Reaction of the United Grand Lodges of Serbia after the decision adopted at the Conference of Grand Masters in North America

13:10:00 A

After the announcement made by the Masonic Press Agency on 24 February 2015, the United Grand Lodges of Serbia reacted and wished to express its position regarding, what they call, the reality of Serbian Freemasonry. Thus, the United Grand Lodges of Serbia announces the following via the Masonic Press Agency:

"In regard to the article published on their website on February 18th, as well as on the Masonic Press Agency on February 24th, by Regular Grand Lodge of Serbia, United Grand Lodges of Serbia are stating following:

From February 13th to February 18th was held Conference of the Grand Masters of the North America in Vancouver (Canada). One of the topic of discussion for the Committee on recognition was the situation of the Freemasonry in Serbia, on the request by the United Grand Lodges of Serbia, which in timely manner submitted request and material for discussion.

The reason for raising this question by the UGLS before the Committee on recognition lies in deep commitment of the United Grand Lodges of Serbia to the prosperity and unity of regular Freemasonry in Serbia.

The claim by the Regular Grand Lodge of Serbia that it is “the only recognized Masonic Jurisdiction” in Serbia is half-truth whit which the leadership of the RGLS wants to fool its membership and the general public in Serbia. If that is completely truth the request by the United Grand Lodges of Serbia to the Committee on recognition would never be taken into consideration at the first place. And when Committee on Recognition stated in its report that the “Regular Grand Lodge of Serbia was still the only recognized Masonic body in Serbia” it was in the context of statement that the question on situation in Serbian Freemasonry will not be discussed because representative of the United Grand Lodges of Serbia were not present and they are looking forward discussing this issue at the Grand Masters Conference in 2016.

It is the fact, same as in Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, and many other countries in the world, that in Serbia exist two Masonic Jurisdictions which are both regular by their origin and work. In Serbia, those are United Grand Lodges of Serbia and Regular Grand Lodge of Serbia. Often, mainstream Grand Lodges, due to the concept of “exclusive territorial jurisdiction” have a problem which Grand Lodge to recognize if there are more than one on the same territory. So, today we have example of Italy, where UGLE recognizes Regular Grand Lodge of Italy, while North American Jurisdictions recognize Grand Orient of Italy; example of Greece, where UGLE recognizes Grand Lodge of Greece, and Scotland and Ireland recognize National Grand Lodge of Greece etc. The case of two Grand Lodges in Bulgaria fighting for dominance and discussing potential unification for last ten years is another well-known example.

In order to prevent any discussions about the future of Freemasonry in Serbia and in order to undermine good and positive works of the UGLS, RGLS uses every opportunity to reinforce their exclusive right to practice of Freemasonry in Serbia. This is more obvious in past few years, since UGLS intensified its international activities. If United Grand Lodges of Serbia didn’t raise the question of the future of Freemasonry in Serbia in its request submitted to the Committee on Recognition, RGLS would never come out with reclaiming recognition.

The regularity of the origin and work of the United Grand Lodges of Serbia nobody in the world denies. More so, leaders of the Freemasonry from other mainstream Jurisdictions, which visited and inspected work of the UGLS, all recognized our regularity. This was also confirmed by the Conference of Grand Masters of the Prince Hall Grand Lodges in 2014, where UGLS was a guest and where it gain several recognition from the Prince Hall Grand Lodges.

Unlike their present leadership, we aim for the prosperity of Freemasonry in Serbia, where both Jurisdictions would give their part and prosper, separate or together. One of our goals to unite all Serbian Freemasons into one organization.

For this idea we gained support of the Grand Master of United Grand Lodges of Germany, which brought Masonic light back to Serbia in 1990, and of the Grand Master of Austria, which is evident from the correspondence they had with UGLS leadership.

Also, statement of the Alfred Koska, PGM of the UGLG, who visited and inspected our work on two occasions, witness to the regularity of our origin and work. The support of the Regular Grand lodge of Italy in establishing three lodges working emulation work is another example of the support and recognition we received from the international Masonic community. Last, but not least, the activities of our charity organization “Nezaboravak” ( Forget-Me-Not) which we founded and support since 2007, which received many domestic and international recognitions for its work, ad to the story about UGLS and our work."

The Masonic Press Agency informs that in support of their (meaning the United Grand Lodges of Serbia) statement they have sent the following documents:

Letter by MW Rudiger Templin,

Grand Master of the UGLG