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BACK NEXT Autumn 2002 Issue 22 Letter from the Editor News Briefing News and Views On The Level International News Julian Rees Striving for Charity Navel of the World Freemasons Make Music Celebrating the Jubilee The Great Virtuoso Into Everything That Bright Morning Star Off The Record The Worcester Masonic Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry Review: The Way of The Craftsman Review: The Golden Builders Review: Living Ancient Wisdom Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Autumn 2002 - Issue 22 - Index Michael Baigent - Letter from the Editor The heart and soul of Freemasonry resides in our ritual. It is that which takes us on the journey towards that Centre from which a Master Mason cannot err: that point of stillness about which all revolves, where one can indeed hear that Voice of Nature to which the Third Degree Charge so powerfully alludes. Participating directly in the ritual is an important part of being a Freemason. Without the ritual, Freemasonry would be a vicarious entertainment rather than a life-affirming experience. There are two reasons for my dwelling upon this: the first is that in this Issue of Freemasonry Today there are several items which, as it were, revolve about the Centre ... News Briefing First Metropolitan Grand Master of London Announced — New Provincial Grand Master for Somerset — Cornwall Masonic Festival Raises Over £2.8 Million — Northamptonshire Festival Raises £2,002,622 in 2002 News and Views RAF Hero With The Grand Master at Air Display in Gloucestershire — Land’s End to John O’Groats — Burmese Banners Given to Masonic Museum — A Non-Stop Triathlon — Sailing For The Disabled Sponsored by Northampton Lodge — Neath and Port Talbot Masons Aid Alzheimer Charity — Gift to Ghurkhas in Hull — Collectors Bargains On The Level Clay Pigeon Shoot — Red Arrows Team — Masons Help Communications — Reward for Hearing Dog — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — Centre For Research into Freemasonry, Sheffield University — The Cornerstone Society — Quatuor Coronati Lodge Seminars International News Floods in Prague Hit Czech Grand Lodge Archives — Aid for Children’s School in India — Australia: Freemasons in Victoria Change Rules — Regular Grand Lodge of Italy, Installs New Grand Master Deliverance Offered From The Darts It has always puzzled me why, when two aircraft just miss each other, it is called a ‘near-miss’. Surely it would be more correct to call it a ‘near-hit’, and we have recently had a tragic demonstration of what happens when a near-hit becomes a direct-hit. As I write this I am sitting in the garden surrounded by evidence of life. I can see a butterfly fluttering round a bush. I can hear a bird showing off his vocal range. I can feel my own heart beating. I am not a fatalist, but I do recognise that at any moment the butterfly may stop, the bird fall silent and my heart seize up for ever. Some of us, without flying in aircraft, have had first-hand experience of near-hits ... Striving for Charity Dennis Daymond-John is now eighty-one years old. He had always suffered from poor eyesight. He managed to join the army in 1939 by memorising the eye-charts but was discharged in 1943 by a canny doctor who produced a chart Dennis had not previously seen. His sight finally failed and since 1980 he has been registered as blind. But since 1982 he has raised the extraordinary total of £150,000 for charities. He has raised it by stunts ... Navel of the World Many ancient cultures possessed the notion of there being a symbolic world centre – a "world navel" or omphalos as it was called in the Classical age. Although strange to us, of all the ruling themes of ancient thought, it was one of the most fundamental and pervasive. The ancient mind perceived the world navel motif at all scales. At the largest, cosmic, level the north or pole star, Polaris, was often its symbol for peoples in the northern hemisphere ... Freemasons Make Music Music used to play a great part in Freemasonry, as witnessed by the vast amount of old masonic music which exists. As far back as 1723, Anderson’s Constitutions contained sixteen pages of songs and music. But by 1875 the United Grand Lodge of England was becoming concerned about the hymns being sung in lodges. Grand Lodge declared that "hymns form no part of the Masonic Ritual, and the singing of hymns in Lodge is an innovation..." Celebrating the Jubilee "Equal in glory to King Solomon" was the comparison made by an enthusiastic Victorian Freemason of Queen Victoria, then celebrating her Golden Jubilee. Charles Meiter of Mizpah Lodge, No. 1671, speaking at the meeting of Grand Lodge in March 