GLNF Deemed Irregular by North American Grand Masters

[My Freemasonry]

The Conference of Grand Masters of North America is going on this week in Atlanta, and there are major issues in the Masonic world that the GMs will be discussing: the situation with the Shrine in Michigan and Alabama, the Grande Loge Nationale Française with its embattled GM François Stifani, and the Grand Encampment's Rectified Rite.

The first news to leak out is from the Commission on Recognition, chaired by William Holsinger, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California. According to the LML in English website, the Commission found that the Grande Loge Nationale Française has engaged in irregular behavior worthy of losing its recognition. It is VERY important to understand that this does NOT mean, as the LML website states, that the North American Grand Lodges have yanked recognition of the GLNF. The Commission cannot do that, and neither can the Conference. Only individual GLs can pull their recognition (as the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia did last week, joining 32 other worldwide GLs that have derecognized the French GL). The Commission only reports on the regularity of other GLs and issues an opinion that North American GLs are free to follow or ignore. Nevertheless, if the rumor is true, this is very bad news for Stifani and the GLNF.

A new obedience is forming from the hundreds of lodges Stifani has either suspended or who have refused to pay their Grand Lodge assessments. The Union des Loges Régulières Françaises (ULRF) is forming the Grande Loge Unie de France (United Grand Lodge of France) that will either strike out on its own, or will merge back with the GLNF once Stifani is gone and the troubles are settled (if that is possible).

For the long version of what has been transpiring in France, read the ULRF's version here.

In the meantime, no word has leaked out yet in reference to the Shrine and the RER. More as it becomes available. The final Report on Recognition will be read later this week.

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[Ecossais]

Your headline, "GLNF Deemed Irregular by North American Grand Masters," is false. It refers to the Conference of Grand Masters of North America, whose annual Conference ended Tuesday 21 February. What their printed Report said was this:

"Although the GLNF is still considered to be regular, there is a question to them meeting the standards for recognition. After much consideration, the Commission is of the opinion a reasonable course of action to consider is to suspend fraternal relations with the GLNF until such time a resolution to their crisis is achieved."

So, instead of deeming the GLNF to be "irregular," just the opposite is true. The Commission on Information reaffirmed the regularity of the GLNF, but recommended suspension of fraternal relations (visitation, fraternal correspondence, etc.). By reaffirming the essential regularity of the GLNF, the Commission will hopefully delay the formation of new grand lodges in opposition to the GLNF, and, at the same time, will send a strong message to the electoral college of the GLNF that they had better play it straight, and elect a new Grand Master that is NOT a clone of Stefani.