ROYAL ARCH MASONIC RENEWAL:
REALISM AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE
by Dr. William H. Stemper, Jr. (Oxon)
F.R.S.A. (London)

Various changes in the structure of Freemasonry in recent years underscore the importance of Royal Arch Masons to understand,and interpret its significance both to non-Masons and to Masons who are not Royal Arch Masons. As the first interstate Masonic institution in 1797 with a series of eminent government leaders at its head, the General Grand Chapter became the central national network for the whole Fraternity in the period before the Civil War. It 'suffered' at the hands of Albert J Pike, and others - a process of voluntary participation before,Pike reorganized the Supreme Council, 33º, A.A.S.R. and unlike the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar, has remained since the 1850's an association of independent, and sovereign Grand Chapters.
One result of this history was a decision by the coordinate presiding officers of capitular, cryptic, and chivalric presiding officers at the national, American level to term their degrees a unified - in theory-York Rite. There have been efforts to strengthen,this idea through institutional organization, most notably through the efforts of Mos Eminerit Grand Master of Knights Templar John L. Crofts in 1967. Yet, the three orders have remained formally independent, and with the exception of the General Grand bodies which exexcise controls over subordinate units where there is no Grand body, relatively insignificant to Fremasonry in terms of policy mission in the United States.
Yet, the Royal Arch in specific remains conceptually a part of integral and indispensable to the whole Masonic Fraternity because of its ritual core - the restoration of the Real Word of of a Master Mason imparted by the officers in the exaltation ceremony of capitular initiation. This ceremony is different from the initiations of other rites and degrees precisely because it completes rather than augments, interprets, or amplifies the sequence of Masonic instruction. It in fact transforms the exaltee through his possession of the 'ineffable Name of God' wherein other bodies and degrees edify and refine the core experience of the Sublime Degree of Master Mason. This quality of the Holy Royal Arch was recognized in the earliest Monitor of Thomas Smith Webb (1797), and singled out at the English Masonic Union of 1814 when the Royal Arch was deemed a part of the MasterMason degree.
The decision by the Imperial Council, A.A.O.N.M.S. to dispense with jurisprudential requirements that Nobles of the Mystic Shrine be, and remain, Knights Templar, and therefore Royal Arch Masons, and members in the 32º of the U.S.A. Scottish Rite Supreme Council valleys has-further-marginalized the idea of a unified York Rite. This result of this decision has not as yet been fathomed by many Masonic leaders in terms of its long range cultural impact. Its more important consequence-apart from the alleged premise is that it is a step in a process to remove Masonic membership as a requirement for Shrine affiliation altogether, was to force, York Rite management to articulate the intrinsic reasons for the Royal Arch, and its sequels in terms of their ritual significance.
Thus events have compelled Royal Arch Masons to comprehend the mission of the ceremony of exaltation, and its meaning for the whole of Masonry in a fresh way. By contrast, English Freemasonry addressed this issue by twinning or mooring particular Craft lodges to Royal Arch Chapters. The result is that governance of the capitular rite is managed by the United Grand Lodge of England, whose Grand Master and Grand Secretary occupy corresponding positions within the Supreme Grand Chapter of England and Wales. One could argue therefore that the mentality of English Royal Arch Masonry-which was never incorporated organizationally or intellectually within a separate 'York Rite' has remained where it should be given its, ritual mission tightly linked to the degree of Master Mason.
Along similar lines, there is reason to consider the reorganization of the American Royal Arch to meet with the irrespective Grand Lodges, and to augment and amplify jointly managed sessions to emphasize the strong links between the Craft and capitular rituals. Such 'grand communications and convocations' might be opened to all Master Masons and Royal Arch Masons and their wives with resulting social, educational, and research related events with a noted nationally known speaker or entertainer. District invitations to brethren and companions, might feature a rationale to participate even though the attendee might not be a representative from his local Lodge or Chapter.
RoyalArch Masonry among caucasian Grand Chapters never developed a women's related and related order such, as the Order of the Eastern Star or Order of the Amaranth. Prince Hall capitular Masonry did achieve this, and today it is possible to visit the web sites of the Heroines of Jericho, formerly a popular American side degree. These bodies are specifically linked to Prince Hall Grand Chapters, and serve an important function in aid of the mission of the whole Black Masonic mission. The ceremonials are rooted in the biblical lessons of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho and the Grand High Priestis situated in a ritual position within the state conventions of the Order.
Together with the degree of Royal Arch Widow, a humorous side degree worked by local Chapters, it may be both timely and opportune for caucasian Grand Chapters to establish parallel units of the Heroines of Jericho, with the ceremonial conferred at such joint grand communications and conventions. The role of women has been greatly enhanced within the whole culture since the establishment of American Hoyal Arch Masonry. There is reason to consider enhanced ways female members of Royal Arch Masonic families might strengthen the core mission of capitular Masonry in the 21st. century.
