The Grand Lodge of Manitoba is the

Grand Lodge A Grand Lodge (or Grand Orient or other similar title) is the overarching governing body of a fraternal or other similarly organized group in a given area, usually a city, state, or country. In Freemasonry A Grand Lodge or Grand Orient is the us ...

, or governing body, of the

masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

organization in the

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Manitoba contains 54 lodges with 1,873 members. The Grand Lodge was established on 12 May 1875.

History

Freemasonry came to the area in 1813 when John Palmer Bourke, a member of Wellington Persevering Lodge No. 20 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, settled there. In 1864, several years after Bourke's death, the Northern Light Lodge was formed by

John Christian Schultz Sir John Christian Schultz (January 1, 1840 – April 13, 1896) was a Manitoba politician and businessman.Richard Gwyn, Nation Maker, Vol. II: pg. 100. Vintage Canada, 2012. Print. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1871 t ...

, A.G.B. Bannatyne and William Inkster. By 12 May 1875, there were three lodges in the region, which joined to form the Grand Lodge of Manitoba. wIts first Grand Master was William C. Clark. At that time,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Assiniboia Assiniboia District refers to two historical districts of Canada's Northwest Territories. The name is taken from the Assiniboine First Nation. Historical usage ''For more information on the history of the provisional districts, see also Distri ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

and the Yukon Territories were all under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge. In its first years, the Grand Lodge, which consisted of 200 Freemasons, was challenged by a rift between two

rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...

, with practitioners divided over the "American", or "Ancient York", ritual and the "English", or "Canadian", work. To resolve these differences, the Grand Lodge of Manitoba recognized both. The jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba was diminished in 1905 and 1908 with the formation of the Grand Lodges of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The numbers were further reduced in 1907, when two of the Yukon lodges decided to affiliate with the Grand Lodge of British Columbia.

Sources

Official siteOne Hundred Years of Free Masonry in Manitoba

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

Freemasonry in Canada 1875 establishments in Manitoba {{Manitoba-stub