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BACK NEXT Autumn 1999 Issue 10 Tobias Churton - Editor's Comment The Eye Newsbites Grand Lodge responds to Select Committee Report The First Degree Tracing Board Man, Know Thyself Broken Square Masonic Symbology Freemasonry Saved My Life Prince Hall Grand Lodges Masonic Bodies Address List I Am Who I Am Masons Under Attack Review: Green Man Stiletto Port Deserves a Better Name Letters to the Editor The Sham Exposure Copyright 1997-2008 FREEMASONRY TODAY Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Autumn 1999 - Issue 10 - Index Tobias Churton - Editor's Comment One thing an editor is never short of is advice - and he gets the pick of the crop: the wisdom and complacency of age, the seasoned caution and intolerance of middle-age, the enthusiasm and impatience of youth. There’s insight, vision, vexation, criticism and creativity - and it all comes tumbling into my in-tray and into my mind. What am I to make of it - apart, that is, from the Letters pages? One thing at least is clear to me. Masonry is alive and kicking: the energy and will for future growth and expansion are there. Indeed, I am convinced that there is far more energy and will for growth ... The Eye Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium 20th Anniversary — Architecture and Freemasonry to feature in Architecture Week 1999 — Blackpool Masonic Hall opens doors — District Grand Chapter of Bombay and Northern India celebrates Centenary — Consecration of Grand Lodge of Estonia — Freemasonry a “Bright Light” for the future — Web News — First Academic Conference on Craft in England — lifelites gathers pace — Police Chief reassures Lancashire Masons — Masonic Museum Curators Brainstorm in Bayreuth Newsbites Cheshire — Cornwall — Durham — East Lancashire — Gloucestershire — Hampshire and Isle of Wight — London — Middlesex — North Wales — South Wales — Staffordshire — Sussex Grand Lodge responds to Select Committee Report The United Grand Lodge of England has responded in full to the Home Affairs Select Committee report, Freemasonry in Public Life (19 May 1999). The report dealt with investigations into three specific cases raised in the previous report (Freemasonry in the Police and Judiciary) relating to the Stalker-Sampson affair; the Birmingham Pub bombings, and the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad. It also raised three new matters (a Charitable Trust, a County Council and a Masonic Home) on which Grand Lodge was not consulted nor given an opportunity of commenting on ... The First Degree Tracing Board It is only in the last hundred years or so that Tracing Boards, pre-prepared and increasingly standardised, have become commonplace. In operative masonry, the tracing board is not a diagram but a plain board for the master to lay lines and draw designs upon - in other words, to depict the detail of the intended structure. The earliest reference to the use of a Tracing Board as a symbol of the Lodge appears in the Carmick Manuscript of 1727, where “this figure represents the Lodge”. However, common practice appears to have been for the Master or Tyler to draw the design appropriate ... Man, Know Thyself I was very fortunate this summer to be impressed by two powerful images of spirituality. The first was a picture of the face of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Basil Hume, alongside an obituary to this simple, saintly, good man, at peace with and knowing himself, and therefore knowing God, as he approached his death: calm, composed, and with gladness. The second was the unabashed and honest gaze of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones as they exchanged their wedding vows, with sincerity and determination, oblivious to the circus around them ... Broken Square - Freemasonry in Serbia The destruction of Freemasonry in Yugoslavia, and the impossibility of its recovery under present conditions, is a subject which has not yet been properly researched. Relevant documents which could shed more light on the subject are still not available. The devolution of Freemasonry in Yugoslavia started more than 50 years ago and continues to this day. After the breakdown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, three lodges from Croatia and Slovenia requested release from the Symbolic Grand Lodge ... Masonic Symbology and Actvities in the Most Serene Republic of Venice The Palazzo dei Dogi (Doge’s Palace) in Venice is undoubtedly a magnificent structure. Begun in the ninth century, its construction developed together with the Most Serene Republic until it attained its present form in the mid 1400s. The close bond between the Basilica of S.Mark and the Palace, both ducal buildings, saw the former as metaphor for the Holy Sepulchre and the latter for ... Freemasonry Saved My Life