The aim of this paper is to identify the sources (different ‘workings’) of the current Craft ritual of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and the identity of the Masons that compiled it.
The workings and wording of the Craft ritual vary considerably by state and by nation, so what, one may ask, is the interest then to Masons outside New South Wales?
Three points come to mind.
One, as New South Wales was one of the first locations to print a ritual in this geographic area, it is highly probable that this was a source of other jurisdictions’ Craft rituals in the Antipodes.
Two, the results of the study indicate that ‘the colonies’ may prove an untapped resource of ‘fossilized’ ritual textual forms that may have been altered or lost in England, Ireland and Scotland.
Three, it will provide other researchers with the tools to compare rituals from different jurisdictions to uncover the sources of the nuances of their own.
The comparison software and numbering scheme (reclaiming Preston’s old ‘Section and Clause’ concept) should create a common language and extendable dataset for others to add to over time.
Title
2014 - ORIGIN OF THE CRAFT RITUAL IN NEW SOUTH WALES - Ian Shanley.
