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BACK NEXT Summer 2006 Issue 37 Letter from the Editor News Briefing News and Views On The Level News Beyond the Craft International News Julian Rees Victor Horta York Mysteries Revealed Nicholas Stone R.N.L.I. A Weekend Away Lodge No 0 and the Web Library and Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: York Mysteries Revealed Review: The Freemason at Work Review: American Freemasons Review: Workmen Unashamed Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Summer 2006 - Issue 37 - Index Letter from the Editor Again our media confronts us with dark images: sad photographs of grieving parents, children with eyes hollowed by hopelessness, landscapes revealing destruction. Some derive from natural disasters but others, stem from the consequences of ruthless ambition, greed, or the brutal fear of anything different. We can certainly complain at what seems an obsession with misery in the media but while it is guilty of exploitation - it is more part of the entertainment industry than the information - it has an important role in helping us to witness the ills which need addressing. Happy people don’t need help; miserable people do, and it seems to me right that the media should attempt to encourage aid. But the wider context ... News Briefing: New Royal Arch Leader in Berkshire — Masonic Hall Created in Beamish Open Air Museum — Durham Has New Provincial Grand Master — Provincial Grand Master for West Kent Holds Provincial Grand Lodge Meeting News and Views: Launch of New Masonic Research Centre — Association of Atholl Lodges Celebrates — The Hall in the Garden at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry — London Harewood Group Initiates Actor — Sheffield Masons Remember Comrades — Metropolitan Grand Stewards Lodge Consecrated — Beneficiaries of Trust for Girls and Boys Have Their Say On the Level: West Lancs Paintballing — Tapton Ladies Represent Grand Charity — Llanelli Helps Eye Surgery — Masons to Visit Holy Land — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — Centre for Research into Freemasonry — The Cornerstone Society — Quatuor Coronati News Beyond the Craft: Masonic Order of Athelstan — Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons 150th Anniversary International News: Pro Grand Master Honoured by Grand Lodge of New York — Benjamin Franklin 300th Anniversary — Hurricane Katrina Fails to Halt Lodge Julian Rees It has been pointed out to me twice recently that we more often use the word ‘compasses’ in Freemasonry, than ‘compass’. The compasses, of course, are a draughtsman’s, architect’s and mathematician’s implement for describing circular figures and for delimiting objects. Compass, on the other hand, has two principal meanings – in the concrete sense it is a device for determining the magnetic meridian or the relation to it, and in the figurative sense it is used to denote range or extent of something (‘within the compass of ability’). It got me thinking about symbols and allegories in the wider sense, those implements we, as Freemasons, would be lost without. Our Craft is full of them, and of course ... Architect, Freemason and Visionary: Victor Horta The exit from the Gare Midi in Brussels leads straight out into the wide square named after Baron Victor Pierre Horta. Further along, in the rue Americaine, is Musée Horta and you cannot go far in Brussels without encountering places and buildings bearing his name, and sporting the romantic curves and classical proportions of Art Nouveau, with which he is associated. He was undoubtedly one of the most famous 19th century architects and skilled ... York Mysteries Revealed More than two million tourists visit York each year: there are the ancient encircling walls and their Bars (or gatehouses) . There is Clifford’s Tower, the Castle precinct with its museum and the nearby site where a Viking settlement once flourished. In the excavated foundations of the present Minster you can make your way not only amongst the Norman remains but the bases of the original Roman headquarters’ walls. For others there are the gardens in the grounds of what was once ... Nicholas Stone: Accepted Freemason In the summer of 1718, one year after the formation of the London Grand Lodge, the second Grand Master, Mr. George Payne, requested that Brethren donate ‘any old Writings’ concerning masonry. Accordingly, several manuscripts were produced. However, it was subsequently reported that, sometime in 1720, ‘several very valuable Manuscripts… concerning the Fraternity… particularly one writ[ten] by Mr. Nicholas Stone the Warden of Inigo Jones’ were tragically ‘burnt’. Although ... The Story of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution In the midst of force eight winds and boiling seas with 3-metre waves, Helmswoman Aileen Jones of Porthcawl was instrumental in saving two fishermen from certain calamity. ‘I had a rough idea where he fished,’ she said, ‘so we headed up that way, towards the top of the Nash Bank, which is where we saw him. It wasn’t a nice place to be. The water was coming in at all angles, his engines had failed, none of his anchors would hold. Whatever the sea decided to do to him ... A Weekend Away The image of a Ladies’ Festival or a lodge celebration of any kind has changed forever. These days, lodges plan weekends away, sometimes at a resort in their own part of the country, sometimes travelling considerable distances to benefit from a complete change of scenery. Such events have become very easy to organise since the hotel industry has adapted ... Lodge No 0 and the Web The ‘Mother Lodge of Scotland’ has a most fascinating history. Those of us who belong to the older lodges (the ones with the lower numbers) undoubtedly feel a sense of pride when we give out our lodge number. So how do those who belong to Lodge Mother Kilwinning No. 0 feel? This must have been the start of many a long debate. The official website of Lodge Mother Kilwinning No 0 has a wonderful section on the history of the Lodge, where their passion and determination has produced a most unique lodge, a lodge where there are no other lodges in their Province, a lodge where up until 1983, the Master of the Lodge would by right of that office become Provincial Grand Master for Ayrshire. This is a must for those of us ... The Treasures of Freemasons' Hall London As a preamble to an article that will do justice to the amazing content of our Library and Museum of Freemasonry, I spoke with Mark Dennis, Curator since October 1999. I asked him to direct me to the various paintings and statues in the Grand Lodge building outside the L-shaped perimeter of the Museum and Library itself. The result is a wonderful array of important paintings and several sculptures, which many of us will have walked passed in corridors or sat beneath in the rooms ... Brother Lightfoote's Journal And they’re welcome to them so far as Lightfoote’s concerned. If man’s Creator had intended him to live a life aquatic He would surely have equipped him with gills and fins. At the very least He would have made him palmipedous but, except in some odd cases He did not. I have heard it put forward, usually by one who has imbibed enough to float a battleship, that man is somehow descended from creatures of the deep that have, over eons, crawled up on to the land, learned to walk upright and gone on to write sonnets and open bank accounts. Frankly I find ... Letters to the Editor Faith Lodges — Spiritual Meaning — Churches and Freemasonry — Rank is but the Guinea Stamp — Braille Rituals — Freemasons' Hall, Dublin — Discrimination? — Bath and the 'Lost' Furniture ... Review: York Mysteries Revealed Review: The Freemason at Work Review: American Freemasons Review: Workmen Unashamed Canon Richard Tydeman Masonry is described as ‘Universal’ and although no lodge has yet been contacted outside our particular galaxy, the Craft can be found in every part of this world of ours. There are, of course, differences in details of ritual but the ideals of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, remain as landmarks generally acknowledged. This unity has been achieved largely through our refusal to discuss either politics or religion, leaving every Brother free to make his own arrangements for worship and polity. In this way we can meet Brethren of other Constitutions on equal terms while still retaining our own religious beliefs and without sacrificing our own patriotism. One of the great advantages of this system is that ...   Issue 37, Summer 2006 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008