Post by maat on Feb 4, 2009 22:48:40 GMT
Sorry for the long post, I received this via email and I can't get the insert email thingy to work.. I'm blonde. Thought it was informative and interesting.
Cheers
Maat
Published the 22/01/2009 N°1897 the Point Magazine
Freemasons, the great return
To be able. Freemasonry had passed as a little known mode. It returns in force, and the Lodges are devoted to an intense competition.
By Sophie Coignard
Who would have believed it, twenty years ago? The Freemasons were never numerous in France. In the one year space, they are several thousands of men and women who made the step pass “over the threshold”. The French National Lodge (GLNF) has been known to gain between 2,000 and 3,000 members each year. With the Grand Orient de France (GODF), “migratory balance” is evaluated to more than one thousand, while the Grand Lodge de France (GLDF) ensures to initiate from 1,500 to 1,700 men every year.
50,000 with the Grand Orient, 40,000 with the GLNF, 30,000 with the Grand Lodge, 13,000 with the female Grand Lodge of France (GLFF), a little more with Le Droit Humain (DH), France’s principal mixed obedience… France counts more than 150,000 brothers and up to date sisters in their lodges, for which it is necessary to add at least an equivalent number of initiates who may no longer attend, but which have, as one says, “received the light”. That is to say more than 300,000 people, if one applies the precept “Freemason one day, a Freemason always”. Whereas a few years still Freemasonry was regarded as a vestige of the past, it now recruits like never before. The election of Nicolas Sarkozy, then France’s standpoint on secularity, or the projects of the government on tests DNA or the Edvige file allowed the Grand Orient, more implied in the life of the city, to find a new breath. Even the financial crisis inspires it at the point to organize, in October, a press conference and to diffuse an official statement at the same time sorry and triumphing over the vexations over the market economy. “Freemasonry has initially the role to inform, sensitize the company and, if possible, to help to progress. Our work, which is often performed by the highest ranking authorities, does not have other ambition. We hold, in these times when many seek a pillar to rest firmly upon, to underline it solemnly. The members of the GODF which, every day, undertakes the working of their work, are in the service of all. It is good to point out it regularly. ”
Excuse the thought: one wonders why Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel did not think of consulting these people before building their revival programs!
A long time captive of the secret sacrosanct, obediences have tried, for a few years, to launch out in broader communication. They open their doors for the curious at the time of certain significant Days, call upon philosophers in the public arena, such Andre Count-Sponville, to intervene at the time of public conferences, embellish their Internet sites… And some call upon society to explain the divine. Why come to knock on the door of the temples? Alain Graesel, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, considers that the answer holds in three words: “search for direction”: “The average age is of 35-37 years with various profiles,” he explains. “In my Lodge in Nancy, the last two initiates were a painter and an engineer.” With the Grand Orient, one calls upon a certain need for friendship, of reflection, but also the influence of the traditional intermediate bodies, like the political parties and the trade unions, to explain this new favour. “But where to find a place, today, to reflect collectively?” muses Pierre Mollier, director of the Masonic library and the museum of the Grand Orient of France. “For me, Freemasonry is a kind of academic philosophy for men who carried out their professional and family objectives, who can then stop one moment and reflect. I often say that Freemasonry is the single way of being made lifelong friends of at forty years.”
The Grand Orient had its low times in the Sixties and Seventies. The newcomers, not very many, were often agnostic, seeking a replacement for the church or to perpetuate a family tradition. The revival began again little by little during the Nineties. It was at this time that the GLNF began to really take-off. For a long time, this obedience had lived sparsely. At the beginning of the 20th century, some brothers of the Grand Orient moved that their obedience give up the obligatory reference to the Great Architect of the Universe, at the time of the general assembly of Freemasons of 1877. They then created an micro-obedience, the independent and regular National Grand Lodge for the French France and colonies, which was to be transformed later into the GLNF. This new arrival obtained since 1929 the blessing, if one dares to say, of the Grand Lodge of England, cradle of Freemasonry, which takes care on the respect of the regularity, materialized by a rule in twelve points, of which the first says that “Freemasonry is an initiatory fraternity who has as a traditional base the faith in a God ,the Great architect of the Universe”.
Manpower then strongly increased, beginning in the year 1990, and multiplied by seven in the two decades since. “A worthy goal was to recruit at least three people each year, explains Michel Milliasseau, former Grand assistant of the main orient of the province the Alp-Mediterranean, most important of the GLNF, which joined a dissenting obedience today, the traditional and modern Grand Lodge of France (GLTMF). “In Masonic life, it was necessary to lead at least a godson in order to ensure continuity. ” The former Grand Master of this province, Bernard Merolli, to the beginning of the year 2000, tells also of the expansion he was involved with: “We were to fill certain objectives; there were in the orient 35 Lodges when I arrived with my team, and 78 when we set out again. It sometimes happened for us to consecrate 7 Lodges the same day. ”
But the rallyings, on behalf of other obediences, do not explain all this success. Recruitment, with the GLNF, is a discipline wholly shared, carried out with a spirit of systematic squaring. Thus, with the beginning of the year 2000, a person in charge of the GLNF installed in Brittany did not hesitate to send to each brother of his area a letter:
“And now, with you to play and…. Just to dream… The ten experiments to date gave the following results.
