My Brethren, Every Temple is raised twice. First upon the Tracing Board, as an idea and a design in the mind of the one who envisions it; then in stone, through the sweat and the patience of those who build it. Between these two moments lies the whole art of the Freemason: the art of turning vision into work without betraying it, and of respecting matter without being subjected to it.
The first twenty years of the Grand Lodge of Cyprus were years of building upon a design that we did not draw alone. We inherited it from generations of Cypriot Freemasons, from Ioannis Karageorgiades and the fourteen ardent Brethren of “Zenon” down to the founders of 2006. The years to come ask of us something more difficult: that we ourselves should stand before the Board and draw the next design, with the same square and the same compasses, but for a world that our founders could scarcely have imagined. These pages aspire to be neither a programme nor a record of achievements. They are a reflection which I lay before the Brethren; an attempt to ask ourselves together what it means, in the third decade of our life, to remain faithful to what we have received and at the same time worthy of what is to come.
I. The road we have travelled
The founding of the Grand Lodge of Cyprus was not the act of a moment. It was the fruit of more than two decades of dialogue, of disagreement, of waiting and of maturing; of ballots that were contested, of positions that changed, of Lodges that passed from refusal to consent. If that history teaches us anything, it is that in the Order great decisions are not imposed; they mature. Freedom, if it is to be true, must be exercised by those to whom it belongs. This lesson must accompany every step we take towards the future. Twenty years later, the edifice stands firm. Our Lodges have multiplied, our Brethren have at times exceeded six hundred, our Labours are conducted in three languages, and the name of the Grand Lodge of Cyprus is honoured by more than one hundred and seventy Grand Lodges on five continents. We have renewed our Rituals, revised our Regulations, given institutional form to fraternal solidarity and to charity, and passed through the storm of the pandemic without the lamp being extinguished.
Maturity, however, is measured not by what a body celebrates, but by what it dares to look in the face. We know that some Lodges have fallen asleep; that we have not always kept all those whom we brought to the Light; that the flourishing of one Orient does not automatically mean the flourishing of all; that our foreign-language Brethren must feel at home and not as guests; and that recognition by the world is an honour, but also a responsibility to be filled with living content. These shadows do not cancel the Light; they show us where we must turn.
II. The world we are entering
We live in an age that knows everything and finds it hard to understand anything. Information has become infinite, and sound thought and well-founded opinion rare. Machines now answer almost every question, but they cannot teach a man which questions are worth asking, nor how to live with the answers. Never before have people been so connected to one another and, at the same time, so alone. Within this world, the Grand Lodges of the world are seeking their way. Grand Lodges with centuries of history find that they lose about one in six of their new Brethren within the first three years of their Masonic life, and that the greatest danger to the Order is not death, but silent withdrawal. Others see Brethren lost for financial reasons, without anyone having time to stretch out a hand to them. And the World Conference of Regular Grand Lodges now turns its attention to the younger generations, recognising that without new perspectives and new paths to leadership, any institution risks withering away.
And yet, from this same experience a message of hope emerges. Where Grand Lodges have listened to their Brethren, removed needless obstacles and invested in leadership and in the young, membership has begun to grow once more, in some cases for the first time in decades. And the young people who knock at the door of the Lodge today are not seeking, above all, connections; they are seeking meaning. What attracts them is precisely what forms our core: symbolism, philosophy, silence, inner work.
The conclusion is at once simple and demanding. Freemasonry does not decline when it remains faithful to itself; it declines when it forgets why it exists. The loneliness and fragmentation of our age have not made it superfluous; they have made it necessary. And Cyprus has a privilege that the great and ancient Grand Lodges do not have: it is small and young. Because it is small, it can move with flexibility; because it is young, it can still choose its shape. What others are now called upon to correct, we can forestall.
