York Rite - Education (definition)

The York Rite or American Rite is one of several Rites of the worldwide fraternity known as Freemasonry. A Rite is a series of progressive degrees that are conferred by various Masonic organizations or bodies, each of which operates under the control of its own central authority. The York Rite specifically is a collection of separate Masonic Bodies and associated Degrees that would otherwise operate independently. The three primary bodies in the York Rite are theChapter of Royal Arch Masons, Council of Royal & Select Masters or Council of Cryptic Masons, and the Knights Templar, each of which are governed independently but are all considered to be a part of the York Rite. There are also other organizations that are considered to be directly associated with the York Rite, or require York Rite membership to join such as the York Rite Sovereign College but in general the York Rite is considered to be made up of the aforementioned three. The Rite's name is derived from the city of York, where, according to a Masonic legend, the first meetings of Masons in England took place, although only the lectures of the York Rite Sovereign College make reference to that legend.

The York Rite is one of the appendant bodies of Freemasonry that a Master Mason may join to further his knowledge of Freemasonry. But the York Rite is not found as a single system world wide, and outside of the York Rite there are often significant differences in ritual, as well as organization. However in most cases provided that the Grand Body in question regards the parent "Craft" jurisdiction as regular, each distinct Order has recognised fraternal inter-relations with the respective Grand Body within the York system.

Contents   [hide]  1 York Rite Bodies 1.1 Royal Arch Masonry 1.2 Cryptic Masonry 1.3 Knights Templar 2 Equivalent Independent Bodies 2.1 Mark Man and Mark Master 2.2 Holy Royal Arch 2.3 Council of Royal & Select Masters 2.4 Knights Templar 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

York Rite Bodies

Since the York Rite is actually a grouping of separate organizations joined in order, each body operates with relative autonomy. And though they are referred to as one rite it is common for individuals to be member of some bodies and not others. For example in many jurisdictions Cryptic Masonry can be skipped allowing the person to be a member of just the Royal Arch and Knights Templar. It is also common for non-Christians to join only the Royal Arch and Council of Royal & Select Masters as the Knights Templar require members to be of the Christian faith. But no matter what the Royal Arch is always required and membership in that body must be kept in order to maintain membership in the other two bodies.

Details on the individual bodies are as follows:

Part of a series of articles on Freemasonry

Core Articles Freemasonry · Grand Lodge · Masonic Lodge · Masonic Lodge Officers · Grand Master · Prince Hall Freemasonry · Regular Masonic jurisdictions · Continental Freemasonry History History of Freemasonry · Liberté chérie ·Masonic manuscripts

Note: Please read " Blog Participation Requested - Announcement - Education",  which explains and describes the purpose of this series of topics. This post does not make a statement "for" the following content and does not make claim that it has a direct relation to Freemasonry. It is for educational purposes only! All credit given to for content obtained from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


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