The Degree Rituals The Supreme Council, 33 ... - Scottish Rite, NMJ

38 The Degree Rituals
After a year of intensive effort and multiple draft revisions, as well as solicitation
of comments from across the jurisdiction, the committee proposed
a revised ritual, which was approved by the Supreme Council as the 14° Ritual
of 1946. The end result of this process was that most of the ritual had
been rewritten and considerably shortened, although the substance remained
intact. The opening was made optional. In major breaks with the past, the inquiry
was directed to the individual conscience, thereby eliminating public
confession, and the long, traditional, historical lecture was deleted. A new
obligation emphasized charity and reverence for God.
The ritual of 1976 included a new prologue, shortened the reception and
ring dialogue, eliminated exemplification of the degree signs from the examination
and investiture, altered the sequence of portions of the ritual, inserted
a number of stage directions, and added an epilogue to the closing. It also introduced
a dramatic element in the person of Moses to present the Ten Commandments.
During 1986-93, several degree rituals were transferred from the Consistory
to the Lodge of Perfection, replacing the existing rituals of the 5°, 6°, 9°,
and 12°. This development necessitated changes in the examination which
made specific reference to the superseded rituals. This was addressed in the
14° Tentative Ritual of 1995 by condensing the review of Lodge of Perfection
degrees into a single paragraph so that it no longer was a catechism of each
of the preceding degrees.
Other significant changes also appeared in the tentative ritual. The sequence
of obligation, ring, covenant of friendship (aroba), and anointing was
rearranged. More controversial were the deletion of the investiture and the rewording
of the many scriptural passages of the ritual to conform to the New
Revised Standard English Bible. This was one of the first instances in which
scriptural passages in a degree ritual of the jurisdiction did not follow the traditional
King James translation.
In 2000, the Supreme Council restored the investiture and, with this modification,
the tentative ritual was approved as the 14° Ritual of 2000.
Writing in 1945, McIlyar Lichliter had criticized the ritual of the 14° as
lacking in continuous action and dramatic unity. It was, in his view, a collection
of unconnected sequences. Despite three major revisions during the next
half century, this important ritual in the Scottish Rite degree system was still
considered by many to be less than satisfactory.