"Your
Grace
This
letter comes to you from one who like yourself has shared
in the life of the College of the Resurrection for a time,
before ordination. I am now pensioned, although I cherish
being licensed as Honorary Assistant Curate here in these
parishes in the Diocese of Bradford. I am also Provincial
Grand Chaplain to the Freemasons of Warwickshire, for until
July of this year I worked in the Diocese of Coventry, for
fifteen years as Secretary of the DAC, for two years as Rural
Churches Officer, and for nearly eighteen as Vicar of Priors
Hardwick, Priors Marston and Wormleighton.
You
may therefore guess that this comes to express sadness at
your recent comments on Freemasonry, which are I believe ill-informed,
incorrect and unproductive. I say this with some sorrow, for
I had hoped - and indeed still do - for much from your ministry.
I returned from Birmingham last night, whence I had been on
a now rare visit, ostensibly to share in a Banner Dedication,
and having been with a considerable number of masons who were
to say the least upset by what they had heard. Among them
were churchwardens, PCC Secretaries, Treasurers, choirmen
and ordinary Christians of all degrees of churchmanship. All
asked questions like "Does the Archbishop want to rid
the church of us?" Many put it into words the fact that
they are Christians first, and Freemasons second: though having
said that they care greatly for what they believe is a good
organisation, in which is taught and practiced virtues like
honesty, integrity, brotherly love, relief and truth. It also
is open to other faiths, and I am proud to be Chaplain equally
to Jews, Sikhs, Hindus and others, as well as Christians.
Some
weeks ago you yourself were the subject of some controversy
in the press when you were made a Bard - or some such thing.
I readily acknowledge that I have probably, and almost deliberately,
got that wrong: but then I am not well informed in such matters.
May I gently suggest to you that a similar situation pertains
here? I offer this without any axe to grind at all, for I
have no ambition, being a pensioner and therefore could not
be accused of wanting to get advancement or power, or indeed
anything else out of Freemasonry: I now live and at any rate
do a little work in another Province, and I know well the
value of Freemasonry for myself.
My
friend Rodney Pitham will probably shortly be writing from
the Province of Warwickshire, pointing out for instance that
in 1999 the British Government and in July 2001 the European
Court of Human Rights declared that Freemasonry is not a secret
society. For my own part I write because although collectively
they may be called Freemasons, I know them personally, as
men who are in many many cases working very hard for the Kingdom.
They do not deserve to be hurt in this way.
Yours
Faithfully"