1887, proposed to perpetuate the memory of the 1887 Golden Jubilee by rebuilding Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem as a "House of Prayer for all Nations". He added, optimistically seeking to allay an important difficulty, that the expense to Grand Lodge would be about £25, "the cost of the Foundation Stone" ... The Greatest Virtuoso With these words, Captain Elias Ashmole made the first known personal record of initiation into a lodge of Accepted Free Masons, anywhere in the world. Elias Ashmole: “the greatest virtuoso and curioso that was ever read of in England before his time”, declared contemporary Anthony à Wood. I have been fascinated by this luminous “saint of the gnostic church” for many years. In ages of greatness he has been seen as great; in an age of straw-men ... Into Everything ‘It was in Street Harley’s hallowed halls that I meet with David Rosin. Overawed by both the person and the place, I could but only stammeringly ask, "And how Sir did you get to where you are today?" "I was born and bred in what was then Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. Grandfather a Rabbi, Father a surgeon, and Mother the first female Member of Parliament, both Jewish. It was an idyllic childhood: an abundance of open air, good climate ... That Bright Morning Star The atmosphere in the Grand Temple was electric from the outset; those masons who had assembled on a bright summer morning carried with them a palpable desire to increase their masonic knowledge with information and insight. Yet, even that vast and impressive space seemed barely sufficient to contain the enthusiasm of the audience. Since its formation in 1999, The Cornerstone Society for Master Masons has established itself as the major masonic organisation in England dedicated to the renewal and revitalisation of the Craft. It was founded ... Off the Record Freemasonry, for all its appearance of being a conservative part of the civil establishment, is at its heart a radical institution. What we do not realize today is that the ideas espoused by Freemasonry in the 18th and early 19th centuries, while sounding common-place to us, were truly revolutionary in their own day. The heart of Freemasonry is its ritual. If we truly listen to the music of the words and understand that ideas have consequences, we will come to see the revolutionary implications for our own day of the great masonic virtues: Brotherly Love, Relief, Truth, Equality, Temperance, Friendship, and, above all, Justice. The face and promise of Freemasonry has changed greatly ... The Worcester Masonic Museum From the moment I saw John Hart’s warm, smiling face waiting to welcome me at Worcester station, I could tell the Worcester Museum of Freemasonry was in good hands. John is an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and very proud curator. He was appointed just four years ago. The thirty-year ‘reign’ of his predecessor, Tommy Grounsell, had been exceedingly fruitful. The Museum collection became well known ... Brother Lightfoote's Journal Saint Felix was as faithful as his name implies, having chosen to be beheaded, during the persecution of the Christians under Diocletian, rather than surrender the Holy Scriptures that were in his care for incineration. The annals of history afford numerous examples of such sacrifice, where individuals have laid down their lives to keep that which they deem sacred from the hands of the profane. I am sure that we can all think of at least one… Is Lightfoote's name about to be added to that illustrious roll? We shall see. I attended a Lodge meeting recently ... Letters to the Editor Gratitude to Freemasonry — Existence of God — Masonic Ties — King George VI Photograph — Relaxation of Dress Codes — Old Altrinchamian Lodge — Life Shaping Masonry — Old Fogies? Review: The Art and Architecture of Freemasonry Review: The Way of the Craftsman Review: The Golden Builders Review: Living Ancient Wisdom Who Was Jephthah? "The renowned Gileadite general", as we know him, was a highly complex character and a tragic hero in the true sense of those words. His story can be found in chapters eleven and twelve of the Book of Judges. To start with, he was illegitimate. His father had other sons who were born in wedlock but Jephthah’s mother was a concubine and therefore his half-brothers refused to acknowledge him and made his life so miserable that he ran away and "lived rough" in the hills. Here he gathered a band of outlaws in Robin Hood fashion and carried on guerrilla warfare against all and sundry. This experience evidently taught him the principles of leadership and strategy ...   Issue 22, Autumn 2002 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008