The Kansas City Freemason

Welcome to The Kansas City Freemason

This is your one stop shop for masonic news & events for All of Kansas City and the surrounding area.  All masonic and appendant bodies are welcome to post here.  We have some information about Freemasonry and it’s appendant bodies as well as sections for sickness & distress and obituaries. Register today, tell your friends and stay informed so you won’t miss that fish fry…

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 in Scotland and Ireland, over a quarter of a million under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England and just under two million in the United States.

The fraternity is administratively organised into independent Grand Lodges or sometimes Orients, each of which governs its own jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. The various Grand Lodges recognise each other, or not, based upon adherence to landmarks (a Grand Lodge will usually deem other Grand Lodges who share common landmarks to be regular, and those that do not to be “irregular” or “clandestine”).

There are also appendant bodies, which are organisations related to the main branch of Freemasonry, but with their own independent administration.

Freemasonry uses the metaphors of operative stonemasons’ tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon’s Temple, to convey what has been described by both Masons and critics as “a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”

The fraternity of Freemasonry, also known as “Free and Accepted Masons,” is organized by private groups of members variously known in English as lodges, chapters, councils, commanderies, consistories, etc., which can be collectively referred to as “Masonic bodies”.

The basic Masonic body is the Masonic Lodge, which alone can make a Mason, and confers the first three degrees in Masonry, being those of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason.

Whilst there is no degree in Freemasonry higher than that of Master Mason, the degree of the Holy Royal Arch is of great antiquity, and has a special importance in many masonic systems, including those of all three of the oldest ‘Constitutions’ (masonic authorities), namely the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in all of which it is considered (by varying constitutional definitions) to be the completion of the mainstream masonic structure,  and there are also a number of related organisations which have as a prerequisite to joining that one be a Master Mason, such as the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, and a large number of ‘stand-alone’ Orders and Degrees.

Additionally, there are also organizations affiliated with Freemasonry that admit both Master Masons and non-Masons who have some relation to a Master Mason, such as the Order of the Eastern Star, International Order of Job’s Daughters (Job’s Daughters International) and the Order of the Amaranth. Still other affiliated organizations like the Order of DeMolay and the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls admit non-Masons and have no requirement that an applicant be related to a Master Mason.

A number of terms, such as “appendant,” “affiliated,” “concordant,” or “in amity” are used, sometimes interchangeably, to describe these bodies.