For 100 addresses:
• 12 to 17 present at the conference
• 3.5 to 5 requests for initiation
• 3.5 to 4.5 initiations
• RECORD TO BE BEATEN
I remain at your disposal for further information. ” A former member of the Sovereign Grand Committee, the Parliament of the GLNF, which resigned because of this expansion plan ahead, tells how the system functioned: “The Grand provincial Masters, with the GLNF, are kinds of prefects named by Paris and who can be suspended on any day. They are not the emanation of the Lodges but the legates of the national management, which until my resignation, had a four-year term - a strong pressure on them. This disease of quantitative did not have limit. It was requested, for example, for each Master to provide fifteen names of their knowledge which could be canvassed. ”
Once the names were collected, the “targets” receive an invitation. In Picardy, it is a very official form which was sent to possible recruits. On headed notepaper of the French National Grand Lodge, preceded by the mention “to the glory of the Great architect of the Universe”, it is written as follows:
“Dear Sir,
As you know, regular Freemasonry is a very old institution, open to all those which seek to improve within a real fraternity, where one debates neither on religion nor on politics, but where personal development and moral improvement are the sought-after goals.”
An introduction which makes it possible to be different and separate from the Grand Orient. Then the Grand provincial Master comes to the facts:
“How under these conditions does one become a Freemason? Primarily by recommendation, and several of our brothers spoke to us about you, not only of your moral, as well professional probity, and family orientation, but also of your humanistic positions vis-a-vis the major problems of the existence. This shows obviously that you are already, in some share in yourself, a Freemason. You do not fear the way of discipline, and you are able, within a multidisciplinary group, to enrich yourself by the company of others and like to also feel yourself useful to your fellow-man. ”
Let us recall that it is a standard letter and not a personalized mail. It continues with an invitation: “To answer your questions, we organize a meeting to discuss it with the participation of the Grand provincial Master of Picardy. This meeting is strictly upon invitation, and will include some other people taking the same step.”
François Stifani ensures that such practices never took place since he became Grand Master of the GLNF, in 2007. “If somebody tried to make mails, to recruit people by this kind of marketing, it is about a happy imbecile who was over-zealous,” he adds. “The only instruction that I give to the Grand provincial Masters, is encouraging them to make a journey to see their mayor, their deputy, and the prefect of their department like a proper representative of the GLNF, precisely and with all transparency.”
To defend its row and its strategic positioning, each obedience its “produced”. The principal argument of the GLNF holds in three words: “recognized by London”, the “Holy See” of Freemasonry. This safe conduct makes it possible to the Mason of the GLNF to be received by nearly 7 million brothers in the world. A weighty argument in favour of universalization! But, especially, the “regularity”, for many Masons, is paramount. “How many nauseated brothers remain with the GLNF because of this ‘regularity’!” deplore old brethren. “For them, not to be recognized by London more comes down to a similar thing to being excommunicated for a catholic practitioner.” For the GLNF, to lose the recognition of London would mark the beginning of the end. However it is more difficult to repudiate an institution profiting from a broad audience.
And the GLNF was hot: during the Nineties, when its initials were more often quoted in the pages “Justice” and the headings “Ideas” of the newspapers, the London persons in charge raised the tone a little. But, today, the Grand Master of the GLNF can protest it represents “more the first regular Lodges of continental Europe”.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Grand Orient of France develops its engagement in the city and its defence of the great principles of “liberal and non-dogmatic” Freemasonry known as: secularity, human rights, social fraternity. This 100% French invention was made in Lodges in several countries, but the whole of the Anglo-Saxon world is dominated by the regular Freemasonry, which believes in a God through the Great architect of the Universe. The leaders of the Grand Orient see the GLNF making up for its numerical lost time year after year. They cannot admit, because of questions of prestige and credibility, to see their obedience losing his place of number one in the fraternal race. Alain Bauer, when he was Grand Master, had anticipated the difficulty. He went into the universities, into the provincial towns, to carry the fine words. Objectives: to increase and rejuvenate manpower.
In the medium, the Grand Lodge of France is wedged a little. She recognizes the Great Architect of the Universe but admits members who do not believe in God - and who represent about half of manpower. Believers or not, the members of the GLDF are linked by their attachment with tradition and regularity. They do not miss greatness, in order to be able to claim them also, with the recognition that comes with the famous. They present well and have the regard of the judicial-financial businesses. They sin, certainly, by excess of fraternity with regard to the Grand Orient, looked upon by the GLNF as by London like a kind of undesirable scarecrow. They also, in any case, may find it beneficial to remain in the race.
