Here’s something you don’t see every day: one grand lodge in the United States withdraws its recognition of another grand lodge… over the latter’s new lodge in Lebanon!
But that’s where we are.On Wednesday, the Grand Lodge of New York adopted a resolution withdrawing formal recognition of the Grand Lodge of Washington, DC because GLDC chartered and consecrated Ahiram Lodge, No. 1000 in Beirut. (website under construction)
It might seem unlikely that anyone would want to meet in a Masonic lodge in that city, thanks to the decades of violence there, but actually the Grand Lodge of New York, the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and other jurisdictions have had lodges working in Beirut for many years. The GLNY formed its Syria-Lebanon district in 1925.
I won’t repeat what the respective grand masters have said on this matter. You can click on the images to read the correspondence yourself.
It seems like a thoroughly unusual situation, but I'm told that this sort of thing has happened before amongst NA Grand Lodges, and will undoubtedly happen again.
ReplyDeleteReading the two letters that you've published on this blog, it is fairly evident that one Grand Lodge is in the wrong, whilst the other isn't. The question is - which one!? I imagine that this will get resolved sooner or later.
Anthony Williams
Rough Ashlar