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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 North America Texas and the Alamo An intrepid movie magazine reporter once asked Hollywood cowboy star, Freemason, and director of The Alamo, John Wayne: ‘Was that really the way it was?’ . John Wayne replied, ‘Hell No, but that’s the way it ought to have been!’ And so it was that legend became firmly entwined with history. Tensions had arisen as settlers flooded into the territory that had previously been Mexican. The attraction to Americans was obvious; land, and plenty of it ... Prince Hall Freemasonry Prince Hall Freemasonry began with a single lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, chartered in 1784. Today the Prince Hall fraternity spans the globe, with Grand Lodges or lodges on every habitable continent except Australia. The warrant for African Lodge, No. 459, was granted by the Grand Lodge of England (the Moderns) to a group of African Americans, led by a man named Prince Hall. Much has been written about Prince Hall, but most of it is ... A Most Miserable Trade The slave trade in Liverpool reached its peak during the late eighteenth century, with many Liverpool merchants and businessmen taking part in what they saw as just another legitimate business - making an acceptable profit from slavery. Liverpool became dominant in the trade. Freemasonry was also popular in Liverpool at this time with around ten lodges, both Antient and Modern, emerging in the port during ... A Temple which never sleeps: E-Masonry It was so pleasing when the Editor of Freemasonry Today kindly invited me to travel to Pennsylvania to meet a person - Josh Heller - with whom I had been in communication for over seven years: also, to meet and be royally entertained by his lovely family and other members of the E-group. Josh began by explaining how he had first become interested in Freemasonry. ‘It was in 1998, travelling to work I daily passed by a large masonic Centre and a Scottish Rite Cathedral. It was curiosity: what was it all about, where did these people come from and why ... Band of Brothers I was privileged to be in Normandy for the sixtieth anniversary of the D-Day landings. I trust that the vast majority of readers will be well acquainted with what happened on 6 June 1944. The operation was, quite simply, the greatest feat of arms in history. The logistics are almost incomprehensible: an armada of five thousand ships, eleven thousand aircraft and, most importantly, a hundred and thirty-three thousand men delivered to ... Masonic Traditions for the Twenty-First Century Reports and comments critical of mass initations in the United States have been regularly carried in the pages of Freemasonry Today. The large majority of the American Brethren who responded have given their wholehearted support to our stand. Partly as a result of the spread of mass initiations, but also as a result of other evidence of a decline in masonic practice in the United States, the Masonic Restoration Foundation has ... "We Should Square Corners, Not Cut Them" My father was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in 1950, two years before I was born. He also became a member of the Scottish Rite and the Shrine, and cherished his memberships. ‘When you turn 21, I hope you’ll become a mason’, said he to me one day when I was about nine, and these words, coming from this very laconic gentleman made a lasting impression on me. They were steeped in time and forged in a sense of loyalty. They were part of a masonic process. As a result of this exchange, and watching my father proceed through life as a man who ... Shaped by the American Frontier What gives American Masonry a different flavour from the Craft in the British Isles and Europe? It’s not so much the differences in ritual, but the emphasis on the individual Freemason rather than the lodge, an emphasis which was forced upon it by the environment. The last major U.S. frontier was the central northern plains. Although the frontier experience there was little different from that of eastern America, it remains new and real ... Home Away From Home In May 1938, on the eve of war, Winston Churchill urged Britons to do their part for Anglo-American relations. ‘It is in the homes, not the hotels, of a nation,’ he declared, ‘that we can learn the truth about our people.’ He addressed British businessmen in particular, imploring them to go beyond mere business contact with visiting Americans but instead ‘ask them to your homes and your clubs, so that they may see something of the real England ...' Gold and Freemasonry The mighty Yukon River, from its source at the Llewellyn Glacier high above Atlin Lake in north western British Columbia, runs about 2,300 miles, northwards through the Yukon territory, the Cities of Whitehorse and Dawson, continuing westwards across Alaska to the Yukon Delta, where it empties into the Bering Sea. In 1896 prospector George Carmack and his Indian brother-in-law ‘Skookum Jim’ Mason, and another Indian relative ... The Mounties and Freemasonry Like every little boy growing up in Canada, I had a great fascination with the Mounties. With their dress uniform of a low, broad-brimmed hat, scarlet jacket, and blue trousers with a yellow stripe, their Musical Ride, their horses, everything associated with them. They had dogs called King and saved the world from all types of dastardly deeds and they 'always got their man'. Imagine my joy when I learned that the Mounties ... United States Grand Master's One-Day Classes There is a growing practice in the United States of so-called ‘Grand Master One-Day Classes’. Each State has its own Grand Lodge, and in many jurisdictions a composite initiation, passing and raising is being practised in which all three degrees are conferred in one day on many candidates, in some cases thousands of them. One unhappy lodge in Connecticut which declined to participate in this bizarre routine had its Warrant summarily withdrawn. The practice is one whereby the Grand Master of a masonic jurisdiction in the United States requests ... Frontier Freemason Oklahoma City, September 9th, 1927. The body of Frank Canton, clothed in the full dress uniform of a United States Army General, was buried. Oklahoma City Freemasons, dressed in the sombre suits and aprons of American tradition, raised their hands to heaven in final honours to their departed brother. Frank Canton was finally resting from a turbulent life. Frank Canton had led a life embracing both crime and law-enforcement. No one knows ... A Masonic Gunfighter of the Old West Gunfighters were as indigenous to the Old West as cattle. The more famous of the breed ended up becoming household names: John Wesley Hardin, Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, to name but a few. Dallas Stoudenmire was a shooter and a Freemason from the town of El Paso, Texas, where, one week in April 1881, he blasted his way into history. This was his brief and violent moment of fame. Masonry had been established in Texas since the formation of its Grand Lodge in 1837. El Paso’s first lodge was founded in 1854; by 1881 a good number ... The Mayo Clinic The Mayo Clinic is undoubtedly one of the most famous medical establishments in the world. Since its inception in Rochester, Minnesota, during the 1880s from the medical practice of Dr. William Worrall Mayo and his two sons, Dr. William James Mayo and Dr. Charles Horace Mayo, it has become the largest group practice in the world and is renowned for its comprehensive medical care. During their lives, the Mayos influenced the medical community ... The Masonic City Washington DC can fairly be described as the world’s foremost "Masonic City." Its centre was laid out according to a plan drawn up by the French Freemason Pierre L’Enfant. Today, the main Government area is filled with buildings that should delight any freemason seeing them for the first time. There is a veritable forest of columns ... It Could Only Happen in America Freemasonry in America gives $1,500,000 a day to charities. That’s right. One and a half million dollars a day. It’s also particularly nice to report when the same organisation uses its efforts to remember religious minorities and bring them unobtrusively into their celebrations. This is about to happen in Charleston, South Carolina. In Charleston on May 31st 1801, eleven gentlemen founded the masonic organisation called the Scottish Rite. Consequently, on May 31st 2001, members of the Rite will be celebrating their bi-centenary. We know that four of the founding eleven were Jewish ... Prince Hall Grand Lodges In my last article on Freemasonry in Trinidad and Tobago (FMT Summer 1998) I made reference to the four Prince Hall lodges here in Trinidad. These lodges come under the Free and Accepted Masons, Jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and they are collectively known as the Eighth Masonic District, Trinidad and Tobago. The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was the first of the Prince Hall Grand Lodges to be recognised by the United Grand Lodge of England (December 1994). The history of Prince Hall Masonry is most interesting to students of masonic affairs ... America's Pioneer Railroad The masonic links of some of the major figures in the American Independence story may be familiar to many readers. Some decades prior to Independence in 1734, Benjamin Franklin was Grandmaster of Pennsylvania Freemasons. George Washington, the fledgling nation’s first President, took his oath of office on a Masonic Bible at his inauguration. Some sources suggest the association between Freemasonry and American patriotism stems from Washington’s own involvement with the Craft along with several of his generals ...   North America © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008