The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 2 – Historical Background
the descent of North American Masonic Grand Lodges 86
Although we want to underline the "universality" of Freemasonry, we have to
take refuge in a rather contradictory expression used by Henderson and Pope in
order to combine and separate different Masonic streams: the word "mainstream
Masonry." This expression is ambiguous since it depends on the Masonic point
of view from which it is seen. In other words, for a French Freemason
"mainstream Masonry" would mean something different than for an English
Freemason. Henderson and Pope, both confessed "mainstream Masons," define
the largest and best known group of Masonic associations, which is officially
unnamed, as "mainstream Masonry." This group comprises the premier Grand
Lodge of the world (the United Grand Lodge of England), together with the
Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland, six Grand Lodges in Australia, ten in
Canada, about fifty-one in the U.S.A., and many others throughout the world. 87
The definition "mainstream" further includes certain characteristics which
determine that this kind of Masonry is "lawful." And this lawfulness results in
lodges being recognized or unrecognized by other "mainstream" lodges.
Here, we already notice the problem which will accompany us as a leitmotif
throughout this paper - if there is a "mainstream" Masonry, then there logically
has to be an oppositional, a marginalized, and even an illegal kind of Masonry.
"Mainstream" Masonry claims for itself the right to judge whether lodges based
86 Reproduced from Henderson and Pope, vol. I, p. 212.
87 Henderson and Pope, vol. II, p. 4.