Anti-Masonry is much more an issue today than it has been in recent years. Not only have traditional Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Roman Catholic prohibitions against Masonry been sustained, but conventional denominations previously either positive or neutral toward Freemasonry have turned negative. This opposition predictably operates on the grounds that Masons discriminate in their membership policies, even though increasingly Prince Hall grand bodies have been recognized by regular caucasian grand lodges with intervisitation and dual membership.
The core issue is that Masonic ritual contradicts and voids Christian belief as a blasphemous substitute for Christian revelation. It is this premise, rather than discrimination-which will increasingly dominate public discourse on the future role of thee Masonic Order in the United States as religion plays an increasingly important role in politics at home and abroad. The radical Islamic fear of Freemasonry pivots on its historic refusal to accommodate such concepts as American Masons have established within an institutional identify which has elevated the Shrine of North America to a pinnacle position. Although Most Royal Arch Masons understand that 'the Shriners' are not a Masonic degree, strictly speaking, this disclaimer is generally lost on non-Masons who see the close connection between Freemasonry's interior symbolism and the historic role of the Shrine as defining the relationship of the Rites not the whole Craft. Interestingly, Christian evangelicals who are not biblical literalists or fundamentalists have taken up the same reservations albeit more softly spoken. In the recent Presidential election (2004) groundwork was laid to develop Anti-Masonic ideas further, even though the President was known to be a member of the Masonically nuanced Yale Secret Society of Skull and Bones.
Since the Royal Arch Word claims to be the 'Real Name of God' in symbolic terms it is likely that this specific element of our ritual will draw increasing criticism as the epicenter of theological Anti-Masonry and therefore find a way into political and judicial opposition to Masonic affiliation on.
The present reality of the likely future direction of both political and religious Anti-Masonry involves the specific feature of the composition of the Royal Arch Word. It behooves the leaders of the General Grand and Grand bodies to assess this situation in terms of the increasing attention focused by the Fraternity's critics-not on the behavior of the Order, or its members, but upon its interior ritual design and meaning.This suggests that the leadership of the 'Royal Craft' address itself to a more significant meaning of the 'ineffable word' in terms of the governance and mission of capitular Masonry.
Other important policy issues have resulted from the changed circumstances of Freemasonry in the national cultural context. Among these include the value of linking such orders as Cryptic Masonry to its roots in the Scottish Rite, to which its ritual structure alludes in the history of vault related ceremonials. It seems important to reconnect the assemblies of Cryptic Masons to meetings of Supreme Councils, Councils of Deliberation, and Orients-as well as to local valleys-as a means to restore the vitality of the Royal Master and Select Master degrees, and to afford increased opportunities to exemplify the Super Excellent Master which in order to be exemplified properly should have replete sets and a large cast.
       The strategic role of the Royal Arch has never been fully appreciated in terms of its role in Masonic honors. The Knight Masons of USA (Ireland, in Ohio), the Royal Order of Scotland, and the Red Cross of Constantine each requires that a candidate be a Royal Arch Mason. Yet, none of these honorific orders meet formally together with Grand Chapters or the General Grand Chapter, and have little or no contact with the policy mission of Royal Arch mission within the nation as a whole. It is appropriate that lines of cooperation and communication be developed which specifically require orders that predicate historic membership requirements upon the Royal Arch ideal and concept work with capitular leaders to strengthen the base from which they draw their honorees as a means, both, to enhance the meaning of the Hoyal Arch in terms of the mission of the hononorific body, and to extend to capitular leaders enhanced means to further the mission of Royal Arch civic and fraternal philanthropic activities.
These and other elements underscore the value of reviewing the future role of the Royal Arch in terms of its historic position within the entire American Masonic Fraternity commensurate with the indispensable function it occupies in the sequence and content of the Masonic degrees. As useful as has been the concept of a separate "York Rite", it is likely that the term was first adapted as a response to the consolidated nature of the Scottish Rite, and to the former requirement that Shrine mandated, commandery or consistory membership.
Importantly, no other nation has adopted the idea of a separate York,Rite, which has its essence misrepresents the history of the degrees within it. Further, with the limited exception of Canada, no other nation adopted the Sqrine as an integral part of its national 'Masonic definition".Indeed, the premier Masonic> authority in the world - The United Grarid Lodge of England forbids membership in1he Shrine, and in any other society - including non-Masonic fraternal orders which are 'imitative' of Masonry. On the contrary it is the essential meaning of the Rpyal Arch degree and its relationship to Graft Masonry as consolidated by "Antient" Masonry from 1751 in Laurence Dermott's Ahiman Rezons, the first sets of Monitors used by Freemasons, and from which William Preston drew his design for the Illustrations of' Masonry (1772) which signalled the proliferation of Masonic degrees within English-speaking Masonry worldwide. In turn, the Royal Arch - as an extenuation of Ancient Craft Masonry - has become the exemplar and model for most other fraternal systems of advanced initiation, Masonic and non-Masonic. Its meaning and destiny is perennial and it should be guarded in ways which promote its relevancy to world civilization.