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This article deals with organization in Craft or Blue Lodge Freemasonry. See the appropriate article for information on organization in appendant Masonic bodies such as York Rite and Scottish Rite.
Regularity is the process by which individual Grand Lodges recognise one another for the purposes of allowing formal interaction within a ritual context at Grand Lodge level and intervisitation by Private Members.
Regularity and its origins
There are a number of groupings of Masonic jurisdictions which consider themselves regular, and recognise others as regular, however consider others to be irregular. There is no overarching Masonic organisation globally and as a result the criteria for regularity are not fixed across all Grand Lodges.
The largest collection of mutually recognised Grand Lodges derive their regularity from United Grand Lodge of England based on criteria used by the Home Grand Lodges (UGLE, Grand Lodge of Scotland and Grand Lodge of Ireland), articulated on Sept 4 1929 as:Regular Freemasonry, UGLEAccessed 17 June, 2006
- Regularity of origin is established by a duly recognised Grand Lodge or three or more regularly constituted Lodges.
- A belief in the Great Architect of the Universe and his revealed will shall be an essential qualification for membership.
- That all Initiates shall take their Obligation on or in full view of the open Volume of the Sacred Law, by which is meant the revalation from above which is binding on the conscience of the particular individual who is being initiated.
- That the membership of the Grand Lodge and individual Lodges shall be composed entirely of men; and that each Grand Lodge shall have no Masonic intercourse of any kind with mixed Lodges or bodies which admit women to membership.
- That the Grand Lodge shall have sovereign jurisdiction over Lodges under its control; ie that it shall be a responsible, independent, self-governing organisation, with sole and undisputed authority over the Craft or Symbolic degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason) within its' Jurisdiction; and shall not in any way be subject to, or divide such authority with, a Supreme Council or any other power claiming any control or supervision over those degrees.
- That the three Great Lights of Freemasonry (namely, the Volume of the Sacred Law, the Square, and the Compasses) shall always be exhibited when the Grand Lodge or its subordinate Lodges are at work, the chief of these being the Volume of the Sacred Law.
- That the discussion of religion and politics within the Lodge shall be strictly prohibited.
- That the principles of the Antient Landmarks, customs and usages of the Craft be strictly observed.
Other bodies predicate their assessment of regularity on the 8th decree of the Masonic Constitution written by James Anderson shortly after the emergence of Grand Lodge Freemasonry in England; a Lodge is regular, if it works in conformity to the rules of its granded constitutional patent. Grand Lodges certify regularity to their recognized Member Lodges and Grand Lodges with patents.
Belief in a Supreme Being
The point leading to the greatest degree of dispute over regularity is that of a belief in a Supreme Being, the removal of this requirement by the Grand Orient de France leading to removal of recognition by UGLE. This dispute is based on competing interpretations of Andersons constitutions:
A Mason [... rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious Libertine.,Anderson's Constitutions (1723)
It is argued that the definition is ambiguous:
- Will a Mason never be an Atheist only because he is stupid or be never an Atheist because this would be stupid?
- Will a Mason never be an anti-religious person without any moral or a non-religious free thinker?
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) and its recognized jurisdictions are what is generally meant as "Regular Freemasonry" when this term is not further defined. UGLE is considered to be both the oldest and largest grouping, therefore, UGLE recognition is generally the barometer by which a jurisdiction is considered regular.
UGLE provides a list of recognised Grand Lodges on its website.http://www.grandlodge-england.org/provinces/olodges/olodges.htm
The Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons is a feminine freemasonic organisations which is not in amity with UGLE based on the admittance of women but are recognised as otherwise being regular.http://www.hfaf.org/ugle.htmhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1711652,00.html
International Co-Freemasonry "Le Droit Humain" (LDH), represented in the UK by the British Federation, is an androgynous order working the Scottish Rite which is similarly not in amity with UGLE based on: its admittance of women, its use of degrees beyond that of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason and its allegiance to a Supreme Council. LDH Federations worldwide are naturally in amity with one another.
The Grand Lodge of Freemasonry for Men and Women is an androgynous freemasonic organisation which is not in amity with UGLE but is in amity with a number of Co-Masonic organisations worldwide.http://www.grandlodge.org.uk/ The order is derived from Le Droit Humain but is not in amity.
Whilst these organisations are not in amity two mechanisms exist to allow interchange between Masons regardless of their affiliations; The Canonbury Masonic Research Centrehttp://www.canonbury.ac.uk/ and the Lunchtimershttp://www.lunchtimers.org/
France
There are no less than 12 national Grand Lodges operating in France.
The Grande Loge Nationale Francaise (GLNF)Website of the Grande Loge Nationale Francaise, accessed 27 february 2006, no English version. is currently the only French Grand Lodge that is recognised as regular by UGLE and concordant jurisdictions.
The Grand Orient de France (GOdF) was recognised by most Grand Lodges in the world until the middle of the 19th Century, when the GOdF recognised an irregular and "unrecognised" Masonic organisation in Louisiana."U.S. Recognition of French Grand Lodges in the 1900s" published in Heredom: The Transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society -- volume 5, 1996, pages 221-244 This caused several US Grand Lodges to withdraw recognition from GOdF. The final breaking point, however, came about due to a decision by GOdF to remove the requirement for Masons to have a belief in a Supreme Being .
In 1875 bishop Dupanloup wanted to become a freemason and a member of the Grand Orient de France. He was 74 years old. During his initiation he was asked, if he beliefs in a supreme being and he answered:
- “A wise man of ancient times, who was asked the same question by a king, thought about an answer for days, but was never able to answer. I please you not to request an answer from me. No science denies a "first cause", because it finds neither another warrant nor proof. All knowledge is relative and we always meet unknown phenomena and laws we don't know its cause. The one who proclaims with determination to neither believe nor disbelieve in a God proofs not to understand the problem of what makes things exist and disappear.”
During the convention of 1877, the Grand Orient de France removed the requirement to have a belief in the Great Architect of the Universe because the protestant clergyman Desmons appealed such a motion, to express the principle of freedom of conscience as clearly as possible. So this was realized by the new clause Freemasonry is based on unrestricted freedom of conscience and of human solidarity. It does not exclude anybody due to his belief.
UGLE and most Anglo-Saxon Grand Lodges canceled all relationship with the Grand Orient de France on the basis of this being a removal of the first Landmark of Freemasonry.
United States
In the United States individual state Grand Lodges govern within their various geographic boundaries. Many of these formed from groupings of Lodges warranted by United Grand Lodge of England, Grand Lodge of Ireland or Grand Lodge of Scotland in some cases lodges from two or more of these traditions combining to form the local Grand Lodge. With no overall governing body in the United States, this leads to differences in the governance of membership, finance and the conduct of ritual and advancement through the three symbolic degrees.
State Grand Lodges are in mutual amity with UGLE, and whilst the principle of geographic exclusivity applies, UGLE recognition of Prince Hall Grand Lodges is an exception, for historic reasons.
Prince Hall Freemasonry
See main article: Prince Hall Freemasonry
Beginning in the 1990s most state Grand Lodges and their Prince Hall Grand Lodge counterparts have recognized each other. As they complete this process, other Grand Lodges around the world have recognised the Prince Hall Lodges, the other US States' Grand Lodges already being in the (UGLE), and concordant jurisdictions, grouping. The exceptions to these new recognitions are in a few of the states of the former confederacy, where the mainstream Grand Lodges do not yet recognize their Prince Hall counterparts. The Prince Hall Grand Lodges in states where they are recognized, also recognize the Prince Hall Lodges in the old confederacy area.
References
"Regular Masonic jurisdictions"