Commander Richard Harvey
(In a letter to the Editor)
I READ with interest the article on 'The Unveiling of the Lodge', that appeared in The Gleaner on Monday November 24 2003.
I wonder if Mr. B.K. Ashley, Deacon of the Brown's Town Baptist Church, and by his own admission, a former initiate of the Ancient Order of Mechanics (which, incidentally, is not a Masonic Order), is aware that James I of England (James VI of Scotland) after whom the King James version of the Holy Bible is named, was initiated as a Freemason in the Lodge of Scoon and Perth in 1601 at the age of 35? Born on June 19 1566, James was only 15 months old when he succeeded his Catholic mother Mary, who was executed for treason by Elizabeth I.
SPECULATIVE MASONRY
Two years before succeeding to the English Throne, James made a notable Scottish Mason by the name of William Schaw 'General Warden of the Craft' and instructed him 'To improve the entire structure of speculative masonry'. To be a 'speculative' mason, as opposed to an 'operative' mason, one had to be a 'Freeman' (hence 'Freeman') of the Borough in which the Lodge was situated, and to have a belief in God. Schaw commenced his monumental and lasting work in 1598, eventually issuing 'The Statutes and Ordinances to be observed by all Master Masons within this realm' signing himself as 'The General Warden of the said Craft'.
As an aside, it is indeed ironic that Charles I of England, a Freemason, was put to death by another Freemason, Oliver Cromwell, and that such notable Freemasons as Roger Bacon, Sir Issac Newton, Thomas Hobbes, Robert Boyle, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and more recently, the late Chinese Premier Chouenlai (an Irish Freemason), to name but a few, should be ascribed by Mr. Ashley 'as given to necromancy and devil worship'!
As my brother Alfred Reid explained, Freemasonry is not a secret society our Meeting Places (Lodges) are known to the Public, our Laws and Constitutions may be obtained by any person, and there is nothing in our teachings, and indeed within our ritual, that is contrary to the Laws of the Land, nor anything contrary to the religious beliefs or political opinions of any man. It is a rule within our Order that there should be no discussion of a religious or political nature either in the Lodge, or thereafter at the Refreshment Board. But, as Alfred explained, we do subscribe to certain secrets as a means of recognition amongst ourselves. Indeed, many years ago, with the assistance of the Grand Lodge of England, the BBC produced a TV Documentary on Freemasonry, which was viewed here in Jamaica, and which served to dispel much of the 'myths' that abound.
DOCTRINE
What my brother did not say is that Freemasonry is based on three guiding principles: Brotherly Love, Relief (Charity), and Truth; that Christian doctrine (Via Crucis) and Masonic doctrine (Via Lucis) are identical in intention, though different in method the former teaches through the EAR, the latter through the EYE, by passing the aspirant personally and dramatically through symbolic rites, which he is expected to translate from the ceremonial form into subjective experience. The three Ceremonial degrees of the early Church (Catehumens, Leiturgoi, and Presbyter) correspond exactly in purpose and content to those of Freemasonry.
Before Mr. Ashley condemns, it is in his interest to be informed 'BOAZ' and 'JACHIN' are not Masonic gods, as he asserts, but rather the names given in the Holy Bible (1 Kings 21) to the two pillars in the porchway to King Solomon's Temple. He should be reminded of 7 Matthew 7: "Ask and it shall be given to you; Seek and ye shall find; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you".
Need I say more?
P.O. Box 609, Kingston 8