But for recognition, the battle is not gained: “There cannot be more than one Lodge sovereign and regular by State”, François Stifani recalls. Translation: the Grand Lodge of France can try to allure London, but it will never reach that point. It is a question of numbers! Alain Graesel, the Grand Master of this last obedience, tirelessly continues to furrow the Hexagon, at a rate of one or two public meetings per week. In his office of the street Puteaux, the 17th district of Paris, this man of conviction does not have a choice: in order to not to be crushed between the GLNF and the GODF, the GLDF is condemned to grow. To be a Grand Master, accordingly, it is to pay a heavy toll on your own person!
The growth of manpower is also a question of money. Great obediences became enormous machines which it is important to supply. Their leaders are accustomed to a certain way of life. Good representation requires many voyages abroad. All that is expensive. However each new member brings a new contribution. “It is enough to make the multiplication. 40,000 times 400 euros of capitation fees equals 16 million euros. To that add the shares paid to take part in the higher workshops or various Lodges of pageantry such as the royal Arch.” This calculation applies to other obediences. Pierre Lambicchi, Grand Master of the Grand Orient installed in September 2008, holds financial reasoning implicitly when he develops the arguments in discredit of the initiation of the women with the Grand Orient of France: “Attention not to create a starting wave on behalf of those which are hostile with this innovation”, prevents it.
But obviously the surge of new members costs too. They should well be received in temples worthy of this name. So that in certain areas and certain obediences a certain “real Masonism developed”. In the South, from where the current Grand Master and his predecessor originate, the dignitaries of the GLNF, for example, created the public limited company Immobilière Trowel. (The Real Trowel) A wink to the symbolic system, since the trowel is one of the instruments essential to the Mason. Each member of the GLNF is invited to subscribe to at least an action of Real Trowel.
Its social object consists in buying buildings to transform them into temples, then to make them profitable by renting them to the various Lodges of the GLNF or other obediences. “Make the calculation,” said one of the former shareholders of Real Trowel. “The price of a hiring is wholesale at 250 euros per evening. If the place is rented five evenings per week, the income rises to 5,000 euros per month. Multiplied by eight temples, you obtain 40,000 euros of monthly incomes.” This ex-shareholder is quite well informed, since the turnover of Real Trowel for 2007 rises with a little more than 400,000 euros, and the result with more than 37,000 euros, that is to say a profitability of more than 7%. “It was necessary to well equip the brothers with meeting rooms,” explains François Stifani. “Thanks to this shareholding, we profited from an action leverage. In front of this success, we created a real estate company by province. For my part, I made gift of my actions to the Foundation for the promotion of the man, created by the GLNF”. Freemasonry leads to all…
“BIG FIVE” OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY
The Grand Orient de France (GODF)
50,000 members.
Male.
The Grand Orient does not refer to the Great architect of the Universe, but intends to be present in all the social and political debates.
Grand Master: Pierre Lambicchi, cardiac surgeon.
French national Grand Lodge (GLNF)
41,000 members.
Male.
The GLNF prohibits any political or religious debate in his Lodges, but asks new initiates to swear their oath on the Bible.
Grand Master: François Stifani, lawyer.
Grand Lodge de France (GLDF)
30,000 members.
Male.
The GLDF refers to the Great architect of the Universe, but does not require its members to state that they believe in a God. The GLDF comes to a conclusion about the great societal debates.
Grand Master: Alain Graesel, consultant and teacher.
Female Grand Lodge of France (GLFF)
13,000 members.
Female.
A break-away group of the Grand Lodge, which sheltered its first Lodges, it preserves its traditions, but is concerned with great stakes, especially when they concern women.
Grand Mistress: Yvette Nicolas, former assistant of Raymond Barre.
Le Droit Humain (DH)
14,000 members.
Mixed – Men and Women.
Very near to the Grand Orient of France in its orientations and its positioning.
Grand Master: Michel Payen, assistant headmaster of college.
EXTERNAL CONQUESTS
All great obediences are anxious to plant their flag outside of France. The Grand Orient invested much in Eastern Europe, a “market” to take after the collapse of Communism. It is severely competed with by the GLNF, which installed Lodges in Moldavia, in Lithuania, in Russia and Macedonia, whose ambassador in France was initiated in the Parisian buildings of obedience. The Grand Lodge of France has on its side created, inter alia, a Lodge in India, an exclusive domain of Anglo-Saxon masonry.
INTERVIEW FRANÇOIS STIFANI *
“We are the only French obedience which is recognized by London. ”
The Point: You chair the main obedience but also most secret. Why did you decide to communicate?
François Stifani: We simply decided to open ourselves to the view of others to show that we do not have anything to hide and nothing to reproach us with.
How many members does the GLNF count?
Very exactly 41,002. And, with the preceding calculation, in August 2008, we were 38,060.
What precision! How do you explain this success?
