AndreAshlar
Registered User
Excluding racism and the residual effects of it, what legitimate reason is there for any regular lodge not to recognize all Prince Hall affiliated lodges that are directly descended from African Lodge #459?
dfreybur - Branches existing without a charter or dispensation from a grand body of competent jurisdiction are not empowered to work. They are clandestine. None are recognized as PHA. I'm referencing those true PHA lodges working under the power of a charter that descends from UGLE.
P.H.O is a spurious, clandestine organization of men who were expelled from P.H.A in the 1960's for un-masonic conduct (selling degrees, violating other landmarks, etc.). They have since set themselves up as independent grand lodges despite having no charter or dispensation from some legitimate grand body of competent jurisdiction empowering them to work.
You are conflating clandestine and irregular. They have the lineage so they are not clandestine. Those independent jurisdictions have the same form of lineage as the PHA branch. They are irregular because of the acts that caused them to be expelled. Either status means there will be no recognition but they are distinct situations.
Were I a PHO member and I figured out how to judge regularity I would apply for healing at a PHA lodge - This forum has a number of brothers who were healed. Were I in charge of a PHO lodge I would ask the lodge to vote on applying to the nearest PHA jurisdiction for transfer of jurisdiction and healing the entire lodge. Were I a PM with a vote on the floor of a PHO jurisdiction I would recommend merging with the nearest PHA jurisdiction for healing. Were I in the grand line in a PHO jurisdiction I would see a merger as losing all of that effort so I would entrench and resist. Generally what the GM says, goes. So I get why healing does not happen. It's sad.
Since the National GL was abandoned and shut down, the PHO body that exists today is one that carried on without authority. They put replacement GLs in states where the legitimate GLs had defected from them. This PHO no longer has lineage. They are clandestine.