En: Swedish Order of Freemasons

Swedish Order of Freemasons

Source: Wikipedia

The Swedish Order of Freemasons (Swedish: Svenska Frimurare Orden) is a Swedish fraternal order of freemasonry, founded in 1735 as the oldest still active Swedish fraternal order. It is the native Swedish manifestation of Swedish Rite Freemasonry, recognised by the United Grand Lodge of England as a Regular Masonic jurisdictions. The total membership is 16,500.

Organisation

The members are divided in 43 St John's (Craft) lodges (degrees I-III), 23 St Andrew's lodges for degrees IV-VI, and 7 Chapters for degrees VII-X. There is also a lodge of research and a stewards' lodge. Additionally 63 recognised "fraternal societies" provide masonic fellowship in rural communities considered too small to support a working lodge.

In addition there are 1,300 members in Finland in 7 St John's lodges, 2 St Andrew's lodges, and 1 Grand Chapter. While Finland has also a native Grand Lodge following American rite, the overlap of geographical jurisdictions has been agreed upon for decades and the two Grand Lodges are in perfect amity.

Membership

As with all Swedish Rite constitutions, all members must be Christian men. Visitors of any religion from recognised foreign jurisdictions (including Swedish freemasons of the Swedish District Grand Lodge of the Grand Lodge of Finland) may attend lodge meetings, but visitors attending the chapter degrees (from grade VII onwards) must be recognised as Christians, or sign a statement asserting that they are Christians.

There is a close relationship with the Lutheran Church of Sweden (Swedish: Svenska kyrkan), which was until 2000 the established national church of Sweden, and remains the largest religious denomination. Priests and bishops of the Church of Sweden have a special role within the Swedish Rite of Freemasonry, particularly in grade VII and above.

The Swedish Rite is a variation or Rite of Freemasonry that is common in Scandinavian countries and to a lesser extent in Germany. It is different from other branches of Freemasonry in that, rather than having three main degrees and seemingly-endless side degrees and appendant bodies, it has an integrated system with ten degrees. It is also different in that, rather than moving through the offices or 'chairs', progress in the Swedish Rite is based on moving through the ten degrees. A fundamental difference is the Swedish Rite's position on religious affiliation: Masonry as recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England requires a belief in God, but accepts candidates of any theistic religion, whereas Swedish Masonry is specifically Christian, and requires a Christian trinitarian belief in all its members. Nonetheless, the main Swedish Rite constitutions are all recognised as regular by the United Grand Lodge of England, and stand in full amity.

Swedish Rite

Membership

The Swedish Rite has approximately 16,500 members in the Swedish Obedience (of which 15,200 are in Sweden and 1,300 in Finland[2]), 3,500 in Iceland, and 16,700 in Norway.

Members must be at least twenty-one years of age[4] and of good repute; they must be recommended by at least two members, one of which must have at least the seventh degree and the other at least the third. The traditional rule that a candidate must come of his own will and accord is enforced within the Swedish Rite.

A final requirement is that the candidate profess to adhere to a mainstream Christian faith, assert that it is the best of all possible religions, and swear never to abandon it. If the Christian belief of the candidate is in doubt, a birth certificate may be requested; in the Scandinavian countries, birth certificates contain a field for religion. Owing to the religious history of the Scandinavian nations, Swedish Rite Freemasonry has strong connections with the various national Lutheran churches, which are the majority churches of all the Swedish Rite nations. However, members of any Trinitarian Christian denomination are accepted into membership. Membership of certain sects which are unrecognised by the World Council of Churches does not qualify a candidate for membership of the Swedish Rite; these include the Mormons, the Unification Church (the Moonies), and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Swedish Rite is the default and usual Masonic rite in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. In Finland there exists an agreement of shared jurisdiction between the native Grand Lodge of Finland, working standard Anglo-American tradition Masonry, and a Provincial Grand Lodge of the Swedish Rite Swedish Order of Freemasons. A derivative form of the Swedish Rite is worked in Germany by the Grand Landlodge of the Freemasons of Germany, where it is one of five different Masonic systems which co-exist within the umbrella group the United Grand Lodges of Germany.

Although fully independent, the Scandinavian Grand Lodges work closely together to keep their rituals as similar as possible.

Since 7 November 2006 all laws of the Swedish Order of Freemasons are publicly available on the Internet.Among others, the laws prohibit any member to gain advantages outside the lodge by using the lodge as an instrument. The laws also stress the charity works of the members and the observance of the Golden Rule.

Female adoption lodge: Le véritable et constante amitié

Women Freemasons seem to have been introduced early in Sweden, though the information in scarce: according to documents of the Swedish Freemasons, Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht was in 1747 the Grand Mistress of in a certain Ordre de la resemblance, which can thus be interpreted as a Women's Lodge of Adoption. However, a confirmed Women's Lodge does not appear until the 1770s.

On 2 May 1776, the Grand Master of the Swedish Freemasonic Order, Duke Charles, had his spouse, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, inaugurated as the Grand Mistress of a female lodge of adoption to his own lodge at the Royal Palace, Stockholm, named Le véritable et constante amitié.This new woman's lodge of adoption was confirmed by seal from Grand Master of the French Freemasonic Order, Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, and the Grand Mistress of the French Woman's Lodge of Adoption, Bathilde d'Orléans, on 8 May 1776. The Woman's Lodge of Adoption was organized by rules set by Duchess Charlotte in three grades with a ritual in five grades after a French role model, and had their meetings in the same rooms in the apartments of Duke Charles in the Royal Palace where the male lodge also had their meetings.

Except Duchess Charlotte herself, Sophie von Fersen and Hedvig Eleonora von Fersen, both introduced in 1776, are confirmed as members of the Lodge of Adoption, and Charlotte Stierneld are likely to have been member of the same lodge, as she was named as "already a Freemason" when she was introduced in the Yellow Rose Lodge.It is unknown how long the Lodge of Adoption was active, but it is likely that is functioned at least until 1789, when duchess Charlotte mention how duke Charles allowed her to participate in "secret gatherings" to explore the occult, and perhaps as long as until the foundation of the short lived Co-Masonic Lodge Yellow Rose Lodge in 1802, but was surely abolished in 1803, when all secret societies at court was banned.