Post by Tamrin on May 2, 2013 9:15:28 GMT 10
The freemasons who allow women to join
Yes, women can join the freemasons – the Co-Freemasons that is. But why would anyone want to?
Jane Martinson, The Guardian, Tuesday 30 April 2013
Yes, women can join the freemasons – the Co-Freemasons that is. But why would anyone want to?
Jane Martinson, The Guardian, Tuesday 30 April 2013
On a leafy street in the London suburb of Surbiton, a big white sign welcomes visitors to a masonic lodge for "men and women". The lodge is an imposing Edwardian mansion, down the stairs of which comes a white-haired man offering his hand to shake, which is a bit hurried on a cold, wintry morning, but not particularly funny.
Apart from the important difference of the inclusion of women, the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, with talk of rituals, symbols and "the Craft", is identical to the better-known United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) to the unitiated eye. And both are suffering from a declining and ageing membership base.
Brian Roberts, a retired businessman who works "eight days a week" as the British grand commander, says that, by meeting the requirements of the Equalities Act at least, Co-Freemasonry "fits with the current age". With membership fees of £90 a year it is also "cheaper than most golf clubs". But everyone knows why you join golf clubs. Why would anyone want to become a freemason?
In trying to explain freemasonry, Sandra Clarke, a businesswoman who comes up for the lodge's eight annual meetings from her home in the Cotswolds, says: "At the lowest individual level it's about practising the essentials of freemasonry every day. In that way freemasonry is no different from any other organisation with the added initiatory aspect and spiritual context." This secret initiation – of which little is known apart from the fact that new members are blindfolded – tends to arouse suspicions among outsiders. "It's not about hiding the location," says Rees. "It's so that he can look inward."
[Julian] Rees, who defected from the all-male side because of an argument over its lack of "spirituality", is also keen to stress that the differences go much further than the fact that the bigger male-only arm also has a much grander HQ in London's West End.
"The male order, much as they may deny it, is all about wearing more and more elaborate regalia and advancing to a higher rank. Male masonry is peopled by old grey beards, the aristocracy, major generals of the army, and they're nearly all male chauvinists."
"The male order, much as they may deny it, is all about wearing more and more elaborate regalia and advancing to a higher rank. Male masonry is peopled by old grey beards, the aristocracy, major generals of the army, and they're nearly all male chauvinists."
