
