Friday, April 20, 2007

Review

Almost every Grand Lodge in the world has their own web site.
One of the best and most informative is the one belonging to the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. Simple and classy design, easy to navigate. Lots of information, history, contacts, resources…
Pay special attention to the “History” link – I found amazing articles there.

Facts about Masonry

There were lots of Anti-Masons through-out history. Ever since the first lodge came out in the open there were people against the fraternity. 20th century Europe saw some of the harshest opponents of the craft – Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini… But probably the most extreme one was General Franco in Spain.
Although his father and brother were both masons, he had such a hatred for the fraternity, that it’s hard to describe it with words. The legend says that in his youth he even wanted to petition a lodge and his own father said about him: “If you petition, the first black ballot will be mine…”.
In July 1936, he began the civil war in Spain declaring that he will liberate Spain from Communism and Freemasonry (no-one has yet figured out what the connection between the two is! J ).
Where ever his army won a battle and occupied a town or a village, everyone that was identified as a mason was expressly sentenced to death and shot on the spot. His soldiers were eliminating anyone who had any contact with masonry, sometimes killing whole families. Lodges were burned, properties confiscated. Reportedly, some were even hurled into working engines of steam trains. By the end of 1937, every single mason in the territories under Franco’s rule has been murdered.
Although there were only little over 5.000 masons in Spain before the war, there were 80.000 people accused of being masons or having Masonic ties.
After the war, the same situation continued and even family members of masons could be punished for allowing their relative to strain from the right path. Freemasonry ceased to exist in Spain, until late in 1974. In 1975, the King Juan Carlos introduced democracy back in the country and lifted the ban on the Craft. The Grand Lodge of Spain was established on November 6th, 1982.

Featured Lodge

In this issue I want to write about The Far North Lodge #199.
Well – the name says it all!
The Lodge is located above the Arctic Circle and is the most northerly Lodge in the Western Hemisphere.
The home town of this unusual lodge is Inuvik, North West Territories, Canada. It was instituted in 2003. You can contact their secretary: mcinnes@permafrost.com

Make sure you also visit the official web site of the town of Inuvik. A lovely small town in the far north that enjoys 56 days of twenty four hours of daylight (late June, July and part of August) and has 30 days without sunlight mostly in the month of December. Temperatures there vary between –56 C in winter (yes, minus fifty six Celsius!), and up to 31 C in Summer.

Featured Grand Lodge

Grand Lodge of Spain

The beginning of Masonry in Spain dates back to 1780’s, and has a rich history, but the civil war of 1936, interrupted that cycle. As I wrote above, Franco tried to destroy masonry in this country. He killed, tortured, arrested almost every mason in the country and managed to put the craft asleep. But not for long. In 1974, while he was still alive, few lodges were formed, and after his death, in 1975, masonry came out in the light of the day again. The Grand Lodge of Spain was formed in 1982 and today has 148 lodges. Their web-site is www.gle.org and their contact is:


Gran Logia de Espana
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes #617
08007 – Barcelona, Espana

informacion@gle.org
gsecretaria@gle.org
ph. 933 025 991

Famous Masons

ALEXANDER FLEMING
August 6, 1881 - March 11, 1955


One of the most important discoveries of the 20th century was the penicillin. The man who discovered it, was a fellow Mason, one of the most respected men of his time – Alexander Fleming.
Born at Lochfield near Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6th, 1881. He attended St. Mary's Medical School, London University. Served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps.
In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance penicillin. That discovery has changed the modern medicine and saved milions of lives.
In 1945, he received the Nobel Prize for medicine.Alexander Fleming was initiated in 1909, at Sancta Maria Lodge #2682 in London and was also a member of Misericordi Lodge #3286, also in London. He was a Past Junior Grand Warden of UGLE.