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News
Updates November 6, 2001 The GWU Annual
Congress will take place on November 12 &13 in Washington D.C.
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Welcome to the Praxis Lodge, located in Boise, Idaho, USA! Praxis Lodge is affiliated with and a triangle lodge of the George Washington Union, a contemporary, and mixed-gender order of Freemasonry in North America that is in amity (via treaty) with the Grand Orient of France and has existed in North America since the mid 1970s. Throughout the year 1976 several American and French Freemasons were meeting in New York anticipating celebrating together the 200th anniversary of American Independence Day on July 4th. The French Freemasons were members of New York’s Lodge L’Atlantide which, since 1900, had been working under a charter from the Grand Orient de France. Later that same year, on December 10, 1976 it was decided to create an American progressive Lodge in New York which could be the nucleus of a future North American body of Masonic lodges, working under the concept of absolute freedom of conscience. The newly established Lodge, under the distinctive title “George Washington No. 1,” received its Charter from the Grand Orient de France in accord with a covenant signed in August 1977 and ratified by the General Assembly of the Grand Orient de France in September, 1978. In 1979 this lodge joined the Centre de Liaison et d'Information des Puissances maçonniques Signataires de l'Appel de Strasbourg (CLIPSAS) in order to affirm a traditional, yet progressive, and liberal style of Freemasonry not only within the United States, but worldwide. By 2001 several traditional lodges had been formed in North America. It was deemed appropriate in 2002 that the Grand Orient de France officially recognize and collaborate with the George Washington Union as a separate Grand Orient operating in North America with the ability to charter lodges. In 2005 the George Washington Union signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Grande Loge Féminine de France. Along with maintaining cooperative treaties with the Grand Orient de France and Grande Loge Féminine de France the George Washington Union maintains friendly relationships with some thirty Grand Lodges in twenty-two countries spread over four continents. The motto of much of progressive, liberal and traditional Freemasonry in continental Europe, and worldwide, since the nineteenth-century has been: LIBERTY – EQUALITY – FRATERNITY The additional motto of the George Washington Union of North America and Praxis Lodge in the new millennium is: HARMONY – UNITY – DIVERSITY The George Washington Union and Praxis Lodge welcomes individuals of good will and high values who are committed to a quest for spiritual progress—the "Know Thyself" of the philosopher Socrates—while working toward the progress of humanity. In addition, Praxis Lodge promotes education of any topic that pertains to several of its key principles and values, which include but are not limited to Masonic history and symbolism, the Age of Enlightenment, science, natural philosophy, ethics, environmental studies, logic, and mathematics. Above all, Praxis Lodge, as well as George Washington Union, defends the principle of absolute freedom of conscience in matters of religion and spirituality. This implies freedom of the mind and liberation in regard to all dogmas; the right to believe or not to believe in the existence of God, a Supreme Being, or any form of deity; and autonomy of thought concerning religious, political, and economical constraints. For this reason, and based on this fundamental human right, Praxis Lodge, as a secular lodge of Freemasonry, does not require that its members hold or declare any theological, metaphysical, or religious beliefs or dogma, such as the existence of God or gods, the immortality of the soul, etc. |
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