Posted on 04/22/2003 1:54:17 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been forced to apologise to Britain's 330,000 Freemasons after he said that their beliefs were incompatible with Christianity and that he had rejected them from senior posts in his diocese.
Dr Williams has written to Robert Morrow, the Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England, in an attempt to defuse the row prompted by comments he made last year. In his letter, the Archbishop apologises for the "distress" he caused and discloses that his own father was a member of the Craft.
Freemasons, many of whom are active members of the Church of England, reacted angrily to his disclosure that he "had real misgivings about the compatibility of Masonry and Christian profession" and by his admission that, as Bishop of Monmouth, he had blocked the appointment of Freemasons to senior appointments.
His comments about Freemasons were in a private letter leaked to the media shortly after Downing Street confirmed his appointment as head of the Church of England.
Subsequent attempts by his advisers to defuse the row only caused further offence. A spokesman said the Archbishop was worried about the ritual element of Freemasonry, which has been seen as "satanically inspired".
In his letter of apology, Dr Williams tries to distance himself from his own reported comments. He claims that his views were never meant to be public and were distorted by the media.
He wrote: "I have been sorry to learn of the distress of a considerable number of Freemasons . . . In replying to private correspondence, I had no intention of starting a public debate nor of questioning the good faith and generosity of individual Freemasons and I regret the tone and content of the media coverage."
He added: "The quoted statements about the 'satanic' character of the Masonic ceremonies and other matters did not come from me and do not represent my judgment. Since my late father was a member of the Craft for many years, I have had every opportunity of observing the probity of individual members."
Dr Williams does not, in his letter, deny that he has misgivings about the role of Freemasons within the Church.
He wrote: "Where anxieties exist, however, they are in relation not to Freemasonry but to Christian ministers subscribing to what could be and often is understood [or misunderstood] as a private system of profession and initiation, involving the taking of oaths of loyalty."
He ends his letter by stating that Freemasons' commitment to charity and the community is beyond question.
Uh, yeah, right. You may wish to find books higher than the level you are at to figure it out though. You know if you are beyond the 13th level that they are willing to lie to you. What keeps them from lying to you again at the 30th? The key to the lie is the redefinition of what lucifer and God is. According to the Bible God made lucifer. Co-equal? NOT! So if you can get this basic concept wrong, what else is possible. Does the truth depend on lies? No a truth stands alone, there can be many lies but only one truth. Do lies depend on the truth? But of course, without the truth, nothing is a lie, all things become relative. Without a zero on your ruler my friend, nothing can be measured from any point to anywhere, it can be 2 or 3 or 87 away if you do not have a common reference. The reference of life is God and what he made, to be run as he commands. To make it otherwise, to bend the truth to a new and greater truth is a lie.
The FACT that truth can live without lies, but lies cannot live without truth DISPROVES the entire foundation of the yin yang adonoy/lucifer balance thing. But then he is a liar is he not?
How much darkness does it take to chase light from a room?
Just go look, there are plenty of Grandpa's old Masonry books cleaned out of the attic and sold to the Bookstores when he met his maker by his grandkids.
If you do not like my sources, find your own, but by all means, GO LOOK FOR YOURSELF! Do not trust your soul to someone stroking your ego. "Do you not know that you too can be as God" is the first lie from the Garden. Still, men are suckers for it. (And if it helps, I am not a Catholic, which for some reason discounts some posters here, even though Masonry says that they embrace all. Perhaps some less than others...)
Go look for yourself, vs trust me and I will lead you to greater understanding of the secret things and power, pay no attention to this or that, it is all lies, what I wisper, it is the only truth...
Horsepucky, I have read the books myself, you can do the same. Besides, if you want to get to the higher levels, it sure helps to know the answers to the test. Just like your Masters tell you, if you want to advance, study Masonry. I am telling you the same. Study EACH LEVEL and ask God to show you the truth, ask Him to show you the common thread. Watch how each step of the way builds on the last, to turn light into dark and dark into light.
And watch your arse, the guys at the top know full well what they are playing with. Don't ask stupid questions, ask smart ones.
Inside your head!
And whats even funnier. Not one mention or notice by all you good Catholics that you are on a thread whose main theme centers on the Anglican Church!
Oh come on now, capin'. Masonry has not done one tenth the damage to your church as has the sex scandals of late.
Oh my word, what a liar you are. Are polycarp and tonto going to have to call you again on this one, like the did on the bogus masonic letter that you posted?
Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti (b. May 13, 1792, Senigallia, Papal States--d. Feb. 7, 1878, Rome), head of the Roman Catholic Church whose pontificate (1846-78) was the longest in history and was marked by a transition from liberalism to conservatism.1 .
On Dec. 8, 1864, Pius issued the encyclical Quanta Cura with the Syllabus listing 80 of the "principal errors of our times." The 80th "error" was that "the Roman Pontif can or should reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization."
The first Vatican Council opened on Dec. 8, 1869. On July 13, 1870 it was decided that the Pope was Infallable when he made pronouncements ex cathedra.
An unconfirmed and suspect story regarding Pius IX is "of peculiar interest to Masons, because the records of the Italian Grand Lodge show His infallible Holiness to have been expelled from the fraternity after his election as pope. Victor Emanuel, having been aided by Garibaldi, a 33° Mason, in overthrowing the temporal power of the papacy and establishing religious and constitutional liberty in Italy, was informed that the Pope, when a young man, had been Initiated, Passed and Raised in a Masonic lodge. He therefore caused him to be tried for repeated violations of his obligations to the Masonic brethren. Pius IX was found guilty, expelled, and the proclamation of his expulsion, signed by Victor Emanuel, then king of Italy and grand master of Masons in that country, was sent all over the Masonic world."2
"...in 1865 Pope Pius IX was called upon to appear before the proper Masonic authorities, and... he was expelled from the Order on March 27th, 1873, by command of Victor Emanuel, King of Italy and Grand Master of the East of Italy." 3 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1989. v.9, page 485. ^
2. W. G. Sibley [William Giddings] (1860-1935), The Story of Freemasonry. Gallipolis, Ohio. The Lion's Paw Club, Gallipolis Daily Tribune Press: 1904. p. 23-24. [114p. 19cm.]. No reference or citation noted. ^
3. The Square. Volume 2, Number 3, March, 1922. British Columbia's Masonic Magazine. page 37. "...taken from a book published by W.G. Sibley:" Note that this story was earlier promoted by the confessed fraud, Léo Taxil, [Pie IX, Franc-maçon? De la lumière! Encore de la lumière! Et toujours de la lumière! Paris: Téqui, Libraire-éditeur, 85 Rue de Rennes, 85. 1892] ^
CORRECTION,,,Grand Master.
Oh my word, what a liar you are. Are polycarp and tonto going to have to call you again on this one, like the did on the bogus masonic letter that you posted?
Call away oh deebness. I was there. Say what ever you like. Insults seem to be the extent of your ability, reason and counter point having been left behind long ago.
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