We are embarking upon an exciting new era. As many of you will now know Freemasonry Today has combined with MQ to create a new quarterly magazine while retaining the breadth of coverage we pioneered. We have come a long way in the last ten years.
    A decade ago Freemasonry was suffering from an inward looking and defensive stance, too ready to give up the high ground to its vociferous but illinformed opponents, some of whom were elected members of Parliament.
    But Freemasonry has seen this all before - and worse - from Mussolini (who first tried to join a lodge in Lausanne, and then Milan); Franco (who is said to have tried to join a lodge in Melilla and whose brother was a Freemason) and from Hitler (who in Mein Kampf revealed his bitter paranoia about Freemasonry entangled with his antisemitism). These dictators feared and opposed Freemasonry, and closed it down. We need to ask why?
    The answer is that Freemasonry is a bastion of democratic freedom based upon respect for the dignity of the individual. Here, in the United Kingdom, in the face of our opponents, the strength of that approach prevailed, as it always has done; it is our tradition.
    But a new, more open, approach was clearly necessary; Freemasonry Today was part of this movement to renew our Craft. The first issue appeared in Summer 1997 under its Editor, author and lecturer, Tobias Churton. After three years he was replaced by an experienced journalist, John Jackson, who later went on to edit MQ. I should like to pay tribute to their efforts, in particular because when I became editor it was of a successful and well-liked magazine with a solid subscriber base.
    I was appointed Editor in spring 2001; my first issue was No. 17. Tobias Churton and Julian Rees both wrote pieces for it. With a few tweaks of content and design we created the Freemasonry Today that we now know.
    Julian Rees, who had been, with me, a contributor to the very first issue in 1997, came on board as Deputy Editor in 2003. David Wilkinson, a member of the Board from the beginning, had become Publisher in spring 1998. Together we formed an enthusiastic and efficient team under the positive and benign influence of our Editorial Board, from 1998 presided over by Bill Hanbury-Bateman and from 2002 by Geoffrey Baber. Bill Hanbury-Bateman now presides over the Board of the new combined magazine which will carry the name Freemasonry Today.
    Our first task was to entertain so we can all enjoy our Freemasonry, laugh at its foibles and eccentricities, be fascinated at its stories, and learn of the good which Freemasons do for others in England and elsewhere. We wanted to celebrate Freemasonry - the great store of wisdom which is our heritage from those who came before us and its contribution to society through its charities. And, importantly, we wanted to celebrate its international links. Here we broke new ground - we maintained contact with the Orders ‘Beyond the Craft,’ and even more controversially, with Freemasons belonging to jurisdictions which were not in amity with the United Grand Lodge of England. But to us they were all Freemasons and so came within the orbit of our concern and interest.
    However, we did indicate this lack of amity - temporary we hoped - to the reader.
    There are many different expressions of Freemasonry and we may not agree with some of them – the close political alignment of some European Grand Lodges, or the one-day classes held by certain of the Grand Lodges in the United States – and it is right that we should be able to voice our criticism, even opposition, but this is not a reason to ignore them. I am very pleased that this ecumenical breadth of contact will continue despite our official link with the United Grand Lodge of England.
    English Freemasonry is strong enough to deal with diversity without feeling in any way challenged.
    Facing us now are the formidable challenges of the twenty-first century. The brilliance of our technology has brought us faster cars, faster aeroplanes, and faster means of destruction; but it has not brought us that satisfaction or leisure time promised even twenty years ago. Too many of us need to keep rushing in order to survive in an increasingly expensive society, one which seems to care only for people as a mass movement, not for individuals. The emptiness this creates is filled by constant distraction but a life of distraction, sooner or later, will bring us to ask the way to the ‘centre’. And this is an important task of Freemasonry for it focuses upon the centre which, we are told, contains the ‘secrets of a Master Mason.’ Our rituals symbolise the journey towards it. This task alone gives us much to do and much to contribute to society as the twenty-first century unfolds; for it is the heart of the matter.

Michael Baigent, MA

Erratum
In our report on the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy (GLRI) in issue 41 we wrote that the GLRI was the only masonic body in Italy recognised by other Grand Lodges. In fact there are other Grand Lodges in Italy, many of them recognised by Grand Lodges other than UGLE.