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BACK NEXT Summer 2008 Issue 45 Letter from the Editor Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level International News Beyond the Craft Perambulating the Lodge Masonic Dining and Celebration Interview: The Grand Chancellor The Orator Walking the Way of Saint James Abd el-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Province of Cambridgeshire Library & Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Review: Committed to the Flames Review: The Mythology of Secret Societies Review: The Dawn of Astrology Letters to the Editor Internet Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter RMBI Masonic Samaritan Fund Grand Charity RMTGB Canon Richard Tydeman: Looking unto the Rock Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Scandinavia, Russia and Eastern Europe Freemasonry in Turkey Freemasonry came early to Turkey, at that time the heartland of a huge Ottoman Empire embracing most of North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. While details are lacking, there is a tradition that the first lodge was founded for non-Muslim merchants near the Arab Mosque in the Thursday Market Place, Galata, Istanbul. In 1738, a London newspaper mentioned lodges meeting in Smyrna (modern Izmir) and Aleppo but the first hard evidence we have ... Struggle for Survival Freemasonry has, off and on, been accused of conspiracies and plots against governments as well as being anti-Christ and hostile to the church. In Finland, freemasonry has travelled through similar difficulties. The first freemasons’ lodge began operations in Finland at the end of the 1750s. It was already presented with a powerful critique directed at the ideologies and operation of freemasonry by the diocesan synod meeting held in Porvoo in 1769 ... Broken Square - Freemasonry in Serbia The destruction of Freemasonry in Yugoslavia, and the impossibility of its recovery under present conditions, is a subject which has not yet been properly researched. Relevant documents which could shed more light on the subject are still not available. The devolution of Freemasonry in Yugoslavia started more than 50 years ago and continues to this day. After the breakdown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, three lodges from Croatia and Slovenia requested release from the Symbolic Grand Lodge ...   Scandinavia, Russia and Eastern Europe © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008