|
This building boasts a rich history, a little conspiracy and a lot of
charity.
TO BE CLEAR, THE
SCOTTISH RITE CATHEDRAL, ON KEWALO STREET AND WILDER AVENUE IN
MAKIKI has nothing to do with Scotland. Nor is it a church, as
the word "cathedral" may imply. The building was built in 1922 by
the Christian Science organization, and, that same year,
became the Scottish Rite Cathedral, home of the Scottish Rite
Masons, one of a handful of lodges of Free and Accepted Masons in
Hawai'i. The Scottish Rite has been in Hawai'i since 1874, and
counts among its founding members John Dominis, King Kalakaua (who
also founded HONOLULU Magazine), former mayor of Honolulu Lester
Petrie and N. R. Farrington.
In the Freemasons sounds familiar, it
may be because the organization was featured in Dan Brown's
best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, which touched on a number of
theories about the group-namely, that it's associated with a occult
and secretly runs world politics. This last assertion likely stems
from the fact that a number of United States presidents, including
George Washington, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson, were all
Freemasons. But the Scottish Rite's mission has nothing to do with
the black magic or world domination, says secretary William "Pete"
Holsomback. The Scottish Rite is a fraternal organization.
Membership is open to all men who express an interest, and who
believe in a Supreme Being, though we're not a religious
organization. I'd like to think we take a good men and make them
better men. We're not a secret organization.
Like any other fraternal club, the
group holds monthly meeting for its 950 or so members, as well as
other social get-togethers. Monday through Friday, however, the
building's main occupants are approximately 14 children ages 3 to 6
who attend the Scottish Rite language disorder clinic. Spread
throughout various rooms on the first floor, the youngsters, who are
often referred to the Scottish Rite by schools and doctors, work
with certified speech therapists to correct their impairments. "No
child is ever turned away," says Holsomback. "If they're not cover
by insurance, then Scottish Rite picks up the tab."
by Jenny Quill
Honolulu Magazine, September 2006
Brief
History of The Scottish Rite
The Scottish Rite had its beginning in France when in 1754, the
Chevalier de Bonneville established in Paris, a chapter of
twenty-five-so-called High Degrees which, including the three symbolic
Degrees, was called the Rite of Perfection. In 1758 these Degrees
were taken to Berlin and placed under a body called the Council of
the Emperors of the East and West, and in 1762 Frederick the Great
of Prussia became the head of the Rite and promulgated what is
known as the Constitutions of 1762. In 1786 a reorganization took
place in which eight Degrees were added to the twenty-five, and the
name changed to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry. By these Constitutions, Frederick resigned his
authority as Grand Commander and provided that the government of
the new system of Degrees should rest with a Council in each
Nation, to be composed of nine Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the
Thirty- Third and Last Degree of Freemasonry.
In 1761, the year before Frederick the Great was said to have
taken under his patronage all Masonry in Germany, Stephin Morin
of France was commissioned Inspector General of the New World by
the Grand Consistory of sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in
Paris to introduce the Rite in America. He established Bodies in San
Domingo and Jamaica and in turn commissioned Henry Andrew
Francken who established a Lodge of Perfection in Albany, N.Y. in
1767. Other Lodges of Perfection were organized in various places
including one in Charleston, S.C., until in 1801 they were
consolidated under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council. From
the beginning, these Lodges of Perfection were in full harmony with
the Symbolic Lodges, assuming no authority over them and
invariably beginning their work with the Fourth Degree.
The Revised Constitutions of 1786 provided for two Supreme
Councils in the United States of America with equal powers in their
respective jurisdictions. Accordingly in 1813, the Supreme Council
ceded all of the United States north of the Mason and Dixon Line
and east of the Mississippi River for the purpose of establishing a
second Supreme Council in this Country. This territory comprises the
States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio,
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin and is termed the
Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States, with
headquarters in Boston, Mass. The remaining thirty-five States
together with all territories and dependencies, China, Japan and
the Army and Navy were retained by the "Mother Supreme
Council" and are now termed the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United
States.
With Two Hundred
and One year of continuous existence during which it
has surmounted all difficulties and has become a dominent
influence in the world of Masonry, the Supreme Council 33°, whose
See is at Charleston and in the State of South Carolina, is in
truth the "Mother Council of the World." It now has its
headquarters in Washington, D.C., where it occupies the most magnificent
Masonic Temple in the world, known as the "House of the Temple."
|