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BACK NEXT Autumn 2006 Issue 38 Letter from the Editor News Briefing News and Views On The Level News Beyond the Craft International News Julian Rees Reviewing the Charities Freemasonry in Turkey The Rays of Heaven Mozart's Genius and Masonry Eternity in View Masonic Support in Sabah Masonic Forums Online 333 Banbury Road Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: Making Light Review: Rose Croix Essays Review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry Review: The Hall in the Garden Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2008 FREEMASONRY TODAY Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Autumn 2006 - Issue 38 - Index Letter from the Editor As Freemasons we should help our local community but while doing so, we also need to raise our eyes to a more distant horizon. When, having been initiated, we are placed in the north-east corner of the lodge, symbolising the cornerstone of that great temple which is Freemasonry, we are contributing not just to the lodge we have joined, and to the Craft, but - let’s be truly idealistic - to all humanity. For every person, by his actions, contributes to the good of the whole. In early Freemasonry this was depicted by the beehive, the symbol of industry and charity. Freemasonry has had a strong tradition of charity, since ‘time immemorial’. Concern for others is ... News Briefing: Pro First Grand Principal installs Grand Superintendent for Bedfordshire — Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London Appeal — Grand Charity Celebrates 25 Years News and Views: University Lodges Scheme Launched — Commonwealth Lodges Association — Masonic Teach-in at Newbury — The Hall in the Garden — Freemasons Supporting Air Ambulances — Runcorn Open Day a Big Success — Local Charities and Tsunami Victims helped by Shropshire Freemasons On the Level: Children’s Hospice South West — Lodge Pays Tribute to Fallen Brethren — Oxford Masons fund British Heart Foundation — Herts Freemasons help Sri Lanka — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — Centre for Research into Freemasonry — The Cornerstone Society — Quatuor Coronati News Beyond the Craft: Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons 150th Anniversary — Rose Croix Assists Poole Hospital — Order of St. Thomas of Acon supports Canterbury Cathedral International News: Museums Association visits Vienna — Inauguration of the District Grand Lodge of Bermuda — Masonic College Founded in Maine — New Zealand Freemasons Active Promotion — Lexington Museum Celebrates American Revolution — Australian Freemasons make a difference in East Timor Julian Rees Fear is a terrible thing. Fear is corrosive, eating away our confidence, sapping our creativity, tunnelling under our motivation. Fear alienates us from contentment, and stands in the way of true happiness. The power of pathological fear is so great as to prevent sufferers putting one foot in front of the other. The writer Franz Kafka, who spent his life in fear of his own father, wrote him a letter saying ‘I could not tell you I was afraid of you, precisely because of that self-same fear’. With the recent threat to air travel, we are once again gripped by fear, by events imposed on our lives by malevolence. No point here in talking about factions – who did this, who opposed that, what ... Reviewing the Charities: the Story of Iain Ross Bryce Iain Ross Bryce, one of the most instantly recognisable figures in English Freemasonry, retired last year after fifteen years as Deputy Grand Master. It is probably fair to say that most Freemasons in England have either met him or heard him speak, but without doubt his lasting legacy to the United Grand Lodge is the way in which he has re-modelled and vitalised the charity system, turning it into a far sleeker, more productive organism ... Freemasonry in Turkey Freemasonry came early to Turkey, at that time the heartland of a huge Ottoman Empire embracing most of North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. While details are lacking, there is a tradition that the first lodge was founded for non-Muslim merchants near the Arab Mosque in the Thursday Market Place, Galata, Istanbul. In 1738, a London newspaper mentioned lodges meeting in Smyrna (modern Izmir) and Aleppo but the first hard evidence we have ... The Rays of Heaven Speakers at Cornerstone Society conferences have always probed into the deeper aspects of Freemasonry and sought to encourage Freemasons to actively ask themselves what the rituals mean at their most profound levels. But the conference this summer - opened by Chairman George Francis - was a little bit different; speakers were blunt, they directly challenged us with questions about the purpose of Freemasonry. There seemed to be a sense abroad that the laissez faire attitude is no longer working and that the pace of change needs to be stepped up ... Mozart's Genius and Masonry This year Austria is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth, on 27 January 1756, of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the greatest composers of all time. In Salzburg, the city of his birth, celebrations include performances of all of his operas; in Vienna, celebrations under the banner of Mozart Year 2006 are taking place, including substantial exhibitions at the refurbished house in the Domgasse near the cathedral, where he wrote Figaro, and ... Eternity in View While most people who nearly die from some accident or medical emergency recall nothing when they are resuscitated, some do, and their reports tend to contain common features. Typically, the person’s consciousness seemingly leaves the body and floats a few feet overhead. Everything that is going on is seen and heard, even though the physical body is unconscious. The person can then feel as if being rapidly drawn away elsewhere, often with ... Masonic Support in Sabah During my gap year travels I wanted to visit Sabah, which along with Sarawak, is part of Borneo; together both comprise eastern Malaysia. I wished to see the animal sanctuaries there - perhaps even work in one of them. Unfortunately, not long before I left, my college friend decided not to go. So I prepared to travel by myself. My father contacted Joseph Chow, a Past Master of Lodge Kinabalu, No. 7047, in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, to see if he could help me meet some local people my own age. Upon arriving at Kota Kinbalu, I telephoned him ... Masonic Forums Online We have to find time to discuss how forums have worked for Freemasonry rather than against it. There are many definitions for the word ‘forum’ – one of the original definitions, is A large open space surrounded by buildings in the centre of every Roman town. It was part marketplace, part law court, part religious district, part political arena, and was the place to go for the latest gossip. Temples and shrines could stand within the square. A more up to date definition would be An online discussion group, where participants with common interests can exchange open messages. The most popular forums include our own, www.thefreemason.com/forum, where approximately ... 333 Banbury Road, Oxford It was only a matter of time before Oxfordshire, which traces its masonic roots to 1795 and is so closely associated with the world of academia, should also have its own centre for masonic education and study. But it took a while: that aspiration, first articulated in 1954, was finally fulfilled in 1990 when The Province of Oxfordshire Library and Museum was launched initially by the efforts of John Jones and Peter Laurence, and then of Stuart ... Brother Lightfoote's Journal Pelagia was a very bad girl who became a very good boy. Following a moment of divine rapture she abandoned being a painted harlot and became a plain hermit. Dwelling, dressed as a man, on the Mount of Olives, she/he became known as Pelagius, not to be confused with the well-known heretic who upset the Roman Church hugely and was therefore probably not all bad. His heresy, coincidentally, was the suggestion that humanity was not all bad. He is not to be confused with Pope Pelagius, of whom more at a later date, perhaps. Though the weather ... Letters to the Editor Freemasonry and Religion — Church and Freemasonry — Rank — Lifeboats Review: Making Light Review: Rose Croix Essays Review: The Complete Idiots Guide to Freemasonry Review: The Hall in the Garden Canon Richard Tydeman At his initiation every Freemason is invested with an apron consisting of a plain white lambskin and this, he is told, is the distinguishing badge of a Freemason. As he progresses in the Craft this lambskin becomes decorated and adorned with rosettes and other symbols and bordered with colour, but the white lambskin is still there and stilt represents the badge of innocence and the bond of friendship. The investing officer informs the new member that his distinguishing badge is more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle, and more honourable than the Garter or any other Order in existence. This seems rather a bold claim to make, so let us reflect on it for a while ...   Issue 38, Autumn 2006 © FreemasonryToday 1997-2008