Liberal Freemasonry

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Liberal Freemasonry describes a Masonic, decentralized heterosocial network of Masonic lodges and grand lodges based on " absolute freedom of conscience ". This new concept of Freemasonry was born at the Convent of the Grand Orient de France in 1877. Like all human rights , the idea is closely related to humanism and the idea of natural law developed in the Age of Enlightenment . Statutes of today's liberal grand lodges emphasize not only this right to freedom, but also others, in particular freedom of assembly , freedom of religion and social human rights such as self-determination , equal rights for women and men and the control of power through the separation of powers .

liberalism

Liberalism stands in opposition to totalitarianism and established in history the emancipation of traditional dogmas from feudalism and absolutism , which is why some liberal grand lodges also call themselves "adogmatic". For reasons of absolute freedom of conscience and self-determination , it is left to member lodges of liberal grand lodges whether they place their masonry work under the protection of the almighty master builder of all worlds and the holy book of a revealed religion or distance themselves from it. Liberal grand lodges are free to decide whether their lodges are constituted as associations only for women, only for men or for both sexes, as long as they allow all Freemasons to do their work without any distinction on the basis of freedom of assembly and the social human right to participate in cultural life and without demanding a right to reciprocity. Likewise, they respect all Masonic traditions, rites, symbols and beliefs.

history

A historical document of liberal Freemasonry is York Manuscript No. 4 of 1693 , which is in the possession of the United Grand Lodge of England as regularly recognized Grand Lodge of York is. It shows that women could be accepted into Freemasonry before the Premier Grand Lodge of England was founded :

"The elders taking the Booke, he or shee that is to be made Mason shall lay their hands thereon, and the charge shall be given."

- York Manuscript No. 4 by 1693

Translated:

"If the elders take the book, may he or she who is to be made a Freemason lay hands on it and the duty shall be imposed."

The history of Freemasonry shows that this also happened on rare occasions.

Only the Charges of a Freemason of 1723 by James Anderson and the “Basic Principles” of the United Grand Lodge of England cemented that a Freemason must be a man who is not hostile to religion, provided that he is something of his "Art" understands.
However, attitudes towards women at the beginning of the 18th century were completely different from today. Women were denied the ability to work in politics, science, business and essential areas of the world of work. ( see also: women's rights )

From 1869, the Calvinist pastor and Freemason Frédéric Desmons in the Grand Orient de France regularly asked for women to be allowed to do temple work in Masonic lodges. The French philosopher and writer Émile Littré was elected a member of the Académie française in 1875 . In protest, Félix Dupanloup resigned as a member of the Académie française in 1875 and published his book against Freemasonry in the same year: Etude sur la Franc-Maçonnerie .

Émile Littré then reported as a seeker to the Grand Orient de France and, when he was admitted to the La Clémente Amitié lodge in the presence of 2,000 Freemasons, answered the question whether he believed in the existence of God: “No science denies a first cause , because nowhere if it hits something that testifies against such a thing, nor proves such a thing. All knowledge is relative, again and again one comes across beings and primordial laws, the deepest basis of which we do not recognize. Whoever declares with determination that he is neither a believer in God nor a denier of God only proves his lack of understanding of the problem of how things come and go. "

In 1877 Desmons gave a speech to representatives of the lodges at the convent in which he argued that Freemasonry was scientific and rational and therefore did not need any religious references. He therefore called for the abolition of the symbol of the Almighty Builder of all worlds . The delegates approved this amendment with a two-thirds majority. From now on the Grand Orient de France confirmed in its constitution: “Freemasonry has as its principles unconditional freedom of conscience and human solidarity . It does not exclude anyone for the sake of their faith. ”
After the Grand Orient de France also replaced the“ Book of the Holy Law ”with a“ white book ”, the United Grand Lodge of England unilaterally ended relations in 1913 and revoked the regularity . In this episode, liberal freemasonry emerged.

CLIPSAS represents the largest “international liberal Masonic organization” with 55 liberal grand lodges that have signed the Strasbourg appeal .

Demarcation

The freemasonry that originates from the United Grand Lodge of England , on the other hand, is a purely hierarchically organized men's society . A her through it as regularly recognized Grand Lodge must comply Basic Principles of Grand Lodge Recognition to members of its subordinate Masonic lodges prohibit any "Masonic contact" with boxes, take the women as members. In addition, the belief in a need Supreme Being (Supreme Being) be a necessary criterion for entry. A general ban on visiting liberal men's boxes is not associated with this.

See also

Articles of Liberal Grand Lodges

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GOdF ( Memento of February 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ): “This new concept of Freemasonry - of Absolute Freedom of Conscience which was born on the 'Convent' (Annual General Meeting) of 1877 and whose gave birth to a new form of practice in Freemasonry which is called Liberal Freemasonry. "
  2. ↑ a b Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurer Lexikon . 5th edition, Herbig Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7766-2478-6 .
  3. ^ Worldwide umbrella organization of liberal grand lodges CLIPSAS
  4. ↑ http://www.clipsas.com/en/history.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.clipsas.com/en/members_f.htm
  6. ^ Appeal from Strasbourg ( Memento des original of November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sgovd.org
  7. ↑ The basic principles for the recognition of a grand lodge by the United Grand Lodge of England ( Memento of March 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )