From: John Day, 100236,2364
Date: Sat, Jul 17, 1993

                         EMULATION RITUAL
            by Brother John Day  - Victoria, Australia
              ( written as a masonry forum message )
                           17-July-1993


Emulation Working, or the Emulation Ritual when printed, is a form of 
working taught by the Emulation Lodge of Improvement which meets at 
Freemasons Hall in London. This Lodge operates somewhat like a Lodge of 
Instruction (do you have those in the USA?) in that it does not confer 
the degrees, membership of Emulation Lodge is restricted to Master 
Masons only, but offers effectively demonstrations of the ceremonies of 
the three degrees and the installation of Master on a regular basis.

The Emulation Lodge of Improvement was founded in 1823 to teach the 
precise form of ritual which was settled upon by the Lodge of 
Reconciliation during the process leading to the formation of the United 
Grand Lodge of England. This ritual, which was not yet written down, was 
approved, sanctioned and confirmed by the United Grand Lodge of England 
on 5th June 1816. In theory, the Emulation Lodge teaches the ritual as 
it was then and it accepts only the authority of Grand Lodge itself to 
sanction any alteration.

In Melbourne we have a Lodge working under a warrant from the UGL of 
England. It is Combemere Lodge No. 752 E.C., this Lodge uses a ritual 
entitled "Emulation Ritual" published by A. Lewis (Masonic Publishers) 
Ltd. of England. This ritual is published with the approval of the 
Emulation Lodge of Improvement.

In this jurisdiction (Victoria) we had Lodges operating under the 
English, Irish and Scottish Grand Lodges until 1888, at which time a 
movement to form a governing body of our own came to a climax and so was 
born the United Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of 
Victoria. At that time the Lodges forming the Grand Lodge all took 
numbers for the register of the new Grand body.

But what ritual were we to use? Ah-haa! It would seem logical that some 
of the Lodges of Scottish origin continued to work a Scottish ritual for 
some time but the Grand Lodge decided it needed a ritual of its own. The 
UGLV (United Grand Lodge of Victoria) set up a committee on Ritual and 
Ceremonial and eventually came up with a booklet entitled "Ritual of the 
First, Second & Third Degrees, Charges and Lectures and Installation of 
the Master, second degree segment". This is revised periodically by the 
Standing Committee on Ritual and Ceremonial, and approved by the Most 
Worshipful Grand Master. Every Lodge in Victoria uses the same ritual 
exactly, it is in fact not possible to get a set of Lodge by-laws or 
local-laws approved by the Grand Lodge unless they state that the Lodge 
must use the sanctioned ritual.

In the process of joining Lodges from at least four Grand Lodge 
allegiances some things found in Emulation were lost.

This area of development of ritual interests me immensely. In Directing 
the Ceremonies and coaching the Officers I am asked many questions. One 
that logically arises out of any discussion is why does a particular 
officer perform a certain task. The question about the Deacons and their 
duties arose this way.

SUMMARY

It has been said by some that Emulation Ritual is the sanitized result 
of all that led up to the formation of the United Grand Lodge in England 
in 1813. Obviously, American Masonry was established and developing 
before that and the practices of the American Lodges is based on what 
they had prior to 1813. What we have in Australia is in some measure 
based upon what UGL of England got after that. Hence the differences.   

                                    John Day CIS ID #100236,2364

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                            FOLLOW-UP MESSAGES

From: Andrew J. Baker, 100022,2513
Date: Sat, Jul 17, 1993

     In the U.K. it is not uncommon to be given a copy of the Emulation 
Ritual after your third, usually by your original proposer. I believe 
this happens a lot with Taylors as well. As I understand it it does not 
conflict with anything contained in the preceding ceremonies as the 
"relevant" parts are omitted, with simple memory joggers for some of 
them ( like the first letter of the first word etc ). Reading the Intro 
to the Emulation Ritual it has only been committed to print in its 
current form ( ie approved by the Emulation Lodge of Improvement ) in 
the last few decades. There is a mention of "unapproved texts" prior to 
that.

From: John Day, 100236,2364
Date: Sun, Jul 18, 1993,

     In Victoria we often give a copy of the Ritual after the third as 
well. My notes from other writers on Emulation indicate that it was 
first sanctioned in 1969.

From: John Day, 100236,2364
Date: Sun, Jul 18, 1993, 1:26:24 AM

     One of the more popular for many years was the Nigerian Ritual, as 
taught in the Emulation Lodge of Improvement. This was printed by Lewis 
Masonic in the UK for some years and was a very accurate Emulation 
Ritual. My notes indicate that the Emulation Lodge itself did not 
sanction the printing of its Ritual until 1969.
     I also rituals from Victoria and other Australian States and New 
Zealand which go back as far as the 1860's. All are based on Emulation 
and have only very minor variations in the Degree ceremonies.
     When referring to Scottish Working I have a copy of "The Freemasons 
Companion (Scottish Working)".
     BTW - Our GL approves and prints our ritual. We are free to own 
whatever we want in the way of Masonic Literature, ritual or non-ritual.


From: Andrew J. Baker, 100022,2513
Date: Sun, Jul 18, 1993

     M.M. Taylors is another system of working. The ritual is published 
by M.M. Taylor. The text is approved by the " Committee of the 
Association for Taylor's Working". I visit a Taylor's Lodge quite a lot 
and find it is fairly similar to Emulation (which my lodge uses) but is 
characterized by much more formal floor work & use of Wd.s and a 
slightly more "fussy" wording ( I am not intending to be judgmental or 
criticize by the use of the word it's just that I can't think of a 
better word ). I believe there are over 20 workings in use in England, 
but the only other ones I know of are Logic and Stability. There are 
quite a lot of "variations" to Emulation workings about.
     The Workings at our Lodge are emulation with a few variations 
"unique" to our lodge - as is the case at most lodges. At LOI our DC is 
always pointing out that as a private lodge our workings are our affair 
- we do not have to stick to the letter of emulation.


From: John Day, 100236,2364
Date: Sun, Jul 18, 1993

     In Victoria we hear little or nothing of English working other than 
Emulation. I suppose in part it is because of the amount which has been 
written about Emulation over the years.
     One of the differences we have is that the ritual we use is 
mandatory and we cannot vary it. As I mentioned elsewhere our by-laws 
must include a clause stating that we accept the ritual of the GL and 
will use it without variation. Naturally 'local customs' do arise, but 
they relate only to minor detail and are not generally considered 
contentious enough for the Grand Inspector of Workings to worry about. 
Well not often anyway!
     Maybe the Victorian ritual is a bit like Taylor's. Where Emulation 
only requires that the Lodge be squared during the degree ceremonies we 
always square the Lodge and movement is expected to be in a 'clock-wise' 
fashion around the Lodge. Naturally variations have arisen, even 
sanctioned by GL. For instance, when the DC and the JD are returning to 
their seats after the candidate has been retired, the JD moves across 
the W end of the Lodge while the DC moves across the E. Thus saving the 
JD a walk almost all of the way around the Lodge.
     A question about Deacons. In Victoria the candidate is conducted by 
the JD in the 1st*, by the SD in 2nd* and by the SD in the 3rd* when not 
accompanied by both Deacons. No reason is given why in our ritual.
     In California and in the only American ritual I have, the SD 
conducts the candidate in all three ceremonies.
     In Emulation the arrangement is the same as ours but the Deacons 
are invested separately and each is told which ceremonies they will 
conduct the candidate for, but why I do not know
