Founders
Grand Lodge of Jerusalem n.1966
Grand Master - Nicole Hamilton
Master - Emmanuel Rohan-Polduc
Master - Louis Scerri Ferrante
Master - Giovanni Garozzo
Master - Carmelo Costanzo
Master - Peter Zammit
History
Founded on 20th February 1966 in Malta by english Grand Master Nicole Hamilton and Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc.
On 17 October 1968 the SanGiorgio lodge was taken over by the Jerusalem Lodge in Malta, since then the Jerusalem lodge has had a steady increase in new members. Since 1972 there were 1860 members, including brothers from all over the world.
Since 1972 the Grand Master and Louis Gale led to openings with other lodges in the world such as the lodge of Washington. An immense brotherhood was created.
Adrian Busietta (Maltese) was appointed as Grand Master.
Until 1990 his work was profitable led to the opening of new lodges under the Grand Lodge of Jerusalem he gems a Lodge in Spain in Malaga with the same name of Jerusalem's lodge: The Grand Master was Giulio Rosi with the help of two of his collaborators brings the Lodge at excellent levels. From 1991 to 2000 three Grand Masters Nicola Benvenuto, English John James, then a Maltese Antony Bartolo took turns.
From 2000 until 2005, Joseph Zammit was appointed as Grand master and with his authority he created other Lodges: Lodge Goldenroof 39 in Innsbruck by electing Master Grasso Salvatore, who was already a member of the Jerusalem Lodges. The other Lodge was the lodgeofGabriel48 east of Rome. After the resignation of the Grand Master Joseph Zammit, Louis Camilleri was named a man of great wisdom and world culture.
Origins
It bears the name of the Holy City in which King Solomon dedicated a temple to the worship of the one God, the GAOTU, as documented in 1 Kings of the Old Testament; and representing the first lesson of architecture in the whole of mankind’s history, the source of all our Masonic traditions and therefore so important to our Order.
Jerusalem is the city which became the scene of Jesus’s last ministry, his calvary and resurrection; the city from which Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven; the site of Judaism’s most holy site, the Holy of Holies. It is a city revered by our three main monotheistic religions and the cradle of our most respected masonic traditions.
Jerusalem has no equal anywhere in status, importance, beauty and symbolism. No city in the world has captured so much the interest, for so long and of so many people. No city in the world is so revered and loved as much.
In line with the fact that the name Jerusalem derives from the Hebrew words “city of peace”, it focusses on friendship and brotherhood as the path to everlasting peace!
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a large fraternal organisation that promotes moral and personal development amongst its members.
Its core values include caring for others, helping those in need and acting with honesty and integrity.
Freemasonry offers a unique and rewarding experience to men from all walks of life, regardless of race, religion or social status.
Freemasonry believes that respecting and understanding our differences is a crucial step towards building a society and a community with true harmony and peace.
Freemasonry practices strong moral principles and develops the core values of honesty and integrity in the individual.
Freemasonry puts its principles into practice through its charitable activities. We believe in interacting and working closely within our local communities to help all people in need and their communities as a whole.
In a world often dictated by hate and segregation, membership of an organisation capable of uniting men of all religions, colours and even accents is more relevant than ever.
Principles
The official masonry declares that it does not have ethnic, religious, ideological and political barriers, due to the ancient rules established in the Constitutions of the free masons of 1723 and to which all the Masonic institutions of the world refer, even if with some differences due to local traditions and historical. Furthermore, women are usually discriminated against, since in most cases there is an initiation ban for them. Since its inception, Freemasonry has consisted of lodges, that is, organized groups of people who work together with the same purposes and ideals, followed by every Mason in the world. In this sense it is considered universal by its members, despite its complex internal differences. The pact at the base would be understood not as a socio-political operation, but as a collective tension, of all affiliates of the association, towards the way of perfecting the highest conditions of humanity. [Without source]
Masonic principles descend from Anderson's Constitutions, written by James Anderson in 1723, and whose rules establish the universal tradition of masonry. They are therefore principles, or ideal norms, which cannot be questioned or changed, on pain of leaving the tradition itself and the Masonic ideality. Among the various principles and norms there is that which precludes Freemasonry and all its affiliates to extraneousness with respect to political or religious issues. This does not mean that Freemasonry is anti-political and anti-religious, it is only separated from these areas and for this reason in the Lodges it is forbidden to discuss religion, politics, economic affairs of civil society. This principle has been affirmed with precision since its inception and follows the same provision in force in the Royal Society since the seventeenth century. In fact, some members of the Royal Society were among the founders in 1717 of the first grand lodge [36], the one later colloquially called Premier Grand Lodge.
Palazzo Roffia, Florence local seat of the Alam Grand Lodge of Italy
In the Masonic world, Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry prescribes with particular severity that the Freemason should not publicly deal with issues related to politics and religion in the role of Freemason, preserving the freedom to do so as a citizen. This prescription is not affirmed with equal rigidity in the Masonic Institutions of non-Anglo-Saxon culture, which have interpreted the Masonic Constitutions differently for historical and cultural reasons. It is difficult to deal with Freemasonry in a general sense, as a whole, considering that it is expressed in different organizational and doctrinal ways; however, there are some characteristics common to all Masonic world institutions, which can be summarized in the following:
Its ultimate goal is the improvement of man and humanity.
The instruction of the mason by means of symbols based on the tools of the masons.
Acceptance in a lodge through an initiation ceremony.
The organization of gradual improvement, in which the degrees of Apprentice, Accepted or Admitted (or Introduced) (AA / AI), Companion of Profession (or Art) (CdM / CdA) and Master Mason or Mason (MM) are common to all Masonic systems.
Its confidential and discreet character, even if in certain times and places, was manifested in a secret manner.
Freemasonry promotes among its adherents the incessant search for truth to achieve the universal brotherhood of mankind. Through its affiliation rites it finalizes its action on the ethical level by developing the universal values (loyalty, friendship, loyalty, sincerity, goodness, altruism) of human society and consolidating its ideals with the abstention from any dogmatic proposition or fanaticism in the spirit of universal and material tolerance on projects of beneficial action towards affiliates and, in civil society, the needy.
The main value pursued in Freemasonry is that of Freedom and in fact this word (freedom) is present in the Constitutions of 1723. So much so that an indispensable requirement for being admitted to Freemasonry between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth was that to be free-born men [37], not serfs, not imprisoned or deported by force (bondman) [38]. The same name "Freemasons" (Freemasons) defines who worked in a construction site receiving a pay and not because forced. In modern times the concept of "free" basically refers to freedom of action, in the sense of not being subjected to imprisonment or convictions limiting the freedom of personal action and / or in society.
The other value is that of equality, and in fact in the eighteenth-century lodges every difference was banished, bringing inequalities for reasons of wealth, class and social class, ethnicity and religion, anticipating in the internal practice of the lodge the first forms of democracy , then theorized in a more articulated way by the Enlightenment. In the lodge each affiliate is "equal" to the others and the only difference is given by the Masonic degree (A.A. - C.d.M. - M. M.), indicating the path of improvement carried out.
Tolerance, although always actively practiced among Freemasons, does not appear as a founding value of Freemasonry in the first decades of its affirmation; not accidentally this word does not appear in the text of the Constitutions (1717). Only when the Enlightenment principles and values in the countries of western culture conditioned Masonic thought did tolerance become more important.