BAND OF BROTHERS

IN A COUNTRY THREATENED BY FACTIONALISM AND COMMUNAL DISCORD, FREEMASONRY, WITH ITS INCLUSIVE VALUES, MAY HAVE MUCH TO OFFER

- ANJULY MATHAI

Vouchsafe Thine aid, Almighty Architect of the Universe, to this our present convention, and grant that this candidate for freemasonry may so dedicate and devote his life to Thy service as to become a true and faithful brother among us. Endue him with a competency of Thy divine wisdom that, assisted by the secrets of our Masonic art, he may the better be enabled to unfold the beauties of true godliness, to the honour and glory of Thy Holy Name.

The above is a prayer spoken by the Worshipful Master of a freemason’s lodge (or a masonic temple) at the initiation ceremony of a freemason. This might give the impression that freemasonry is a religious order that swears allegiance to the ‘Almighty Architect of the Universe’. But nothing could be further from the truth, says Abraham Cherian, Past Master of Lodge Kottayam No. 245 in Kerala. “Freemasonry requires you to believe in one God, any God,” he says. “In foreign countries, normally only the Bible is kept in the lodge. Here, in India, in addition to the Bible, we keep the Gita, Koran, Zend Avesta and Guru Granth Sahib, so that people of different denominations can take their obligation on their book of faith. Inside a masonic temple, when a ceremony is conducted and the name of God is invoked, every person is allowed to invoke the name of his God. It is the most secular organisation ever.”