The Voice of Freemasonry |Vol .12 No. 3

GRAND

Fall 1995 Volume XI, Number 3

ASTER'S CLASS RAISES FIFTY-SEVEN

At this year's Grand Master's Class, convened on October 27 and 28 at the ScottishRiteTemple,57petitionerswere raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason. The two-day session, in which the Entered ApprenticeDegree was conferred o n ~ r i d aevening i and the ello ow craft and aster Mason's Degrees on Saturday, was concluded, as usual, at a table Lodge presided over by the Grand Master.

Some of the 57 new members raised in the Grand Master's Class

told 2 1 Lodges had candidates in this class. Included in this number were Federal Lodge No. 1, Naval Lodge No. 4, Potomac Lodge No. 5, Singleton-Hope~ e b a n o n ~ o d ~7,eH~i roa.m - ~ a k o m a ~ o d ~ e No. 10, St. John's Lodge No. 11, Washington Daylight Lodge No. 14, Dawson Lodge No. 16, LaFayette-Dupont Lodge No. 19, Osiris-PentalphaLodge No. 23, Albert Pike Lodge No. 33, East Gate Lodge No. 34, Joppa Lodge No. 35, Theodore Roosevelt Lodge No. 44, Samuel Gompers- Benjamin Franklin Lodge No. 45, Semper Paratus Lodge No. 49, Mehr Lodge No. 90, Alianza Fraternal Americana Lodge No. 92, LaFranceLodgeNo. 93, andHayastanLodge No. 94.

There was a spirited competition among the Lodges to determine which one would bring in the most candidates. In terms of raisings, Hiram-Takoma Lodge No. 10,

The Deputy Grand Master, William E. Chaney, Jr. (left center) and the Grand Master, J. Philip Smith (right center) areflanked by the 1995 Worshipful Masters who conferred the Fellow Craft Degree.

Another New

cont~nuedon next page ->

dge in D.C.

Grand Master J. Philip Smith has issued a dispensation to permit a number of well known Masons to work together under the name of Magnolia Lodge, U. D. His dispensation, issued on October 2, 1995, led to the organization of the Lodge on Sunday, October 29, in Naval Lodge Hall. This Lodge plans to meet on the fourth Sunday of each month while under dispensation.

Inhis dispensationtheGrandMasterappointed Brother C. David Haacke, Past Grand Master of Maryland, as Worshipful Master; Brother Joseph Mason Van Name I11 as Senior Warden; and Brother Earl Fain IV as Junior Warden. It is their hope that MagnoliaLodge will prove attractive to men in the area, and especially to those who have ties to Kappa Alpha fraternity.

The name Magnolia has special meaning to the founding members of this Lodge, who were reminded, at the organizational meeting, of the symbolic significance of word. This reminder was provided by William H. Sachs, a 33" Scottish Rite Mason, who in an article entitled, " Behold the Magnolia," made a number of pertinent observations.

In that article Brother Sachs states that the Magnolia is first of all a symbol of INTEGRTTY and CONSTANCY. Even though it does shed its leaves whenever they are continued on next page ->

Freemasonry Way Ahead of its Time in Practicing Tolerance

by J. Philip Smith, &-and Master M&nd h i always had trouble recognizing that everyone is a child of God. Unfortunately, racial and religious prejudice has been with us down through the ages. However, if you study Masonic history, you will see that Freemasonry has always been way ahead of society in practicing tolerance regarding race and religion.

Modern Freemasonry descends from the British operative masons. Six hundred years ago, they were all EngIish-speaking, white-skinned Caucasians, and their religion was Roman Catholic. After the Reformation, they became white Englishspeaking Anglicans or Episcopalians. In those days, people like that were the only ones who had any political rights. All others were shut out.

In England, accordingto the Test Act of 1673, all office holders under the crown had to take their sacraments according to the usage of the Church of England. All other Protestants, and all Catholics, and, certainly, all non-Christians, were cut off from any sort of public office. The Test Act was finally repealed in England in 1826.

However, well before this, in 1721, the Grand Master of England ordered Reverend James Andersonto prepare a new Book of Constitutions. James Anderson was a Scotsman and apresbyterian minister. He was living in London and was therefore subject to the Test Act. So, here was this Scotsman, this Presbyterian, a man excluded from public life, acting as Secretary of the Grand Lodge of England and writing one of the most influential Masonic books ever published.

Roman Catholics were without political power in Britainuntil1829, and there was often a strong prejudice against them. We don't know when the first Roman Catholic was initiated into the modem Masonic Craft, but in 1729, a Catholic, the Duke of Norfolk, was elected GrandMaster. Moreover, his successor in 1732, the Viscount Montague, was also a Catholic. And this was half a century before the American

1

"

Declaration of Independence.

Jews were excluded from political life in England by the Test Act of 1673. The religious barrier against Jews was not removed in Britain until 1858. At that time, when Jews were deprived ofpolitical rights, what wasFreemasonry 's attitude? We know that the first Jewish brethren, Nathan Blanch and JohnHart, were initiated into Masonry in London in 1721. The register for 1725includesIsrael Segalas and Nicholas Abrahams. Daniel Delvalle, who was described as "an eminent snuff-merchant", was Master of a Lodge in 1732. Also in 1732, Solomon Mendez was a Grand Steward, and Dr. Meyer Schomberg was a Grand Steward in 1734-a century and a quarterbeforeJews were allowed to sit in the English Parliament.

We also know that many of the Europeans who came to America did not fully appreciate those who were already here, namely, the native American Indians.

General Philip Sheridan, as late as 1869, is reported to have said: "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead ones." However, nearly a century earlier, in 1776, Joseph Brant, a Mohawk war chief, was initiated in a Masonic Lodge in London.

A Parsee, by the name of Maneckji Cursetji, joined a French Lodge at some date before 1843. The first Hindu Masons were initiated in 1857. In due time, Freemasonry in India came to be very tolerant of all faiths. It was the custom to have five volumes of the sacred law available at the altar,forHindus,Moslems, Sikhs, Parsees, and Christians.

And what about the Blacks? The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the seceding Southern States during the Civil War here in America, was issued by President Lincoln on September 22,1862.

The 13thAmendmentto theU.S. Constitution, outlawing slavery in the entire country, was not ratified until 1865. Yet, on March 6,1778, a black man, by the name of Prince Hall, was made a Mason in Boston, Massachusetts. Within the next three years, other blacks were made Masons, and they formed a Lodge which they called African Lodge No. 1. In 1794, Prince Hall wrote a letter to the United Grand Lodge of England, petitioning "as poor yet sincereBrethren of the Craft," for a warrant of Constitution.

The Grand Lodge of England did in fact issue a warrant in 1784 to African Lodge No. 459. The rest is history.

The prophet Malachi said, "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?' Let us never forget how essential this doctrine is toFreemasonry. We look out at the world, and we see all the stress and tension, all the hostility and all the rivalry, with country pitted against country, race pitted against race, and culture pitted against culture. How can we solve these problems? What can we do?

"Freemasonrymakes the answer With its never ending plan -

The Fatherhood of God! And The Brotherhood of Man."