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 Winter 2006 Issue 39 Letter from the Editor News Briefing News and Views On The Level News Beyond the Craft International News Julian Rees Scrimshaw and Folk Art Ladies in the Lodge A Milestone to Mark A Masonic Temple in West London? A Most Miserable Trade Knowledge of the Heart Masonic Treats Guarding Cornwall's Masonic History Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: Freemasonry: Secrets, Symbols, Significance Review: Cracking the Freemason's Code Review: The City of London: A Masonic Guide Review: Marking Well Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Winter 2006 - Issue 39 - Index Letter from the Editor One of the most fascinating conferences I have attended was held recently at the Canonbury Masonic Research Centre. The subject was the approach to spiritual matters based on knowledge rather than faith or belief, an approach termed ‘Gnostic’ from the Greek word gnosis, ‘knowledge;’ a report appears in this issue. In the late second century A.D. certain Christian theologians decided that the Gnostics were heretics. From their perspective the Gnostics were, but due to the rich and diverse tradition of Christianity which found expression during this century the terms heresy ... News Briefing: Pro Grand Master's Announcement Regarding the Grand Secretary — Surgical Research Fellowship — 250th Anniversary Meeting of Grand Master's Lodge No. 1 — Federation of School Lodges Elects New President News and Views: Lodge Donates Boats for Adaptive Rowing — Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London - New Organisation — New Railings for Hereford Cathedral's Lady Chapel — Bury Grammar School Foundation Stone Ceremony — New Temple at the Armoury, Flint — Essex Freemasons Dedicate New Temple — To Work With Love and Harmony — Affinity Lodge Groups On the Level: Masons Work With Kids Company — Two Keyboards in Saltire — North Yorkshire Helps Air Ambulances — Masons Help Fire Fighting in Devon — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — Centre for Research into Freemasonry — The Cornerstone Society — Quatuor Coronati News Beyond the Craft: Masons Mark East Lancs St John Ambulance — Cavendish Centre Funded by Mark Masons International News: German Conference on Symbolic Gardens — Freemasonry Today Editor Attends Italian Grand Lodge — Children's Theatre in Texas — East African Masons Donation to Museum — International Conference on the History of Freemasonry to be held in Scotland — Past Grand Master of North Carolina to Chair English Lodge Julian Rees We are divided by much in the modern world. We are divided by language, and all the attempts to make the English language international won’t put that right. We are divided by cultural imprints, and no single one is superior to any other. We are divided by race, and we are only overcoming that division slowly and painfully. We are divided by religion, or we seem to think we are. We are divided by ideology and politics, often through our own blindness to see some truths parallel to the one we hold to. It seems impossible sometimes to have a view of unity, of one-ness, of those things which bring us together rather than those which cast us asunder. Even Freemasonry has ... Scrimshaw and Folk Art The image that the word scrimshaw conjures up is the painstaking etching on ivory or bone. The formal definition will take us back to an ancient indigenous American craft, later adopted by the whale hunters of the early 1800s. Long voyages could be monotonous and whale teeth and jawbones were in abundance ... Ladies in the Lodge Freemasonry has always been considered the preserve of men who since earliest times, have enjoyed the pleasures of brotherhood. Men are of course clubbable creatures, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, society dictated that women should take no part in the wide array of men’s pursuits, chief among them Freemasonry. A variety of assaults have been mounted from time to time by women on male bastions, but ... A Milestone to Mark In June 1856, the first ‘Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales, the Colonies and Possessions of the British Crown’ was constituted, officially by the Brethren of four Mark Masons’ Lodges, from places as widely dispersed as London, Berwick on Tweed and Bath. At the splendid 150th anniversary celebrations this year the Grand Master of the Order, HRH Prince Michael of Kent, welcomed a record number of participants, members of their families and a large number of non-masons. The Mark degrees, which are concerned with ... A Masonic Temple in West London? In the leafy suburbs of west London stands one of England’s finest architectural edifices, Chiswick House. It is a beautifully proportioned Italianate villa executed in the style of the late-renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio. Built during the second-half of the 1720s by the Anglo-Irish peer, Lord Burlington, it is an enigma. Most commentators consider it too small to have been designed as a place of residence and yet, curiously ... 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 ... Knowledge of the Heart The north-London based Canonbury Masonic Research Centre was established to encourage scholarship on the symbolic expression of the sacred, and matters related to Freemasonry. This year’s conference concerned Gnosticism, a term that derives from the Greek word gnosis - meaning knowledge, although not the sort that could be acquired through intellectual study. Gnosis referred to an intuitive or mystical form of knowledge ... Masonic Treats We are sent many masonic websites for review, some good and some not so good, but all are making an effort to move themselves forward into the wonderful, useful and not-as-confusing-as-it-was world of the internet. E-communication is being talked about as a friendly, versatile and even cost effective means of communication – from the Grand Lodges to the Provinces and Districts, cascading down to the lodges and its members. I thought I would look for some success stories, at all levels of development – those who have gone the whole hog and those just realising the benefits available. The award for energy and content has to go to the Province of Cumberland and ... Guarding Cornwall's Masonic History We were in the Province of Cornwall at the south-eastern end of St Ives bay, six miles from Penzance, to visit Hayle, a town with a rich industrial heritage, coming into importance in the mid eighteenth century as did Freemasonry itself in the area. I could not avoid thinking how tough such a journey would have been in the mid-1700s when contact with Grand Lodge in London was accomplished on horseback or in uncomfortable coaches ... Brother Lightfoote's Journal They were all right, of course, and they were all wrong. The first had got hold of one of the legs, the second the trunk and the third a tusk. They each had a firm grip on a detail but no grasp of the Grand Design whatsoever. I know some Freemasons like that… Saint Hilary had a very firm grasp of the Grand Design. Though born of pagan parents, patient scholarship led him to be convinced that man was obliged to put his knowledge of good and evil to positive use, and if he did so, he would be richly rewarded. I am in agreement with Saint Hilary on this point, though ... Letters to the Editor Freemasonry in Turkey — New Masons — Publicity for Freemasonry — Freemasonry and Religion — Unusual Emblem — Remembering the Fallen Review: Freemasonry: Secrets, Symbols, Significance Review: Cracking the Freemason's Code Review: The City of London: A Masonic Guide Review: Marking Well Canon Richard Tydeman I used to do quite a lot of travelling by air and, of course, funny things were sometimes bound to occur. One particular flight was going to a not very well-known country - let’s just call it Ruritania for now - and as we flew the passengers were each given one of those ‘landing cards’ to fill in with such details as, where are you coming from, and where are you going to, and why. Now, every country has a different set of questions to ask: one will require your father’s occupation, another wants to know your mother’s maiden name, or how long you have lived in your present abode, and so on. This particular card asked, ‘What is your address in Ruritania?’ followed by, ‘What is ...   Issue 39, Winter 2006 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008