III. The Pillar of Wisdom: the Lodge as a school of the soul
The rough ashlar does not become a perfect cube with a single blow. It is hewn slowly, with patience, with guidance and with awareness. If the Order wishes to keep those whom it brings to the Light, it must first offer them that for which they came: a school of the soul. For this reason my first thought for the future concerns education. The Masonic Academy is called to become the intellectual heart of the Grand Lodge: a permanent workshop of knowledge, with a structured course of study for each Degree, so that passing and raising may be the fruit of inner preparation and not merely of the passage of time. Within the Academy I envisage a Research Department, which would publish its works in Greek and in English; a systematic study of the Masonic history of our land, in cooperation with historians and researchers, from the Karidis manuscript to the gravestones of Saint Lazarus; and an annual series of lectures that would unite all our Orients and all our languages.
Wisdom, however, is not only knowledge of the past; it is also courage before the present. Freemasonry must open up the questions of our age: the ethics of technology and of artificial intelligence, the dignity of the person in the digital world, truth in a time of manufactured images. It has always been a school of conscience, and conscience never grows old.
And within the Temple, let us preserve a refuge: silence. When a Brother crosses the threshold, let the screens fall silent, so that for a few hours he may be wholly present: for his Brethren, for the ceremony and for himself. Perhaps this small rule will prove, in the decades to come, one of the most precious gifts the Order can offer to a world that has forgotten how to be silent.
IV. The Pillar of Strength: a body living and united
The strength of an Order is not measured in numbers. A Temple does not become great through the multitude of its stones, but through how truly each one has been hewn. The principle “quality before quantity”, so aptly expressed by those who preceded us in the Orient, must become practice at every stage of Masonic life. Its application begins with admission. The candidate and his family are entitled to know honestly what Freemasonry is and what it is not, and the Lodge must know with certainty whom it is admitting. It continues with companionship. I envisage that no new Brother should be left alone: from the day of his initiation, an experienced Master Mason will stand at his side as a mentor, until his raising and beyond it. And it is completed with care. The Brother who is absent is not a blank in the attendance book; he is a man who may be in difficulty. When the Lodge notices his absence and goes to find him, it does not merely keep a member; it keeps its soul. No one should be lost because a telephone call was not made, and no one should be cut off for financial reasons without the Trunk of Charity first having been opened for him.
Strength passes also through leadership. In a small Lodge, the Worshipful Master may determine the fortunes of the whole Lodge. For this reason leadership must not be the reward of long service, but the fruit of preparation. Within the framework of the Masonic Academy, I envisage a “School for Officers”, where the Officers of the Lodges, before ascending to the Orient, would be prepared in ritual, in administration, in the handling of people and in the art of concord; and I envisage Grand Inspectors who would be not only guardians of order but also mentors of the Worshipful Masters. The strength of tomorrow lies, of course, in the young. A Circle of Young Freemasons, which would unite the younger Brethren of all the Orients in study, service and fraternal fellowship, and which would have a voice where decisions are taken, can become the nursery of tomorrow’s leadership. The wisdom of the older and the impetus of the younger are not opponents; they are the two hands of the same builder.
Finally, strength requires solid foundations. Every Orient, including refugee Famagusta, deserves a permanent and dignified Masonic home, with provision for its maintenance over time. The finances of the Order must be transparent and prudent. And in the digital age discretion takes on a new form: the Masonic standing of each Brother is his own personal data, and we must safeguard it, by modern means and with full respect for European law, with the same reverence with which we safeguard our Rituals.
V. The Pillar of Beauty: the Light beyond the walls of the Temple
Beauty is the pillar of harmony: between the Lodge and the world, between tradition and its own time. And the first beauty that Freemasonry offers is born within the Temple. A ceremony conducted with knowledge, dignity and understanding, the right word at the right moment from a heart that grasps its meaning, is the most enduring beauty we can bestow. Our renewed Rituals are the foundation; the work that remains is to perform them in such a way that every candidate leaves the Temple changed.
Beauty, however, cannot remain shut in. From the encyclical of 1815 to our own day, Freemasonry in Cyprus has often been regarded with suspicion, and our silence left the field free to prejudice. The profane fears what he does not know, and the best answer to suspicion has always been an open door. Discretion concerns our ceremonies; it does not oblige us to conceal our values. I envisage Masonic Halls that open their doors to society, public lectures, and a Masonic Heritage Trail of Cyprus, which would bring to light the traces of the builders in the churches of Famagusta, at Kolossi Castle and in the precinct of Saint Lazarus; always with respect for the faith of each Brother and for the institutions of our land.
