With our unerring belief in the pure masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth as well as our respect for badge and rank, the Brethren of the Grand Lodge of Spain cannot ignore the situation within the Grand Lodge of Spain any longer!
The Grand Lodge of Spain is made up of many nationalities though it has only around 2800 members, which is very small given there are over 46 million inhabitants in Spain.
The predominant 2 groups making up the Grand Lodge of Spain are UK initiated Masons who moved to Spain to live & Spanish Masons initiated in the craft in Spain.
Historically, both the UK & Spain have a distinct masonic heritage as the UK has a strong background of “Emulation” based masonry (York Rite) whilst the Spanish masonry is influenced by French & continental masonry using the Scottish Rite. Both rituals are concerned and focussed on making a good man better by learning, practicising and applying the ritual and it’s symbolism and phiolosophy to the individual Masons daily life. However, both rites take slightly different but compatible approaches, especially as the Scottish Rite has many more degrees from the 1º to the 33º each with its own Masonic lessons to be studied.,
The difference between the rituals makes it harder for Masons in Spain initiated in British Emulation Masonry to question what is happening in the Grand Lodge of Spain today. BritishEmulation Masonry, by its teaching, leads to the firm belief that those with a badge and rank will have overcome their ego and will work for the good of Freemasonry and not for self promotion or benefit. Rank and promotion to any degree in the UK signifies the selfless sacrifice of personal time and money by the holder so that he fulfills the obligations of the rank for the benefit of Freemasonry as a whole. It supposedly should work the same here in Spain even taking into account the small size of the Spanish Grand Lodge and Provinces.
With this belief firmly held, when Masons initiated in British Emulation Masonry salute a rank or badge holder they are saluting the badge not the man as such and it would never cross the mind of a Mason initiated in British Emulation Masonry that the Rank holder can in any way betray the trust put in him or try to get personal gain or benefit from the rank the holder has been given or elected to.
Whilst this should be the case in Spain as well, it appears that Spanish Freemasonry has a chequered history since Masonry was legalised again in 1979 leading to the formation of the present Grand Lodge of Spain.
In the opinion of the Invisible College, power has led astray many of the leaders of the Grand Lodge of Spain in the past years.
This has not been opposed by the Masons initiated in British Emulation Masonry within the Grand Lodge of Spain because this type of action and misconduct is so against what they believe to be Freemasonry.
Consequently, Masons initiated in British Emulation Masonry within the Grand Lodge of Spain have only acted when they apparently cannot avoid seeing the truth of the situation any longer. Apart from cases of misconduct by Spanish initiated officials, there have also been examples of some British initiated Grand & Provincial Officers within the Grand lodge of Spain betraying the trust of their brothers by not looking at rang as service but more to what it means to have personal power in a small non- English Grand Lodge.
Spanish Scottish Rite freemasons within the Grand Lodge of Spain have often seen the warning signs earlier. However, they do not have the votes or power in the higher echelons of the Grand Lodge of Spain to make changes without the support of the Masons initiated in British Emulation Masonry.
This Brethren is the situation we are in now with the current leadership of the Grand Lodge of Spain.
The Spanish initiated freemasons within the Grand Lodge of Spain are highlighting the abuses of power and bad behaviour of the present leadership, the accounting faults, the excessive travel etc. etc. The list is long and it is totally incomprehensible to many Masons initiated in British Emulation Masonry because their fundamental Masonic beliefs tell them that the elected leadership of the Grand Lodge of Spain cannot act in this way. Their inherent belief in the philosophy Brotherly love, faith and truth as well as total respect for badge and rank makes it unthinkable to many Masons initiated in British Emulation Masonry within the Grand Lodge of Spain that our Grand Master can act as he has been constantly seen to be acting in the last few years.
The most recent example has been what has happened to the elected Grand Treasurer when he was suspended just before he was about to report on the financial situation of the Grand Lodge of Spain a day before the last Grand Conclave meeting!
It is true that there would be no Grand Lodge of Spain if it had not been for the UK initiated masons living in the tourist areas of the country helping kick start the fledgling Grand lodge in the 80’s.
All members of the Grand Lodge of Spain must be eternally grateful to these UK initiated Brethren for what they did and still keep doing. In the same manner we must all be grateful to the Spanish initiated Brethren who returned from exile or emerged from hiding to resurrect the Grand Lodge of Spain.What we cannot forgive is the way certain Grand Masters and Provincial Grand Masters have acted in an unmasonic way and abused the Fraternity and brotherly love inherent amongst all the members of the Grand Lodge of Spain, regardless of nationality or rituals of initiation. A behaviour and abuse of power carried out progressively to achieve their own personal ambitions and not to work for the benefit and good of all the Brethren within the Grand Lodge of Spain.
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