HOME Current Issue Index by Issue Search the Site Translate On-Line Printer Friendly Internet Help Centre Regulars Specials Humour Book Reviews Links Affinity Lodges Subscriptions About FMT ADVERTISING Contact Us

BACK NEXT Summer 1999 Issue 09 Tobias Churton - Editor's Comment The Eye Newsbites At a Perpetual Distance Creation and TGAOTU The Riddle of the Stones Freemasonry in Israel The Women's Lodge Hiram Abiff Masons in Mitres? Review: Freemasons' Guide and Compendium Review: The Tutankhamun Prophecies Review: The Origins of Freemasonry Stiletto Letters to the Editor Masons and Biographers Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Summer 1999 - Issue 09 - Index Tobias Churton - Editor's Comment A rather interesting jazz-fusion instrumental recorded 30 years ago took the optimistic title Nine to the Universe*. Well, this is Issue Nine and if we can't offer you the universe entire, we hope to offer some glimpses of it. And should anyone say that FMT is a ‘specialist’ magazine, let us recall that the masonic universe is concerned with the universe as it is, not a version of it! An early masonic catechism, in answer to the question How high is the lodge? declared that the lodge was as high as the heavens: open to the universe. That is why many lodges have stars on their ceilings ... The Eye Jenner – the Stamp of Genius — Good news as Martyn Lewis chairs MTGB Millennium Project launch — Erasmus Darwin Centre opens in Lichfield — Province of Cornwall backs Openness — Guardian calls Craft ‘Secret Society’ — Clerkenwell Open House — Grand Charity Aid to Kosova reaches £100,000 — 250th Anniversary Fund supports Research — Consecration in Finland — The York Minster St. William Window Millennium Appeal Newsbites Buckinghamshire — Cheshire — East Lancashire — Essex — Gloucestershire — Hertfordshire — Surrey — Warwickshire — West Lancashire — Yorkshire ... ... Those Who Might Otherwise Have Remained at a Perpetual Distance It was the first of our three Grand Principles, Brotherly Love, which conciliates true friendship between men who would otherwise find little in common, that immediately appealed to me as a very new initiate. Quite early in my masonic career I experienced an exceptional example of this. Casual contacts between Winchester and the German City of Giessen must have begun during the fifties or early sixties before developing into a more formal arrangement. However, my first visit only took place in 1973 when, as Mayor of Winchester, I had the pleasure of presenting ... The Creation and The Great Architect of the Universe Can the Great Architect of the Universe create the world and take part in human vicissitudes? To answer this question, we must first of all look at the theological doctrines of the creation, which, in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, are of two types: the creation according to the Old Testament, and the Trinitarian creation, based on the Gospels. The Old Testament creation is interpreted theologically as creatio ex nihilo, or creation from nothing. Saying that God ‘created’ the world means that God is distinct from the world that He himself wanted. Thus the world created by Him ... The Riddle of the Stones More than 244 million years ago a desert was formed by what adventurers later called the Trade Winds at roughly the present latitude of our Sahara and Arabia. These warm dry zephyrs whipped and swirled and planed the petrified waste until the Earth’s crust coasted and drifted at the pace of the growth of stubble on an old man’s chin. This journey through time and space still continues at no great pace but, some time within these myriad years, a portion of this desert, now stone, was laid down at a place we now call Hollington in the moorlands of Staffordshire ... Freemasonry in Israel Masonic legendary history traces the Craft back to King Solomon’s period, if not earlier. However, there seems to be no real historical evidence for the existence of masonic lodges in those times. The English surveyor, Sir Charles Warren, while conducting the first archaeological explorations in the Holy Land, then part of the Ottoman empire, found an underground room adjacent to the Western Wall, site of Jerusalem’s Temple. Within the room stood ... The Women's Lodge The mere mention of the word ‘Freemasonry’ among friends provokes startled reactions, ranging from the incredulous to the downright worried, ‘Oh! You don’t want to get involved with them!’ Too late, for I consider myself already involved. Prompted by a desire to learn more about this venerable organisation, I set out to do my own research. From the masons I had already met, I encountered only support and encouragement. I was not ... Hiram Abiff Like Melchizedek and Enoch, Hiram of Tyre has become something of a mythological figure, yet the record of I Kings and II Chronicles - as well as Jospehus (Antiquities VII.22) - seems straightforward enough. Hiram’s technical services were made available to King Solomon’s temple project as a gift from the King of Tyre, also called Hiram. However, in masonic circles the oft-quoted reference in I Kings VII.13-14 is frequently conjoined to a reference ... Masons in Mitres? The title of this article might seem on the surface somewhat disrespectful, but it has been chosen to make an important point. While all the dressing-up that goes on in Freemasonry, such as in the KT, and the rolling-up of the trouser-leg at initiation - the one thing all non-masons think of when the subject of Freemasonry is raised - might seem odd to many, the thought of Freemasons wearing priestly clothing such as surplices and, worst of all ... Review: Freemasons' Guide and Compendium Review: The Tutankhamun Prophecies Review: The Origins of Freemasonry Stiletto Were the plans for the New Town of Edinburgh based on the same principles as the Temple of Solomon and the Great Pyramid? See The Eye, Spring issue and note that the distance from the vestibule of the current Royal Bank of Scotland building in St Andrew’s Square and a point near the corner of Charlotte Square and Glenfinlas Street, if divided by the distance between Prince’s Street and Queen Street gives something near the value of pi. (No calculators, please). Snippets of information of this sort merely confirm the view of those who live here that the city is on a par with ... Letters to the Editor Image Problem? — Lodge Organists — Ireland — Granpop Series — Consolation — Miami Nice — Debt of Honour Masons and Biographers Since the pioneering work of Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians (published in 1918), the art of biography has changed dramatically from respectful homage to a searchlight examination of every aspect of the subject’s life - however damaging. It is therefore surprising that in the lives of masons published in the 20th century, little if anything is mentioned of their association with the Order. We are proud of the long and illustrious line of men who have been Freemasons, and it is therefore both fascinating and often sad to read of their lives and see how the subject is, or is not, treated ...   Issue 09, Summer 1999 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008