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In the British Isles, most of continental Europe (including the masonically expanding states of eastern Europe), [1] and most nations of the Commonwealth (with the notable exception of Canada), the teachings of Royal Arch Masonry are contained in the "Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch" – a stand-alone degree of Freemasonry which is open to those who have completed the three Craft degrees.
Royal Arch Masonry (also known as "Capitular Masonry") is the first part of the American York Rite system of Masonic degrees. Royal Arch Masons meet as a Chapter, and the Royal Arch Chapter confers four degrees: Mark Master Mason, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason.
The Royal Arch (also referred to as the Victoria Arch) was a structure erected in Dundee, Scotland, between 1849 and 1853 and demolished in 1964.The monumental archway formerly stood over the access to the pier between Earl Grey Dock and King William IV Dock on the city's waterfront.
The Royal Arch Mason (or Holy Royal Arch) degree is said by many to be the most beautiful degree in all of Freemasonry. [4] Following a convocation of the Supreme Grand Chapter in England on November 10, 2004, there are currently significant ritual differences between what is worked in England and that worked in many U.S. jurisdictions. [ 5 ]
The oldest of these, and the most universal, is the Royal Arch Chapter (the Holy Royal Arch in England). Although some masonic writers have attempted to see Royal Arch symbolism in material from the 1720s, the earliest definite reference is to a Royal Arch in a procession in Dublin preceding the master and held aloft by two "Excellent Masons".
In Ireland, the degree of Mark Master Mason is required to join a Royal Arch Chapter. A Royal Arch Chapter meets as a Mark Lodge, confers the Mark Degree on a candidate making him eligible to become a Royal Arch Mason at a subsequent meeting. A Mark Lodge and a Royal Arch Chapter share the same Warrant within the Irish system.
Members of Royal Arch in England, Scotland or America would notice a great many differences in the theme of the degree from what they are used to. Royal Arch Chapters in Ireland can meet as Lodges of Mark Master Masons to confer the Mark Degree on a candidate. This must be done before a candidate is given the Royal Arch Degree.
The Royal Arch tracing board has fallen into disuse in most places, and examples are now rare. In the Mark Master Mason and Royal Ark Mariner degrees as administered from London, the tracing boards have experienced a great revival in popularity from the end of the twentieth century, and official rituals for the explanations of these tracing ...