As opposed to what one hears sometimes, we do not have proselytism. We are the only French obedience which is recognized by London, we belong to a network of almost 7 million regular Masons in the world, then you can well imagine that Franco-French competition does not interest us…
You however maintain bad relationships to the Grand Lodge of France and the Grand Orient…
I send greetings cards to them, but they do not answer me… However, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, Alain Graesel, invited me to lunch. And me, I never refuse. But you know, there is masonry and masonry. If the Grand Orient managed to prove that there are in its temples 41,000 brothers who meet by respecting the tradition, i.e. in costume and black tie, I would greet it well readily. That would prove at least that it counts 41,000 brothers…
He announces 50,000 of them…
I think as you can cut off 10,000 with the officially announced figure, as well of the Grand Orient as with the Grand Lodge of France. But this debate does not interest me. We are not in competition, I repeat it.
They intend, in any case, to have an influence on the company. And you, for what are you used?
It is not because they have five Grand Masters and old great men, like the Magi, in the Elysium to meet the president from whom they obtain anything on secularity. But I leave without regret the Grand Orient to be made the paragon of the secularity, which, God does not like, does not belong to him. But the problem of the Grand Orient, it is to try to maintain its legitimacy history, since it does not profit from the recognition of London.
And during this time, which the GLNF makes?
We develop in particular a medical group. Hospital Assistance, which recovers medical devices thanks to voluntary help, is recognized as a public service without ever costing one cent to the taxpayer. Coeur Assistance makes it possible to find an answer immediately for a person in difficulty. Thanks to our network among the doctors, in the hospital services, there is always a brother who has a friend who can relieve pain.
You help only of the brothers through this structure?
Not at all. Fortunately we can mobilize ourselves for other causes that those which touch directly and exclusively Freemasons!
* Grand Master of the French National Grand Lodge.
MASONS IN THE PALACE
The year 2008 started extremely well for the Grand Orient of France, including five Grand Masters who were received by President Nicolas Sarkozy in January to speak about secularity. Then, on March 4, the delegations of the GO, the GL, the GLFF and the Human Right went as a large group to the Constitutional council at the invitation of Jean-Louis Debré. One month later, the same ones are received, for the first time since the creation of the European Union, in Brussels by the president of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, before going a few days afterwards in the president of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer.
“BROTHERS” IN THE ENTOURAGE OF SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL
François Rebsamen. The mayor of Dijon forever hid his membership of the Lodge Solidarity and Progress of the Grand Orient of France.
Gerard Collomb. The senator mayor of Lyon assumes his membership of the Grand Orient of France, where he was initiated in 1989.
Patrick Mennucci. The mayor of the 1st sector of Marseilles would belong to the Grand Orient. He refuses to be quoted on the subject.
SOCIAL AFFAIRS, A MASONIC SPECIALITY
Xavier Bertrand. The ex-minister of Work is recognized as being one of the Masters of the Lodge the Girls of Isis, of the Grand Orient.
Brice Hortefeux. The successor of Xavier Bertrand Rue of Grenelle does not deny to have attended the Lodges.
Gerard Larcher. In spite of a spread of opinion, the former minister for Work and current president of the Senate has always denied being Freemason.
“HELLO, I WOULD LIKE TO BECOME FREEMASON…”
THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE
Rather accessible.
- Hello. I would wish to know how to join your Lodge.
- You live where?
- Paris, in the 15th district.
- What is your age?
- 35 years.
- What is your profession?
- I work in a bank.
- The meetings here are in the afternoon and the evening. What do you prefer?
- The evening. Because of my work.
- There are two possibilities. Either you send a letter of candidature to us. And that will take six months to one year. Because it is transmitted to the Lodge, which will contact you. Maybe, and it is faster, I entrust to you directly to somebody.
- I prefer this last solution.
- Which is your phone number? Somebody will call you this evening or tomorrow at the latest. The person is called Trinité, on behalf of Amaté. You could have come in to my Lodge, but mine is only the afternoon.
FEMALE GRAND LODGE OF FRANCE
Minimum service.
- Hello, I would wish to join your Lodge. Can you explain to me how to do this?
- It is necessary to send a letter to our secretary, with your motivations and a small CV.
- And then, what occurs?
- We transmit your file to the president of the Lodge nearest to you and she contacts you.
- It is difficult to be admitted?
- It all depends on your motivation. Wait to be contacted, and then you will be able to put all the questions which you want.
- And does it take much time to be admitted?
- Yes, several months, time that one makes a report of your candidature…
- It was also said to me that someone was going to make an investigation into me…
- Lastly, let us say that one will ask you questions to clarify nebulous points. For example, to enter into our Lodge , one should not be racist, one should not be in favour of capital punishment…
- But it is not political?
- Not, we are apolitical. You are free to adhere to any political party.
Sophie Coignard, Olivia Recasens and Christophe Labbé
“START-UP” OF MASONRY
Certain masons, arrived at the top of initiation, leave their great obedience to create another of them. It is the case of Marcel Laurent, founder in 2002 of the Grand Lodge of the cultures and the spirituality, which has snapped at the door of the GLNF with part of its Lodge, to base a mixed structure, open on the outside, which counts 350 members, of which some come from the GO, of the GLFF or the Human right. The traditional and modern Grand Lodge of France, it, was created in 2003 by dissidents of the GLNF installed on the Riviera. It counts 500 members, almost all resulting from the GLNF.
