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The curious case of the Grand Chapter of the York Rite (that never worked in said rite)

Copy of the said Great Chapter of the York Rite stabablishment agreement, extracted from the Work "ACHEGAS PARA A HISTÓRIA DA MAÇONARIA NO BRASIL” PARTE 3, from Kurt Prober, under the pseudonym of Isa Ch’na.

Text by Cloves Gregorio, translation by Aylton Cordeiro Neto.

 

Today we will adress the history of a masonic body that existed in Brazil witch did not match his name at all and still causes confusion in the minds of less enlightened masons. Usually,  I open my articles with a brief description of the study object, but given the complexity of this one, before addressing this Grand Chapter, I will make an abstract about some subjects that will make it easier to grasp the context of this article.

In Brazil there’s a great confusion about what is the York Rite, which is undergoing a process of demystification by the brothers of the Supreme Grand Chapter of Masons of the Royal Arch of Brazil. This confusion reached its peak when a copy of the Emulation Ritual was wrongly translated as York Rite, but its origins are in the beginnings of freemasonry in Brazil.

According to our brother Kennyo Ismail (2011).

Emulation is one of the Rituals adopted by lodges under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England. It is the most popular of them. There are others adopted by UGLE: Stability, Unanimity, Oxford, Sussex, Logic, Perfect, Standard, Taylor’s, Revised, Bristol, etc.”. In the same article, brother Kennyo explains that the York Rite was aproved and adopted in the Grand Lodges of USA in 1797 and that “Its foundations are the old customs of the Grand Lodge of the Ancients and Grand Lodge of  Ireland, which were very similar.

Knowing that the Emulation Ritual isn’t the York Rite lets go back to history. As already explained in this blog, the Grand Orient of the Benedictines (Grande Oriente dos Beneditinos, in portuguese) founded the first lodge of the rightful York Rite (see Um Passeio pela História da Maçonaria no Brasil. (Parte 8) – Grande Oriente dos Beneditinos for more), the Lodge Vesper in November 30, 1872. According to Joaquim da Silva Pires (2017), in his book “Introdução à Simbologia e à Ritualística Maçônicas” due to the foundation of the Vesper Lodge, the Benedictines got a favorable opinion of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, Influencing the creation of two more Masonic lodges in the York Rite. Washington Lodge in the city of Santa Barbara do Oeste and Lessin Lodge in the city of Santa Cruz do Sul.

According to Pires (2017), there were three lodges under UGLE jurisdiction in Brazil, but by the time the Grand Orient of the Benedictines merged itself with the Grand Orient of Brazil (Grande Oriente do Brasil, in portuguese) in 1883 these three lodges were no longer in operation, as well as the Vesper Lodge. In 1891 the Grand Orient of Brazil founded its first lodge under english orientation, the Eureka Lodge, working in the english language. This led to the confunsion that the Eureka Lodge and the Washington Lodge, both working in the english language, were using the same ritual – the York Rite. This theory from Joaquim da Silva Pires matches the one of Kennyo Ismail in his article “Rito de York x Ritual Emulação”. Now that we have covered the origin of the confusion between the york rite and the emulation ritual, let’s get to the founding of the Grand Chapter of the York Rite.

Grand Chapter of the York Rite

In the early years of the last century, brazilian freemansonry were highly politicized, since it was closer to french and portuguese freemansonry, which caused some discomfort in the english brothers who practiced the Craft in Tupiniquins Lands.

According Felipe Côrte Real de Camargo (2016), PhD candidate in History, in his article to the REHMLAC magazine, “From the english side the fear of noncompliance with basic precepts of freemasonry, which would lead to irregularity, was tempered with a pragmatism as to its zone of influence in the Americas.“, for this the english masons in Brazil made a series of reports on the situation of freemansonry in Brazil, including a requiriment for UGLE to review its treaty of recognition regarding the regularity of GOB. CAMARGO (2016), reports that the accusations worsened in 1912, which led to the english masons sending a commission to verify the scene.

Lauro Sodré, Grand Master of GOB by the time, found a diplomatic solution to the problem without giving up the soverinity of the Grand Orient of Brazil and in 1912 created a masonic body under the jurisdiction of GOB which would be responsable for the liturgy of the lodges under english orientation. This body was wrongly named Grand Chapter of the York Rite, because of the already explained confusion about the lodges that worked in the english language.

This fearless move of Sodré not only kept the status quo of Grand Orient of Brazil, but also granted same rights to GOB in english soil. CAMARGO (2016) in his article transcribed a report written by the Baron of Ampthill to UGLE, which I will reply below:

In short the English Lodges will lead a separate existence under the “protection” of the Grand Orient and we can well regard this arrangement as a friendly act which we can recognize by remaining on terms of mutual civility with the Grand Orient although actual fraternal relations are at an end.

As all good things must come to an end, brother José Maria Moreira Guimarães, in 1935, Grand Master at the time, signed a treaty of fraternal alliance agreement, giving UGLE the right to establish a district Grand Lodge here in Brazil, and so ir remains up to this date, and before you ask, NO, there is no reciprocity in this agreement! Indeed friends, Sodre was unique!

The text was produced for the anniversary of Independence of Brazil, and a faithful PDF copy of the agreement of establishment of the aforementioned Grand Chapter of the Rite of York, copy of November 6, 1921, from which I digitized the Work  “ACHEGAS PARA A HISTÓRIA DA MAÇONARIA NO BRASIL” PARTE 3, from Kurt Prober, under the pseudonym of Isa Ch’na. Check out the link below!

Grande Cap do rito de York

***The images are a copy of the said Grand Chapter of the York Rite stabablishment agreement, extracted from the Work “ACHEGAS PARA A HISTÓRIA DA MAÇONARIA NO BRASIL” PARTE 3, from Kurt Prober, under the pseudonym of Isa Ch’na.

Referências

Por Aylton Cordeiro Neto

Mestre Maçom na ARLS União Barão do Pilar, 21, no rito de York foi exaltado Maçom do Real Arco e no Rito Escocês Antigo e Aceito alcançou o grau 11. Graduado em Matemática e graduando em Direito, possui especialização em Maçonologia.

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