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BACK NEXT Summer 2003 Issue 25 Letter from the Editor News Briefing News and Views On the Level International News Julian Rees For the Support of Brothers Seeking the Heart of Egypt United States Grand Master's One-Day Classes Trench Art Sir Alfred Robbins's Greatest Defeat Murder and Masonry The Allied Masonic Degrees The Pope and the Spy Berkshire Masonic Library and Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: A Treasury of Masonic Thought Review: The Templar and the Grail Review: The Chapter and the City Review: The Mark Degree Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Summer 2003 - Issue 25 - Index Michael Baigent - Letter from the Editor A rather senior mason offered me some advice not so long ago: that I should not go on about spirituality so often in Freemasonry Today since Freemasonry was not a religion. Now, I agreed with the last part of his statement. Certainly we need to keep some clear water between Freemasonry and religion. This is enshrined in our Constitutions and has been since 1723. Two hundred and eighty years ago Freemasons were enjoined to be ‘Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d; whereby Masonry becomes the Center of Union and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among Persons ...' News Briefing Visit of Pro Grand Master to Italy for 10th Anniversary of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy — New Provincial Grand Master for Cornwall — New Provincial Grand Master for Leicestershire and Rutland — Rock of Gibraltar, from Adversity to Advantage News and Views Paralympic Champion Feted by Yorkshire Royal Arch Masons — Happy Band of Brothers — Freemasons Visit Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Neasden — Masonic Library and Museum Group in Derby — Bristol Mark Masons Model Ambulance Raises Money On the Level  Mark Masonry in London — Lodge Jewel Computer Catalogue — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — Centre for Research into Freemasonry, Sheffield University — Quatuor Coronati International News Kirkcaldy Masonic Symposium — Michigan Joint Initiation — Freemasons in Germany Coping with Floods — 275th Anniversary of Freemasonry in France — New Zealand Masons Support Post Graduate Paediatric Studies — California Masons and Their Working Tools Modest Stillness and Humility There must have been contributors to this magazine who were tempted to write on political or religious issues but were reluctant to do so. As Freemasons we have an intuitive understanding that these are places where we do not go. We are reticent on the broad plane because discussing contentious issues can spread discord. We are reticent in particular because, as Freemasons, we are explicitly warned to avoid these topics amongst ourselves. The historical reasons for this verbot are not hard to understand. In the early eighteenth century the perceived Jacobite menace had not entirely been put to flight. The Hanoverian monarchy ... For the Support of Brothers When in 1883 J.M. Baernreither, a Doctor of Law from Venice, visited Britain he got very excited. He found that ‘there [had] gradually been formed an aristocracy of workmen, a kind of vanguard, which already counts many hundreds of thousand’, actors in a ‘gigantic’ ‘theatre’ of ‘associated life’. For Baernreither these Working-Men’s Orders as he called them, were ‘offshoots of, or in imitation of, Freemasonry’. These ... Seeking the Heart of Egypt On our first morning in Egypt we stood in the shadow of the Sphinx, next to its great paws, listening to the city of Cairo gradually awakening as the sun rose. We felt we were uniquely privileged: tourists are just not permitted into the Sphinx enclosure but can only gaze down on it. For our trip to begin in this way was indeed a good omen. The day before, awaiting us on our arrival at Cairo airport, was Mohamed Nazmy, owner ... 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 ... Trench Art Art is often born out of hardship, adversity and suffering, and this is nowhere more true than in the field of armed conflict. From the Spanish Armada to Vietnam, from the BoerWar to Bosnia, across more than two centuries and five continents, the most amazing collection of artefacts of all kinds – much of it masonic - has come into being as a result of war. Trench Art is the name given to objects - be they of metal, cloth, wood, bone, stone or any ... Sir Alfred Robbins's Greatest Defeat The inauguration on 1 October 2003 of a Metropolitan Grand Lodge will mark the end of over 200 years of debate about the organisation of London Freemasonry. It will also, after nearly 90 years, bring to fruition a project close to the heart of Sir Alfred Robbins (1856-1931), who as President of the Board of General Purposes from 1913 until his death, was described as ‘the Prime Minister of English Freemasonry’, and who suffered one of the few reverses of his Masonic career in his attempt to reorganise London Freemasonry ... Murder and Masonry In the sparse, hushed courtroom, the judge prepared to pronounce sentence of death. Looking straight at the prisoner, he said; ‘We both belong to the same Brotherhood,’ (he faltered here) ‘and though that can have no influence with me, this is painful beyond words for me to have to say what I am saying, but our Brotherhood does not encourage crime, it condemns it.’ This was the culmination of a sensational trial, sensational not only ... The Allied Masonic Degrees The Grand Council of the Order of Allied Masonic Degrees now controls five degrees which are ‘beyond the Craft’. In Freemasonry Today, Issue No. 21, we looked at three, St Lawrence the Martyr, the Grand Tilers of Solomon and the Knights of Constantinople. There remain two, very important degrees, for us to consider. The Red Cross of Babylon. This was one of the four initial ceremonies over which ... The Pope and the Spy Towards the end of January 1731 the London government received a frenzied report from Rome. Its author was a certain Baron von Stosch, a resident in the Holy city, and a personal favourite of King George II. Stosch reported that about 10 o’clock the previous Sunday he had been returning home, when suddenly his carriage had been surrounded near Prince Ruspoli’s palace by three masked assailants brandishing muskets ... Berkshire Masonic Library and Museum I was not surprised to come across Robin White at the Bloomsbury Auction of Rare Masonic and Occult books in April. He is well known as a dynamic masonic librarian and the Province of Berkshire must consider themselves fortunate to have him at the helm of their Library and Museum of Freemasonry. His dynamism was manifest at its best during the Auction. He secured several lots after fierce bidding ... Feast of Saint Lanfranc William of Normandy, known as William the Bastard but promoted, following his victory at Hastings in 1066, to William the Conqueror, appointed Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. Lanfranc was consecrated in the roofless wreck of the recently incinerated cathedral and subsequently supervised its rebuilding, so there was a bit of masonry in him! Today is also the anniversary of the Fall of Acre in 1291, when the great tower of the Templars finally collapsed under the weight of the onslaught of the Mamelukes ... Letters to the Editor The Dangers of Expediency — One-Day Classes — Why The Holy Royal Arch? — Freemasonry and the Archbishop of Canterbury — The Spirit of Freemasonry — Masons on Cruise Ships — Masonic Design Book Reviews Review: A Treasury of Masonic Thought Review: The Templar and the Grail Review: The Chapter and the City Review: The Mark Degree Who was Who? Within the history and rituals of Freemasonry we come across the names of various characters – mainly from the Bible but we do not always have the time to stop and consider who these characters were and what part they played. I have tried to correct this by producing Reflections of the ‘Who was…’ nature. Several of these have appeared in other books while in Freemasonry Today we have already had ‘Who was Raphael?’ ‘Who was Joshua?’ and ‘Who was Jephthah?’ About some characters we know too little to make a complete article and so in this issue I offer reflections on two entirely different men ...   Issue 25, Summer 2003 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008