Our charity, generous as it has been, can acquire a recognisable face: a few but permanent causes, chosen jointly and served with constancy; the health of children, care for the elderly and for the widows of our Brethren, support for young people of promise. In this way, the name of Freemasonry in Cyprus may become inseparable from a few good works, well done.
And Cyprus itself is called to become what its geography always destined it to be: a place of meeting. At the crossroads of three continents, the Grand Lodge of Cyprus can pass from the quantity of recognitions to the quality of relationships: through living twinnings of Lodges, such as those which have already united “Kimon” with the Orient of Thessaloniki, “Kinyras” with the Orient of Chania and “Evagoras” with the Orient of Piraeus, and through a regular Masonic Forum of the Eastern Mediterranean, continuing the success of the Conference of the Lodges “Giuseppe Garibaldi”. A small island can become a great crossroads; our history has proved it more than once.
The highest beauty, finally, is unity. We work today in three languages, but we are one Order, and no Lodge should feel itself to be on the margins. On our island other regular Brethren also work, with whom we are united by a common history dating back to 1888; dialogue and cooperation with them are the natural continuation of that heritage. And the vision expressed by the Most Worshipful Brother Andreas Charalambous, of a common Masonic home for all the regular Freemasons living in Cyprus, whatever their origin or language, remains a horizon worth keeping before us; a horizon that can be approached only with patience, with respect for the Ancient Landmarks and always by consent. Every Temple was once only a design upon the Tracing Board.
VI. The chain: from vision to work
A vision that does not become work remains a wish. And in an Order where Grand Masters succeed one another, the greatest danger is that every term should begin afresh, as though none had gone before. Masonic wisdom offers us the answer in the image of the chain: every link is different, but together they bear the same weight.
For this reason I believe that this vision must belong to the Order and not to individuals. I envisage a far-sighted ten-year plan, which would be born out of dialogue with all the Brethren, just as in 1996 the Worshipful Masters, the Inspectors and the Deans of Cyprus came together to chart the road to independence; which would be approved by the General Assembly; which would be implemented in three-year stages, from Grand Master to Grand Master; and which would account to the Brethren each year for its progress. Let the first three years be devoted to the foundations: to the institution of the mentor, to the preparation of Officers, to modern and secure administration. The second to development: to education, to the young, to international meeting. The third to consolidation: to our homes, to our heritage, to the rendering of account.
We do not need great words; we need steady hands. The stone is hewn slowly, but the Temple rises steadily.
Epilogue: The keel and the horizon
When the Grand Lodge of Cyprus celebrates its fortieth anniversary, in 2046, I hope that those who read these pages will find a Freemasonry smaller in noise and greater in depth. Lodges where no candidate is left without a guide. An Academy whose works are read beyond our shores. Young Master Masons in the Chair of King Solomon. Temples open to the society they serve. An island that has become a place of meeting for the Freemasons of the Mediterranean. And, perhaps, a common home under which all the regular Freemasons of Cyprus will work as Brethren.
None of this requires us to change what we are. It requires us to become more fully what we have always said we are. The Ancient Landmarks are not the anchor of our ship, but its keel: they do not keep it tied in harbour; they keep it upright, so that it may sail. And time, which wears away every human work, is for the Freemason not an opponent but a fellow worker; what has been well built is not consumed by the years, but tested and confirmed by them.
The first twenty years are now our history; the next twenty are our responsibility. Let us take up, then, the working tools of the Art and continue to build, with Wisdom to design, with Strength to support and with Beauty to adorn, to the Glory of the G...A...O...T...U∴
The Pro Grand Master Bro∴ Michalis Agathos and the Grand General Secretary Bro∴ Nikolas G. Sarlis
From the anniversary album “Grand Lodge of Cyprus 2006–2026”.