The governing bodies of the RER are called Great Priories. There is only one governing body in the United States, the Great Priory of America, which was founded in 1934 at Raleigh, N.C., by Dr. William Moseley Brown and J. Raymond Shute II. Under agreement with the Great Priory of Switzerland, membership is limited to 81, divided into three Prefectures limited to 27 members each, and is further limited to no more than two members from each state, with the understanding that some states will never be able to provide even a single candidate for the rite. In England, the Order is governed by the Knights Templar. It is important to observe with caution that there are several other groups of CBCS and other Martinist Orders with different histories and lineages: Some of them are outside of Masonry entirely, and some of them admit women. The Masonic RER, much like the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, is empowered to work the Craft Degrees (EA, FC, and MM), but in the United States and Europe they choose not to do so, ceding this privilege to the authority of the Grand Lodge system which works the York Rite version of the first three degrees. In several other countries, RER works these degrees directly, and they differ from the York Rite version in that they derive from a source that predates the de-Christianization of the Craft which took place throughout most English speaking systems of Freemasonry to accomodate a truly Universal Fraternity. kingsolomonslodge.org/freemasonry/cbcs.php
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:01:56 +0000