‘U.K. grand lodges in the news this week’

    

Cheers to the media relations teams at both the grand lodges of England and Scotland, and to The Times, for their respective collaborations that produced fair news coverage of the Craft in the United Kingdom in recent days.

The Times, founded in 1785, self-identifies as “the oldest national daily newspaper in the U.K. and holds an important place as the ‘paper of record’ on public life, from politics and world affairs to business and sport.” The United Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Lodge of Scotland self-identify as two of the oldest Masonic grand bodies in the world. The former says it dates to 1717 (although it’s actually 1813) and the latter was established in 1736.

Sunday Times

Unfortunately, there is a template in media coverage that cannot evolve: The Freemasons are opening their doors to the public for the first time to show there’s nothing to hide. In fact, the headline on the Sunday Times story by Marc Horne this week reads: “‘Nothing to hide’: freemasons to welcome public for first time.” Yesterday’s package from Times Radio lures us with “Inside the Freemasons HQ: The secretive society accused of ‘ruling the world.’”

To the reporters’ credit though, their work goes beyond the tease, and I think everyone can be pleased with the reportage.

The Scotland story seems to have been sparked by publicity of a jurisdiction-wide “open house,” in which all of the Grand Lodge of Scotland’s member lodges worldwide will, you know, “welcome members of the public for the first time” next February. The report from London, as you’ll see in the video, is thanks to Grand Secretary Adrian Marsh’s enterprising invitation to Darryl Morris to visit Freemasons’ Hall on Great Queen Street for a look around and a friendly, but firm, denial that Masons are reptilian.

Click here for the Scotland story. Click the image at top to see the Times Radio piece. (I assume the almost simultaneous publishing of the reports is coincidental.)

I know I post often on things Masonic in the U.K.—maybe too often—but, being from Publicity Lodge, this kind of thing excites me.