Cheers
Maat
Published the 22/01/2009 N°1897 the Point Magazine
Freemasons, the great return
To be able. Freemasonry had passed as a little known mode. It returns in force, and the Lodges are devoted to an intense competition.
By Sophie Coignard
Who would have believed it, twenty years ago? The Freemasons were never numerous in France. In the one year space, they are several thousands of men and women who made the step pass “over the threshold”. The French National Lodge (GLNF) has been known to gain between 2,000 and 3,000 members each year. With the Grand Orient de France (GODF), “migratory balance” is evaluated to more than one thousand, while the Grand Lodge de France (GLDF) ensures to initiate from 1,500 to 1,700 men every year.
50,000 with the Grand Orient, 40,000 with the GLNF, 30,000 with the Grand Lodge, 13,000 with the female Grand Lodge of France (GLFF), a little more with Le Droit Humain (DH), France’s principal mixed obedience… France counts more than 150,000 brothers and up to date sisters in their lodges, for which it is necessary to add at least an equivalent number of initiates who may no longer attend, but which have, as one says, “received the light”. That is to say more than 300,000 people, if one applies the precept “Freemason one day, a Freemason always”. Whereas a few years still Freemasonry was regarded as a vestige of the past, it now recruits like never before. The election of Nicolas Sarkozy, then France’s standpoint on secularity, or the projects of the government on tests DNA or the Edvige file allowed the Grand Orient, more implied in the life of the city, to find a new breath. Even the financial crisis inspires it at the point to organize, in October, a press conference and to diffuse an official statement at the same time sorry and triumphing over the vexations over the market economy. “Freemasonry has initially the role to inform, sensitize the company and, if possible, to help to progress. Our work, which is often performed by the highest ranking authorities, does not have other ambition. We hold, in these times when many seek a pillar to rest firmly upon, to underline it solemnly. The members of the GODF which, every day, undertakes the working of their work, are in the service of all. It is good to point out it regularly. ”
Excuse the thought: one wonders why Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel did not think of consulting these people before building their revival programs!
A long time captive of the secret sacrosanct, obediences have tried, for a few years, to launch out in broader communication. They open their doors for the curious at the time of certain significant Days, call upon philosophers in the public arena, such Andre Count-Sponville, to intervene at the time of public conferences, embellish their Internet sites… And some call upon society to explain the divine. Why come to knock on the door of the temples? Alain Graesel, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, considers that the answer holds in three words: “search for direction”: “The average age is of 35-37 years with various profiles,” he explains. “In my Lodge in Nancy, the last two initiates were a painter and an engineer.” With the Grand Orient, one calls upon a certain need for friendship, of reflection, but also the influence of the traditional intermediate bodies, like the political parties and the trade unions, to explain this new favour. “But where to find a place, today, to reflect collectively?” muses Pierre Mollier, director of the Masonic library and the museum of the Grand Orient of France. “For me, Freemasonry is a kind of academic philosophy for men who carried out their professional and family objectives, who can then stop one moment and reflect. I often say that Freemasonry is the single way of being made lifelong friends of at forty years.”
The Grand Orient had its low times in the Sixties and Seventies. The newcomers, not very many, were often agnostic, seeking a replacement for the church or to perpetuate a family tradition. The revival began again little by little during the Nineties. It was at this time that the GLNF began to really take-off. For a long time, this obedience had lived sparsely. At the beginning of the 20th century, some brothers of the Grand Orient moved that their obedience give up the obligatory reference to the Great Architect of the Universe, at the time of the general assembly of Freemasons of 1877. They then created an micro-obedience, the independent and regular National Grand Lodge for the French France and colonies, which was to be transformed later into the GLNF. This new arrival obtained since 1929 the blessing, if one dares to say, of the Grand Lodge of England, cradle of Freemasonry, which takes care on the respect of the regularity, materialized by a rule in twelve points, of which the first says that “Freemasonry is an initiatory fraternity who has as a traditional base the faith in a God ,the Great architect of the Universe”.
Manpower then strongly increased, beginning in the year 1990, and multiplied by seven in the two decades since. “A worthy goal was to recruit at least three people each year, explains Michel Milliasseau, former Grand assistant of the main orient of the province the Alp-Mediterranean, most important of the GLNF, which joined a dissenting obedience today, the traditional and modern Grand Lodge of France (GLTMF). “In Masonic life, it was necessary to lead at least a godson in order to ensure continuity. ” The former Grand Master of this province, Bernard Merolli, to the beginning of the year 2000, tells also of the expansion he was involved with: “We were to fill certain objectives; there were in the orient 35 Lodges when I arrived with my team, and 78 when we set out again. It sometimes happened for us to consecrate 7 Lodges the same day. ”
But the rallyings, on behalf of other obediences, do not explain all this success. Recruitment, with the GLNF, is a discipline wholly shared, carried out with a spirit of systematic squaring. Thus, with the beginning of the year 2000, a person in charge of the GLNF installed in Brittany did not hesitate to send to each brother of his area a letter:
“And now, with you to play and…. Just to dream… The ten experiments to date gave the following results.
