Emessay Notes August 2011

Disaster Relief

MSA recently put out an appeal on behalf of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand and in response to a transmission of funds the following letter was received.

A mere thank you does not seem sufficient, but thank you for yet another extremely generous donation of $USD$ 28,490.00 to the Canterbury Earthquake Appeal Fund.

It is another very generous donation and I can assure you that the funds will be faithfully applied.

Canterbury has begun to take small steps to rebuild and gain some sort of normalcy and we have begun to utilise the funds by way of support of those who have lost (quite literally) everything including the recent purchase of an ECG machine for a medical practice flattened by the earthquakes.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we will keep you in touch with events in Canterbury as time passes.

Yours fraternally,
VW Bro. Laurence Milton, Grand Secretary

Palestinian Becomes Israeli Grand Master

         A Greek Orthodox Palestinian Arab, Nadim Mansour has been installed in Tel Aviv as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel, a position he will hold until 2013.

         Israel has had two previous Palestinian Arab Grand Masters – Yakob Nazee (1933-1940) and Jamil Shalhoub (1981-1982).

         Nadim Mansour, who was born in Haifa but moved to Acre aged five, was initiated – as a Lewis – into Lodge Akko in 1971, of which his father Elias was a founder, and in 1980 became its Master. He also has the rank of 33rd Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

         Currently, the Grand Lodge has about 1,200 members in 56 lodges, working in ten languages – Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, Hungarian, Rumanian, Turkish, Russian, German and Spanish – and five different religions.

(Source: Freemasonry Today – July 2011)

The Victory Stamps

The July 2011 issue of Emessay Notes featured a story on "Two Prominent English Masons", King George VI and his speech therapist Lionel George Logue. The Spring 2011 Issue of Freemasonry Today, journal of the United Grand Lodge of England had a most interesting follow-up story which we are pleased to reprint.

The Victory Stamps

After the Second World War, King George wrote that 'Freemasonry has been one of the strongest influences on my life' and in collaboration with engraver Reynolds Stone helped create a postage stamp, part of the '1946 Victory Issue,' which is filled with Masonic symbolism.

The 3d Victory Stamp was widely praised for the 'strength and simplicity of the design.' It depicts the King's head in the East, his eyes firmly fixed on illustrations of a dove carrying an olive branch (representing peace and guidance), the square and compasses (in the second degree configuration) and a trowel and bricks (the sign of a Master spreading the cement that binds mankind in brotherly love).

On the stamp the images appear in white, the colour of purity, out of purple, the colour of divinity. The three coupled illustrations are surrounded by a scrolled ribbon made up of five figure threes – sacred numbers in Freemasonry – and was the unusual positioning of the wording meant to represent two great pillars? By its name and intention, the stamp proclaimed victory over evil, yet by its appearance it expressed compassion and hope.

King George VI once stated, 'The world today does require spiritual and moral regeneration. I have no doubt, after many years as a member of our Order, that Freemasonry can play a most important part in this vital need.'

The Victory Stamp captured those words in a graphic representation that also expressed the King's belief that the building of a new and better world could best be achieved by adhering to the principles of the square and compasses.