"To preserve the reputation of the Fraternity unsullied must be your constant care."

BE A FREEMASON

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

An Historic Scottish Rite Event in New Orleans


Historic news from the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Valley of New Orleans. On April 4th - 6th, 2008, the Orient of Louisiana will host a joint Northern Masonic Jurisdiction (NMJ) & Southern Jurisdiction (SJ) Scottish Rite reunion class.

The NMJ's Valley of Chicago and its degree teams will travel to the Valley of New Orleans bringing with them a class of their own candidates. They will be joined by SJ candidates from the Orient of Louisiana and others. The two degree teams will confer the required degrees from both jurisdictions upon the class.

Almost as unusual, attendees will have the rare opportunity to witness an exemplification of the Scottish Rite Entered Apprentice degree by Louisiana's 16th Masonic District Degree Team with the permission of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, F&AM. Louisiana is the only Masonic jurisdiction in the U.S. where the Scottish Rite Craft degrees (sometimes known as "red lodge" degrees) are regularly worked in a small handful of lodges that are descended from French predecessors.

According to a 1949 article from J. Chris Nungesser, PGM,

Because Louisiana Masonry was born of a diverse parentage, its origin and early history had a marked effect on the esoteric work. Although Charters were granted Lodges in Louisiana by Grand Lodges working in the York Rite, nevertheless, the new Lodges continued to work in the Mother tongue and used Rituals largely derived from the French or Modern Rite. When the Grand Lodge of Louisiana was organized, there were Lodges working in the York Rite, the French or Modern Rite and one in the Scotch Rite under a Charter from the Grand Consistory of Jamaica.

The divergent views held because of the several Rites during the early period of Masonry in Louisiana was the cause of much strife and dissension. In an effort to give each Rite proper recognition, the Grand Lodge was made up of Symbolic Chambers, one for the York Rite, one for the Scottish Rite and one for the French Rite. This chapter of the history of Louisiana Masonry is most interesting, and perhaps might well be the subject of a future article.

After the adoption of the Constitution in 1850, the York Rite was the only official Rite recognized, but the old Lodges adhered to forms of the Scotch Rite and the French or Modern Rite. Even after 1885 when, through the work of R.W. Brother John C. Gordy, the esoteric work was made uniform, the Lodges mentioned continued to use the same rituals and have done so to this day with the permission of the Grand Lodge. It was not until 1921 that the Grand Lodge passed a resolution prohibiting any new Lodges except those working in the York Rite in which same year the last of the Scottish Rite Lodges was chartered.

The ten Lodges in the City of New Orleans which do not use the York Rite and are commonly referred to as the
"Scottish Rite Lodges" are as follows:

Etoile Polaire No. 1 .(1794) (French)
Perserverance No. 4 (1810) (English, formerly French)
Cervantes No. 5 (1842) (Spanish)
Germania No. 46 (1844) (English, formerly German)
Kosmos No. 171 .(1864) (English, formerly German)
Union No. 172 (1865) (English)
Dante No. 174 (1866) (Italian)
Galileo Mazzini No. 368 (1917) (English, formerly Italian)
Albert Pike No. 376 .(1919) (English)
Paul M. Schneidau No. 391 (1921) (English)

The Lodges now working in English use the same Ritual but it is different from the ones they formerly used before converting to English. Neither is this Ritual a translation of either the French, Italian or Spanish Ritual and, therefore, there is no uniformity in Ritual among these ten so called Scottish Rite Lodges.

Suffice it to say that the continuation of these various Rituals in Louisiana is unique, and Masons from other Jurisdictions who have witnessed the Degrees here, or in their own Jurisdictions when the work was exemplified by visiting teams, had naught but praise for their beauty, eloquence and profoundness of meaning.

4 comments:

  1. What! No unified, single ritual for the entire jurisdiction? Lodges working ritual of their choice? Why...that's an innervation!

    </sarcasm>

    ReplyDelete
  2. In Louisiana, Scottish Rite and French Freemasonry began as early as 1754 with a Bordeaux chartered lodge. We have no record of our history following that period until the 1790's when the Spanish Colonial period ended with Spain giving its Louisiana territories back to France. At or around this time, the earliest Louisiana Masonic Lodges sought multiple charters (at the same time) from York Rite, Scottish Rite, and French Rite bodies--there was no exclusive jurisdiction since the GL of LA had not yet been formed. The history of the various rites and the competition among them becomes much more interesting following the formation of the GL of LA up through the 1870's.

    In 2008, the GL of LA now allows lodges under its jurisdiction to choose (to some extent) whether they want to work the York Rite or Scottish Rite rituals. Beyond the ten traditional Scottish Rite lodges of the 16th District in New Orleans, only one lodge in each district may adopt the Scottish Rite ritual if the lodge learns and becomes proficient in the Scottish Rite work. Thus far, it is my understanding, that only two York Rite lodges have attempted to do so. This includes Louisiana's TO lodge in Baton Rouge: The Lodge of Nine Muses No. 9.

    ReplyDelete
  3. P.E.A.C.E
    THERE ARE MANY THAT DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE SCOTTISH RITE SYMBOLIC LODGES EITHER WITHIN THE GL OF LA OR THE ONES OUTSIDE OF IT.
    THE ONES THAT ARE WITHIN THE BOSSOM OF THE GL OF LA WERE SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT UNTIL THEY SUMMITED TO THE "SO CALLED" JURISDICTIONAL CLAIM OVER THE SYMBOLIC DEGREES. WHICH IS AN AMERICAN INVENTION.

    W:.M:.L.V.WHITFIELD 32*
    EPSILON #124
    A:.A:.S:.R:.F:.M:.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello,
    I am a member Perfect Union #1 established 1793 the first York Rite Lodge granted a charter in Louisiana from the GL of South Carolina since the GL of LA wasn’t established until 1812. It is good that hear the brethren talking about Masonry and the traditions we have that are unique to the New Orleans area.

    Fraternally,
    Chris Landry
    Junior Deacon-Perfect Union #1
    New Orleans, LA

    ReplyDelete

ATTENTION!
SIGN YOUR NAME OR OTHERWISE IDENTIFY YOURSELF IN YOUR COMMENT POSTS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A GOOGLE ACCOUNT.
Your comments will not appear immediately because I am forced to laboriously screen every post. I'm constantly bombarded with spam. Depending on the comments being made, anonymous postings on Masonic topics may be regarded with the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers, as far as I am concerned. If you post with an unknown or anonymous account, do not automatically expect to see your comment appear.