Aims and Relationships of the Craft
This Statement, approved by Grand Lodge on 4th August 1949,
is read aloud at the Annual Installation of Office Bearers Meeting of
every Lodge holding of the
Grand Lodge of
Scotland.
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 a1ways 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.