For 100 addresses:
• 12 to 17 present at the conference
• 3.5 to 5 requests for initiation
• 3.5 to 4.5 initiations
• RECORD TO BE BEATEN
I remain at your disposal for further information. ” A former member of the Sovereign Grand Committee, the Parliament of the GLNF, which resigned because of this expansion plan ahead, tells how the system functioned: “The Grand provincial Masters, with the GLNF, are kinds of prefects named by Paris and who can be suspended on any day. They are not the emanation of the Lodges but the legates of the national management, which until my resignation, had a four-year term - a strong pressure on them. This disease of quantitative did not have limit. It was requested, for example, for each Master to provide fifteen names of their knowledge which could be canvassed. ”
Once the names were collected, the “targets” receive an invitation. In Picardy, it is a very official form which was sent to possible recruits. On headed notepaper of the French National Grand Lodge, preceded by the mention “to the glory of the Great architect of the Universe”, it is written as follows:
“Dear Sir,
As you know, regular Freemasonry is a very old institution, open to all those which seek to improve within a real fraternity, where one debates neither on religion nor on politics, but where personal development and moral improvement are the sought-after goals.”
An introduction which makes it possible to be different and separate from the Grand Orient. Then the Grand provincial Master comes to the facts:
“How under these conditions does one become a Freemason? Primarily by recommendation, and several of our brothers spoke to us about you, not only of your moral, as well professional probity, and family orientation, but also of your humanistic positions vis-a-vis the major problems of the existence. This shows obviously that you are already, in some share in yourself, a Freemason. You do not fear the way of discipline, and you are able, within a multidisciplinary group, to enrich yourself by the company of others and like to also feel yourself useful to your fellow-man. ”
Let us recall that it is a standard letter and not a personalized mail. It continues with an invitation: “To answer your questions, we organize a meeting to discuss it with the participation of the Grand provincial Master of Picardy. This meeting is strictly upon invitation, and will include some other people taking the same step.”
François Stifani ensures that such practices never took place since he became Grand Master of the GLNF, in 2007. “If somebody tried to make mails, to recruit people by this kind of marketing, it is about a happy imbecile who was over-zealous,” he adds. “The only instruction that I give to the Grand provincial Masters, is encouraging them to make a journey to see their mayor, their deputy, and the prefect of their department like a proper representative of the GLNF, precisely and with all transparency.”
To defend its row and its strategic positioning, each obedience its “produced”. The principal argument of the GLNF holds in three words: “recognized by London”, the “Holy See” of Freemasonry. This safe conduct makes it possible to the Mason of the GLNF to be received by nearly 7 million brothers in the world. A weighty argument in favour of universalization! But, especially, the “regularity”, for many Masons, is paramount. “How many nauseated brothers remain with the GLNF because of this ‘regularity’!” deplore old brethren. “For them, not to be recognized by London more comes down to a similar thing to being excommunicated for a catholic practitioner.” For the GLNF, to lose the recognition of London would mark the beginning of the end. However it is more difficult to repudiate an institution profiting from a broad audience.
And the GLNF was hot: during the Nineties, when its initials were more often quoted in the pages “Justice” and the headings “Ideas” of the newspapers, the London persons in charge raised the tone a little. But, today, the Grand Master of the GLNF can protest it represents “more the first regular Lodges of continental Europe”.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Grand Orient of France develops its engagement in the city and its defence of the great principles of “liberal and non-dogmatic” Freemasonry known as: secularity, human rights, social fraternity. This 100% French invention was made in Lodges in several countries, but the whole of the Anglo-Saxon world is dominated by the regular Freemasonry, which believes in a God through the Great architect of the Universe. The leaders of the Grand Orient see the GLNF making up for its numerical lost time year after year. They cannot admit, because of questions of prestige and credibility, to see their obedience losing his place of number one in the fraternal race. Alain Bauer, when he was Grand Master, had anticipated the difficulty. He went into the universities, into the provincial towns, to carry the fine words. Objectives: to increase and rejuvenate manpower.
In the medium, the Grand Lodge of France is wedged a little. She recognizes the Great Architect of the Universe but admits members who do not believe in God - and who represent about half of manpower. Believers or not, the members of the GLDF are linked by their attachment with tradition and regularity. They do not miss greatness, in order to be able to claim them also, with the recognition that comes with the famous. They present well and have the regard of the judicial-financial businesses. They sin, certainly, by excess of fraternity with regard to the Grand Orient, looked upon by the GLNF as by London like a kind of undesirable scarecrow. They also, in any case, may find it beneficial to remain in the race.
But for recognition, the battle is not gained: “There cannot be more than one Lodge sovereign and regular by State”, François Stifani recalls. Translation: the Grand Lodge of France can try to allure London, but it will never reach that point. It is a question of numbers! Alain Graesel, the Grand Master of this last obedience, tirelessly continues to furrow the Hexagon, at a rate of one or two public meetings per week. In his office of the street Puteaux, the 17th district of Paris, this man of conviction does not have a choice: in order to not to be crushed between the GLNF and the GODF, the GLDF is condemned to grow. To be a Grand Master, accordingly, it is to pay a heavy toll on your own person!
