Ritual

Does your jurisdiction have it's own, if not what do you use? PEACE

In SC we use our own. It is the result of a small group of Grand Lodge officers who traveled the state in the mid-19th century in an attempt to standardize the ritual work (after an out of state lecturer toured the state and "taught" a host of Lodges.) Their original copy is in the Grand Secretary's safe, and is periodically checked against what we use now to make sure nothing has changed.
Our copies are tightly controlled, though, and restricted to current Lodge and Grand Lodge officers and must be surrendered at the expiration of the office term as they are considered Grand Lodge property.

No written work for the craft? Mainstream or P.H.A. ?

Here, the work is unwritten, and transmitted strictly mouth-to-ear through a network of certified instructors. There are a few pieces contained in the Monitor, but only a few small parts such as the scriptures, the prayers, and the apron lecture, for example. Things got a little slack over the past fifteen years or so, and the grand lodge is in the process of re-establishing a board of custodians of the work. We use an old model of the Webb work, and the second section of the Master's degree is pretty much the old Rosenbaum version, in theatrical form.

BroBook said:

No written work for the craft? Mainstream or P.H.A. ?

Click to expand...

Every jurisdiction I'm a member of publishes its own and there are differences in detail among them. The Illinois one is written out with underscores instead of a small number of letters syllables or words. The California one is mostly in cypher with the same amount of underscores and the parts from the Monitor written out in full. The Texas one is also in cypher. Each jurisdiction has slightly different rules about their book - In Texas it's not allowed in the building at all.

Thinking back to PHA degrees I have visited I saw a black cover written out book during one degree.

There's an old joke I learned -

Q - What's the first sound when opening a lodge.
A - Snap.

Before the books were authorized there were unauthorized ones in use and these old books had a snap cover. I have a collection of them handed down from the families of deceased brothers.

To me it appears that many or most jurisdictions have there own ritual that is not quite identical to the ritual of any other jurisdiction. In spite of claims that the ritual is the same since time immemorial more than half of the GLs I have attended have included votes on at least one detail of the ritual. Plus literally every year I have attended ritual classes given by the certified instructors there has been at least one small change. Often the change has been in the stage directions but not always. This tells me that the ritual in each jurisdiction slowly evolves and it is visitation among jurisdictions that keep them from evolving too far apart.

Lodges holding of the GL of Scotland can choose any ritual they like (or write their own, for that matter) as long as it adheres to the ancient landmarks. Therefore there is considerable variation in details among the various rituals used by different lodges but all, of course, cover the same essential elements. Many of the Scottish lodges here use a ritual known as the 'Standard' ritual and some assume it is THE ritual mandated by Grand Lodge, but actually 'Standard' is the name of the publishing company which prints it! My own lodge uses a variation called the "Modern' ritual which we have modified slightly by expanding on the 'stage directions'. These published rituals have the full ceremonies printed out in plain text with only the 'Secrets', that is, the signs, tokens and words (and a few other key matters) concealed by giving only the initial letters followed by dashes.

Grand Lodge takes the position that the only secrets we are obligated to conceal are those signs, tokens and words that are communicated to us in the conferral of the three degrees. While we prefer that the details of our degrees be kept private, they are not, with the exception of the above, strictly speaking, considered secret.

I should note that all Openings, Closings and degree work are expected to be done from memory. Only one ritual is supposed to be open in the lodge at that time, and that by a brother especially chosen for the evening to be the 'Official Prompter'.

Lodges now holding of the GL of Newfoundland and Labrador that formerly held of the UGLE or of Scotland ( all but 2 or 3 lodges) had their rituals 'grandfathered in' when that Grand Lodge formed. There is now a mandated ritual known as 'The Works' but it is only used by 2 or 3 lodge erected since the GLNL formed.