NEWS FROM GRAND LODGE

The Board has been asked to give guidance on the relationship between Freemasonry and Religion following recent Press reports of a reaffirmation by the Vatican of its ban on Roman Catholics becoming Freemasons.

Grand Lodge approved the following statement in September 1962 and the Board sees no reason to recommend any variation to it.

RELATIONSHIP OF MASONRY AND RELIGION

The Board has been giving the most earnest consideration to this subject, being convinced that it is of fundamental importance to the reputation and well-being of English Freemasonry that no misunderstanding should exist inside or outside the Craft.

It cannot be too strongly asserted that Masonry is neither a religion nor a substitute for religion. Masonry seeks to inculcate in its members a standard of conduct and behaviour which it believes to be acceptable to all creeds, but studiously refrains from intervening in the field of dogma or theology. Masonry, therefore, is not a competitor with religion though in the sphere of human conduct it may be hoped that its teaching will be complementary to that of religion. On the other hand its basic requirement that every member of the Order shall believe in a Supreme Being and the stress laid upon his duty towards Him should be sufficient evidence to all but the wilfully prejudiced that Masonry is an upholder of religion since it both requires a man to have some form of religious belief before he can be admitted as a Mason, and expects him when admitted to go on practising his religion.

Adrian Marsh
Grand Secretary