Scottish Rite Masonry

Introduction

Service to others—service to you. These are the twin goals of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. In 135 Childhood Language Disorder Clinics, Centers, and Programs in our 37 Orients (states), including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, children with communication disorders are taught to speak, read, and learn.

Each year in two great medical centers, the Atlanta and Dallas Scottish Rite Hospitals, thousands of victims of accident or disability are restored to active, happy lives.

In homes for the aged, centers for youth and, in cases of natural disaster, support from the Scottish Rite Foundation relieves the worried and counsels the troubled.

Through local scholarships grants and patriotic programs, the Scottish Rite benefits your community in direct and dynamic ways every day of the year.

We are rightly proud of these achievements. They are the culmination of generations of Scottish Rite Brethren working to strengthen and improve America. Welcome to our ranks. Through your participation, even greater good can be accomplished.

The Name

In announcing its establishment to the Masonic world in that Manifesto, dated December 4, 1802, the name was given as the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree for the United States of America. The word Scotch appeared in connection with one of the early Supreme Council Degrees, and Scotish (sic) was included in the name of one of the detached Degrees conferred by the Supreme Council.

The name Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite first appeared in an 1804 agreement between the Supreme Council of France and the Grand Orient of France. Beginning with the administration of Grand Commander Albert Pike in 1859, it came into general use in the Southern Jurisdiction and elsewhere. Many Scottish Masons fled to France during political upheavals in the 17th and 18th centuries, at a time when the Degrees of the Rite were evolving in French Freemasonry. This has caused some to think mistakenly that the Rite originated in Scotland. Actually, however, a Supreme Council for Scotland was not established until 1846.

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