Lodge Houstoun St Johnstone
No 242 Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons
of Scotland.
Aims and Relationships of the Craft
This
Statement, approved by Grand Lodge on 4th August 1949, is required to be read
aloud at the Annual Installation Meeting of every Lodge holding of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland.
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In
August 1938 the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland and Scotland each agreed upon
and issued a statement identical in terms except that the name of the issuing
Grand Lodge appeared throughout. This statement, which was entitled "Aims
and Relationships of the Craft", was in the following terms:-
1. From time to time the Grand Lodge of Scotland has deemed it
desirable to set forth in precise form the aims of Freemasonry as consistently
practised under its jurisdiction since it came into being as an organised body
in 1736, and also to define the principles governing its relations with those
other Grand Lodges with which it is in fraternal accord.
2. In view of representations which have been received, and of
statements recently issued which have distorted or obscured the true objects of
Freemasonry, it is once again considered necessary to emphasise certain
fundamental principles of the Order.
3. The first condition of admission into, and membership of, the
Order is a belief in the Supreme Being. This is essential and admits of no
compromise.
4. The Bible, referred to by Freemasons as the Volume of the
Sacred Law, is always open in the Lodges. Every candidate is required to take
his obligation on that Book, or on the Volume which is held by his particular
Creed to impart sanctity to an oath or promise taken upon it.
5. Everyone who enters Freemasonry is, at the outset, strictly
forbidden to countenance any act which may have a tendency to subvert the peace
and good order of society, he must pay due obedience to the law of any state in
which he resides or which may afford him protection, and he must never be
remiss in the allegiance due to the Sovereign of his native land.
6. While Scottish Freemasonry inculcates in each of its members
the duties of loyalty and citizenship, it reserves to the individual the right
to hold his own opinion with regard to public affairs. But neither in any Lodge
nor at any time in his capacity as a Freemason is he permitted to discuss or to
advance his views on theological or political questions.
7. The Grand Lodge has always consistently refused to express
any opinion on questions of foreign or domestic state policy either at home or
abroad, and it will not allow its name to be associated with an action however
humanitarian it may appear to be, which infringes its unalterable policy of
standing aloof from every question affecting the relations between one
Government and another, or between political parties, or questions as to rival
theories of Government.
8. The Grand Lodge is aware that there do exist bodies styling
themselves Freemasons, which do not adhere to these principles, and while that
attitude exists the Grand Lodge of Scotland refuses absolutely to have any
relations with such bodies or to regard them as Freemasons.
9. The Grand Lodge of Scotland is a sovereign and independent
body practising Freemasonry only within the three Degrees and only within the
limits defined in its Constitution. It does not recognise or admit the
existence of any superior Masonic authority however styled.
10. On more than one occasion the Grand Lodge has refused, and it
will continue to refuse, to participate in conferences with so-called
International Associations claiming to represent Freemasonry, which admit to
membership bodies failing to conform strictly to the principles upon which the
Grand Lodge of Scotland is founded. The Grand Lodge does not admit any such
claim, nor can its views be represented by any such Association.
11. There is no secret with regard to any of the basic principles
of Freemasonry, some of which have been stated above. The Grand Lodge will
always consider the recognition of those Grand Lodges which profess and
practise and can show that they have consistently professed and practised,
those established and unaltered principles, but in no circumstances will it
enter into discussion with a view to any new or varied interpretation of them.
They must be accepted and practised wholeheartedly and in their entirety by
those who desire to be recognised as Freemasons by the Grand Lodge of Scotland.