Freemasons For Dummies: Florida Withdraws Amity With Eleven Foreign Grand Lodges

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Florida Withdraws Amity With Eleven Foreign Grand Lodges

by Christopher Hodapp

UPDATED 1/30/2024 10:00AM: Following the original posting of this story on January 27th, I received documentation that the actual number of grand lodges being shunned by the GL of Florida is now up to 13, since they also severed relations with the grand lodges of Argentina and Uruguay two months ago for the same reasons. I will post a more detailed explanation of this whole mess shortly.

On Friday, Grand Secretary Richard E. Lynn, PGM of the Grand Lodge of F&AM of Florida issued a letter declaring the immediate withdrawal of relations with the following foreign Masonic grand lodges:

La Gran Logia de Bolivia,
La Gran Logia de Chile, A.L. y A.M.,
La Gran Logia de Costa Rica, F. A. y A,
La Gran Logia de la Republica Dommicana,
La Grande Loge Nationale Française,
La Gran Logia de Guatemala, A.L. y A.M, America Central.
La Gran Logia de Honduras, A.L. y A.M.,
Soberana Gran Login de Nicaragua,
La Gran Logia de Panamá,
Gran Logia de los A. L. y A.M., de la Republica del Perü,
La Grande Loja Legal de Portugal

There are no details as to the specifics of the decision, other than to say,

"... because they presume to impose on a Grand Lodge who they can recognize, something that would violate our sovereignty.

"Therefore, no Lodge in Florida may visit nor allow visitors or petitioners for affiliation or dual membership from any Lodge Chartered by the Grand Lodges listed above. If you have a Dual Member, he will have to sign a letter of resignation from the Grand Lodge in question if he wishes to remain a member in Florida or vice versa."

That's a mighty wide swath of grand lodges with which to suddenly cut off relations in one broad swoop. Is there anyone who can shed some light on this announcement? (Click image below to enlarge)

3 comments:

Bro. Paul RichMon Jan 29, 04:32:00 PM 2024
It's hard to see how all of those grand lodges can be suddenly at fault. In any event, it creates a number of problems when omne or another are imnvolved in joint meetings.
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AnonymousThu Feb 01, 01:15:00 PM 2024
Thanks for trying to make sense of all of this.
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Jaime ZamoranoSat May 04, 10:03:00 PM 2024
This news caught my attention because I had not seen or heard anything about it.
Even more strange when very recently American integration day was celebrated, which commemorates the founding on April 4, 1947 of the Inter-American Masonic Confederation.
From what I understand, as of the resolution, brothers from the countries listed are not allowed to visit lodges in the state of Florida, nor vice versa.
In my opinion, that doesn't seem very Masonic. I hope it is reversed.
Greetings from Chile.
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Freemasonry is the largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity in the world. Historically, it is based on the Medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Mythologically it is founded upon the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, as told in the Old Testament of the Bible.

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