Unite Now!

"History repeats itself in cycles.

A diligent study of history makes it possible for us to perceive the things yet to come that our progress through the ages might wisely be controlled. Viewed as such, history becomes a useful, living covenant between the past and the future.

History is not, as some people want to believe, a chronology of persons and events from which one may read and derive “a priori” principles supporting the claim to superiority, as if superiority, is measured by the height of a family tree.

Unfortunately for Masonry – and for the Philippine family in particular – there are still those who share this view of history going about us with superior air about them. The present chaotic condition of Freemasonry in the Philippines is not new in the long history of the fraternity. No Brother, much as he desires to bridge the gap, entertains the sincere belief that any historical and legal pronouncements alone, however erudite can bring the much needed order into the chaos.

However, it cannot for a moment be doubted that in the heart of every Brother is the supreme desire to bring harmony and peace to the present melancholy condition of Masonic affair. The history of Freemasonry in the Philippines from the time the first American Mason landed in Manila until the present, has a faithful counterpart in the early history of Masonry in England from 1717, when the four Lodges met and formed the Grand Lodge of England, until 1813, when the Grand Lodge of the “Moderns” and the Grand Lodge of the “Ancients” united to form the United Grand Lodge.

In 1751 a group of Irish Masons ceded and established their own Grand Lodge in the Southern part of England and called themselves the true Ancient Masons. It was from this body that the biggest and most influential jurisdictions in the United States were warranted. These are the so-called York Masons in the United States and in the Philippines today, and who were called "irregular Masons" then, although many of them were Masons from Ireland.

From this short account, a historical cycle becomes apparent and one may perceive at once that the present members of the Gran Logia Nacional de Filipinas [GNLF] are the mirror-images, historically speaking, of those Ancient Masons. These Brothers seceded also from the Grand Lodge of the Philippines for reasons both honorable and sufficient, and they, too, were Freemasons even before the American “Yorks” came to the Philippines.

It is not necessary here to give a detailed story of the very heated arguments that went on and on both in England and America between the Moderns and the Ancients from 1751 until 1813, a period of over sixty years. The important event worthy to be recalled was the final union of the two Grand Lodges made possible by two blood-brothers - the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Sussex, Grand Masters both, of the Ancients and the Moderns, respectively.

The Ancient Masonic history in England as well as the history of the Order both in the continent of Europe – especially in France – and in America, teaches one simple cardinal lesson, and it is this:

The forward march of Freemasonry, from diversity to unity is irresistible.

We, of this generation, whether we like it or not, cannot prevent the final union, under one United Grand Lodge of the Philippines, of all Filipino Masons. And if we of this generation, cannot, and will not, UNITE NOW, the next generation will, without doubt, do that enviable labor of love for us. I say “enviable” because no one conscious of the working of history can fail to see that Masonic niche now prepared and ready to receive a modern Duke of Kent and a Duke of Sussex, and brothers all with big hearts and bigger understanding.

The cold logic of Masonic history demands the completion of the Temple. With the impossible we should disagree, with the probable we could compromise, to the inevitable we must acquiesce.

UNITE NOW!"

New York, New York TALIBA (PRINTED IN SOLIDARIDAD 25th anniversary PUBLICATION, ENGLISH EDITION)

Adapted from the Magdalo Lodge No 79, GNLF site (click here.)