The public face of Jim Davidson is that of a Jack the Lad comedian whose sometimes saucy stage shows blend with his much-publicised fight against alcoholism and his reputation for the number of marriages he has notched up. Yet divest him of this façade and the real Jim Davidson will stand up and be counted as a champion of Freemasonry who regards the Craft as the crux of his life and is happy to acknowledge becoming a mason not only changed his life but saved it. Indeed, he holds the Craft in such high esteem that he is looking forward ... Prince Hall Grand Lodges In my last article on Freemasonry in Trinidad and Tobago (FMT Summer 1998) I made reference to the four Prince Hall lodges here in Trinidad. These lodges come under the Free and Accepted Masons, Jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and they are collectively known as the Eighth Masonic District, Trinidad and Tobago. The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was the first of the Prince Hall Grand Lodges to be recognised by the United Grand Lodge of England (December 1994). The history of Prince Hall Masonry is most interesting to students of masonic affairs ... Masonic Bodies Address List As promised in the last issue of Freemasonry Today, below is a list of the principal masonic bodies in England and Wales, together with the degrees which they control. In addition, contact addresses are included for the principal ones, although for the sake of space the full titles of the bodies have not been given. Further details, including the necessary qualifications for admittance, can be found in Beyond the Craft by Keith Jackson, published by Lewis Masonic (which also includes information on the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A), The Order of Eri, and The August Order ... I Am Who I Am A signpost nestling in the verdant green hedgerows so typical of Cheshire pointed my way to the 15th century Gawsworth Hall, once the home of Mary Fytton, the supposed Dark Lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Her ghost is still said to haunt the ancient timbers and stone of this friendly, yet stately, home, but no longer does the Fytton family - once known as the ‘Fighting Fyttons’ - hold the family seat. It is now in the incumbency of the Richards ... Masons Under Attack - in the 15th Century At Westminster on the 1 November 1388 (according to the Calendar of Close Rolls) a writ was issued by King Richard II and sent to all the sheriffs throughout the land. To the sheriff of Lincoln. Order, for particular causes declared in the parliament last holden at Cantebrigge, on sight &c. to cause proclamation to be made, that all masters and wardens of guilds and fraternities shall before the Purification next certify in chancery the manner, form and authority for the foundation of such gilds, the continuance and ruling thereof, the oaths of the brethren and sisters, their meetings ... Review: Green Man Stiletto In Edinburgh we are enjoying the sort of weather that lends itself to stravaiging. That means aimlessly wandering the streets to catch the whisper of pre-festival hype. The pavement artists have not yet established their territory, but the jewellery sellers are here, the bars are moving into a higher gear and the junk-shop; oops, antique shop proprietors are doing the same, bringing their wares onto the pavements under the glare of the police and sitting on their own furniture to smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and bask in the rare sunshine ... Port Deserves a Better Name Poor old port! Why does it always get the blame for the hangover? It may be a fortified wine, but if one drinks port of good quality, there is no reason why it should be responsible for any problems the morning after. What is more probable is that you have drunk too much anyway, and the port is the last thing you can remember, or that you have started with a grain-based spirit (whisky or gin) which reacts uncomfortably with the grape ... Letters to the Editor Brethren in Kosovo — Women’s Freemasonry — Image Problem — Reserve Lodges — So Mote it Be — Hele unconcealed — Hiram Abif(f) — Masonic Choirs Unite — Disclosure — Masonry and Religion — In the heart ... The Sham Exposure Organised Freemasonry began with the establishment in London of the Premier Grand Lodge of England on 24 June 1717. Although the event was totally ignored by the contemporary press, much of our subsequent history is covered by newspaper reports in the early part of the 18th century. The first hints of antagonism towards the Craft appeared in the London Journal on February 15 1722 when it was announced that “a treatise is likely soon to appear... to prove, that the Gypsies are a Society of much longer standing than that of the Free-Masons ...   Issue 10, Autumn 1999 © FreemasonryToday 1997-2008