The growth of manpower is also a question of money. Great obediences became enormous machines which it is important to supply. Their leaders are accustomed to a certain way of life. Good representation requires many voyages abroad. All that is expensive. However each new member brings a new contribution. “It is enough to make the multiplication. 40,000 times 400 euros of capitation fees equals 16 million euros. To that add the shares paid to take part in the higher workshops or various Lodges of pageantry such as the royal Arch.” This calculation applies to other obediences. Pierre Lambicchi, Grand Master of the Grand Orient installed in September 2008, holds financial reasoning implicitly when he develops the arguments in discredit of the initiation of the women with the Grand Orient of France: “Attention not to create a starting wave on behalf of those which are hostile with this innovation”, prevents it.
But obviously the surge of new members costs too. They should well be received in temples worthy of this name. So that in certain areas and certain obediences a certain “real Masonism developed”. In the South, from where the current Grand Master and his predecessor originate, the dignitaries of the GLNF, for example, created the public limited company Immobilière Trowel. (The Real Trowel) A wink to the symbolic system, since the trowel is one of the instruments essential to the Mason. Each member of the GLNF is invited to subscribe to at least an action of Real Trowel.
Its social object consists in buying buildings to transform them into temples, then to make them profitable by renting them to the various Lodges of the GLNF or other obediences. “Make the calculation,” said one of the former shareholders of Real Trowel. “The price of a hiring is wholesale at 250 euros per evening. If the place is rented five evenings per week, the income rises to 5,000 euros per month. Multiplied by eight temples, you obtain 40,000 euros of monthly incomes.” This ex-shareholder is quite well informed, since the turnover of Real Trowel for 2007 rises with a little more than 400,000 euros, and the result with more than 37,000 euros, that is to say a profitability of more than 7%. “It was necessary to well equip the brothers with meeting rooms,” explains François Stifani. “Thanks to this shareholding, we profited from an action leverage. In front of this success, we created a real estate company by province. For my part, I made gift of my actions to the Foundation for the promotion of the man, created by the GLNF”. Freemasonry leads to all…
“BIG FIVE” OF FRENCH FREEMASONRY
The Grand Orient de France (GODF)
50,000 members.
Male.
The Grand Orient does not refer to the Great architect of the Universe, but intends to be present in all the social and political debates.
Grand Master: Pierre Lambicchi, cardiac surgeon.
French national Grand Lodge (GLNF)
41,000 members.
Male.
The GLNF prohibits any political or religious debate in his Lodges, but asks new initiates to swear their oath on the Bible.
Grand Master: François Stifani, lawyer.
Grand Lodge de France (GLDF)
30,000 members.
Male.
The GLDF refers to the Great architect of the Universe, but does not require its members to state that they believe in a God. The GLDF comes to a conclusion about the great societal debates.
Grand Master: Alain Graesel, consultant and teacher.
Female Grand Lodge of France (GLFF)
13,000 members.
Female.
A break-away group of the Grand Lodge, which sheltered its first Lodges, it preserves its traditions, but is concerned with great stakes, especially when they concern women.
Grand Mistress: Yvette Nicolas, former assistant of Raymond Barre.
Le Droit Humain (DH)
14,000 members.
Mixed – Men and Women.
Very near to the Grand Orient of France in its orientations and its positioning.
Grand Master: Michel Payen, assistant headmaster of college.
EXTERNAL CONQUESTS
All great obediences are anxious to plant their flag outside of France. The Grand Orient invested much in Eastern Europe, a “market” to take after the collapse of Communism. It is severely competed with by the GLNF, which installed Lodges in Moldavia, in Lithuania, in Russia and Macedonia, whose ambassador in France was initiated in the Parisian buildings of obedience. The Grand Lodge of France has on its side created, inter alia, a Lodge in India, an exclusive domain of Anglo-Saxon masonry.
INTERVIEW FRANÇOIS STIFANI *
“We are the only French obedience which is recognized by London. ”
The Point: You chair the main obedience but also most secret. Why did you decide to communicate?
François Stifani: We simply decided to open ourselves to the view of others to show that we do not have anything to hide and nothing to reproach us with.
How many members does the GLNF count?
Very exactly 41,002. And, with the preceding calculation, in August 2008, we were 38,060.
What precision! How do you explain this success?
As opposed to what one hears sometimes, we do not have proselytism. We are the only French obedience which is recognized by London, we belong to a network of almost 7 million regular Masons in the world, then you can well imagine that Franco-French competition does not interest us…
You however maintain bad relationships to the Grand Lodge of France and the Grand Orient…
I send greetings cards to them, but they do not answer me… However, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, Alain Graesel, invited me to lunch. And me, I never refuse. But you know, there is masonry and masonry. If the Grand Orient managed to prove that there are in its temples 41,000 brothers who meet by respecting the tradition, i.e. in costume and black tie, I would greet it well readily. That would prove at least that it counts 41,000 brothers…
He announces 50,000 of them…
I think as you can cut off 10,000 with the officially announced figure, as well of the Grand Orient as with the Grand Lodge of France. But this debate does not interest me. We are not in competition, I repeat it.
