by Christopher Hodapp
An agreement has been reached between the Grand Lodge F&AM of Tennessee and the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee F&AM regarding visitation policies for their lodges and members. A letter was sent yesterday by MW James Rhyne Arnhart, Jr., Grand Master of the GL of Tennessee, to his constituent lodges that explains the protocols, and I suspect the MWPHGL of TN will do the same shortly. (Click the image above to enlarge.)
There's nothing really out of the ordinary about the policy as outlined in the resolution:
- Visitors must produce a valid dues card and photo I.D. to verify the name and face matches.
- If the visitor can't be vouched for by a member of the lodge, he may be taken aside by an investigating committee for examination. In addition, visitors must take the Tyler's (or Tiler's) oath.
- There is no change regarding the normal rights of a lodge member to object to a visitor's admission, each according to his own grand lodge's code, "keeping in mind the Masonic intent is that in every region a Mason may find a home and in every land a brother."
Both Tennessee grand lodges approved joint recognition two years ago, and an official treaty between the two bodies was signed in October 2021. But the sharing of Masonic sovereignty within a state requires the crafting of internal rules and by-law changes before visitation can be permitted.
According to the letter, the visitation policy officially goes into effect on July 17, 2023.
There remain just five states in which joint recognition has not yet been achieved between the "mainstream" state grand lodges and their Prince Hall-derived counterparts: Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Louisiana.
Note that Prince Hall recognition in Louisiana is a unique situation – the Grand Lodge of Louisiana does NOT recognize the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Louisiana, primarily because of problematic actions of its longtime Grand Master, Ralph Slaughter. (Latest saga – living up to his name, GM Slaughter just suspended several members who tried to object to his re-election during their annual meeting this week. But that's another story for another time.) However, the GL of Louisiana DOES recognize the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland, as of last year.
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