Out and About Masonic milestone
I
n its historic 200th year, the Emulation Lodge of Improvement is marking its anniversary with a series of Festivals culminating in the Bi-Centenary Festival on Friday 6 October, which will be held in the Grand Temple at Freemasons’ Hall. On this occasion, the Committee themselves will demonstrate four sections of the lectures – including the Senior Member, Graham Redman PGSwdB, DepGSec – thus affording attendees a unique opportunity to observe Masonic ritual demonstrated to the highest standard. The lecture sections will consist of Section 1 of the First Lecture, Section 2 of the Second Lecture, Section 4 of the First Lecture, and Section 5 of the Second Lecture, and we are delighted that The Past Pro Grand Master, Peter Lowndes, has kindly agreed to be the guest of honour. The Lodge has a long history. It first met on 2 October 1823 and has met without interruption ever since. It was one of a number of units that were set up to teach the new ritual ‘approved and confirmed’ by Grand Lodge in 1816 as a result of the unification of the former Antients and Moderns Grand Lodges. The ritual as taught at Emulation became known as Emulation Working, as such it is the ritual ‘name’ that follows the Lodge, not vice versa. It has always been the very rigorous policy of the Emulation Committee to preserve the ritual unchanged apart from any alterations specifically approved by Grand Lodge – notably the removal of the physical penalties from the obligations in 1986, and more recently the lowering of the minimum age from 21 to 18. Unfortunately, exactly what was originally approved and confirmed has never been documented. Grand Lodge minutes state that the ceremonies were ‘demonstrated and met with approval and confirmation’, but there is no written record of what was demonstrated and, as such, the ritual had to be transmitted by word of mouth through bodies such as Lodges of Instruction. The Emulation Committee genuinely believes that it has preserved the original, but this can be neither proved nor disproved – hence an important point made in the 13th edition of the Emulation ritual book: ‘no suggestion is made, nor should it be made, that any one system of ritual is “right” and the others “wrong”. Private Lodges are free to choose their own system, and the choice and traditions of the Lodge in this regard should be paramount’. The business of Emulation Lodge of Improvement, as we see it, is to demonstrate a system that we believe to be as nearly as possible that which was approved originally, and which private Lodges may choose to use. In the early years, the form of instruction at Emulation was entirely by rehearsal of the system of Masonic Lectures that had been developed by the Grand Stewards’ Lodge. Masonic Lectures have 30
Out and About -_FMT issue 63- Autumn 2023_FMT.indd 30
Preserving Masonic ritual The Emulation Lodge of Improvement will celebrate its Bi-Centenary in October 2023, marking it out as the oldest institution continually meeting to demonstrate ritual in the English constitution
FMT Autumn 2023
18/08/2023 11:38