According to an article on L'Express.com, the headquarters of the Grand Orient of France on rue Cadet in Paris' 9th arrondissement caught fire at approximately 5:00PM on Saturday. Later reports indicated that the blaze started in an electrical cabinet. There were no casualties, but the building was extensively damaged.The Grand Orient of France is the largest obedience in France with about 50,000 members, but is not recognized as regular by mainstream North American Freemasons. There are approximately 140,000 Freemasons in France, belonging to a dozen different denominations, most of which are strictly male.
"The Grand Orient of France is the largest obedience in France with about 50,000 members, but is not recognized as regular by mainstream North American Freemasons".
ReplyDeleteOr UGLE, for that matter.
Thank you for posting this and the follow-up article. Without these posts I would not have become aware of this misfortune for some time.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reporting on Masonic news regardless of jurisdictional issues.
Now that everyone is safe and the damage has been assessed, I'll go ahead and say it. It's a shame the one thing that managed to escape without damage was the GO's grotesque, brutal, and wholly inappropriate post-modern architectural facade that is a blight on an otherwise pretty Paris side street...
ReplyDeleteWell Chris, there's some fitting irony in that the French already bear the burden of having introduced much of what passes for PoMo in the first place...
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