They intend, in any case, to have an influence on the company. And you, for what are you used?
It is not because they have five Grand Masters and old great men, like the Magi, in the Elysium to meet the president from whom they obtain anything on secularity. But I leave without regret the Grand Orient to be made the paragon of the secularity, which, God does not like, does not belong to him. But the problem of the Grand Orient, it is to try to maintain its legitimacy history, since it does not profit from the recognition of London.
And during this time, which the GLNF makes?
We develop in particular a medical group. Hospital Assistance, which recovers medical devices thanks to voluntary help, is recognized as a public service without ever costing one cent to the taxpayer. Coeur Assistance makes it possible to find an answer immediately for a person in difficulty. Thanks to our network among the doctors, in the hospital services, there is always a brother who has a friend who can relieve pain.
You help only of the brothers through this structure?
Not at all. Fortunately we can mobilize ourselves for other causes that those which touch directly and exclusively Freemasons!
* Grand Master of the French National Grand Lodge.
MASONS IN THE PALACE
The year 2008 started extremely well for the Grand Orient of France, including five Grand Masters who were received by President Nicolas Sarkozy in January to speak about secularity. Then, on March 4, the delegations of the GO, the GL, the GLFF and the Human Right went as a large group to the Constitutional council at the invitation of Jean-Louis Debré. One month later, the same ones are received, for the first time since the creation of the European Union, in Brussels by the president of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, before going a few days afterwards in the president of the National Assembly, Bernard Accoyer.
“BROTHERS” IN THE ENTOURAGE OF SÉGOLÈNE ROYAL
François Rebsamen. The mayor of Dijon forever hid his membership of the Lodge Solidarity and Progress of the Grand Orient of France.
Gerard Collomb. The senator mayor of Lyon assumes his membership of the Grand Orient of France, where he was initiated in 1989.
Patrick Mennucci. The mayor of the 1st sector of Marseilles would belong to the Grand Orient. He refuses to be quoted on the subject.
SOCIAL AFFAIRS, A MASONIC SPECIALITY
Xavier Bertrand. The ex-minister of Work is recognized as being one of the Masters of the Lodge the Girls of Isis, of the Grand Orient.
Brice Hortefeux. The successor of Xavier Bertrand Rue of Grenelle does not deny to have attended the Lodges.
Gerard Larcher. In spite of a spread of opinion, the former minister for Work and current president of the Senate has always denied being Freemason.
“HELLO, I WOULD LIKE TO BECOME FREEMASON…”
THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE
Rather accessible.
- Hello. I would wish to know how to join your Lodge.
- You live where?
- Paris, in the 15th district.
- What is your age?
- 35 years.
- What is your profession?
- I work in a bank.
- The meetings here are in the afternoon and the evening. What do you prefer?
- The evening. Because of my work.
- There are two possibilities. Either you send a letter of candidature to us. And that will take six months to one year. Because it is transmitted to the Lodge, which will contact you. Maybe, and it is faster, I entrust to you directly to somebody.
- I prefer this last solution.
- Which is your phone number? Somebody will call you this evening or tomorrow at the latest. The person is called Trinité, on behalf of Amaté. You could have come in to my Lodge, but mine is only the afternoon.
FEMALE GRAND LODGE OF FRANCE
Minimum service.
- Hello, I would wish to join your Lodge. Can you explain to me how to do this?
- It is necessary to send a letter to our secretary, with your motivations and a small CV.
- And then, what occurs?
- We transmit your file to the president of the Lodge nearest to you and she contacts you.
- It is difficult to be admitted?
- It all depends on your motivation. Wait to be contacted, and then you will be able to put all the questions which you want.
- And does it take much time to be admitted?
- Yes, several months, time that one makes a report of your candidature…
- It was also said to me that someone was going to make an investigation into me…
- Lastly, let us say that one will ask you questions to clarify nebulous points. For example, to enter into our Lodge , one should not be racist, one should not be in favour of capital punishment…
- But it is not political?
- Not, we are apolitical. You are free to adhere to any political party.
Sophie Coignard, Olivia Recasens and Christophe Labbé
“START-UP” OF MASONRY
Certain masons, arrived at the top of initiation, leave their great obedience to create another of them. It is the case of Marcel Laurent, founder in 2002 of the Grand Lodge of the cultures and the spirituality, which has snapped at the door of the GLNF with part of its Lodge, to base a mixed structure, open on the outside, which counts 350 members, of which some come from the GO, of the GLFF or the Human right. The traditional and modern Grand Lodge of France, it, was created in 2003 by dissidents of the GLNF installed on the Riviera. It counts 500 members, almost all resulting from the GLNF.