Scarlet Cord

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Welcome to the website for the Ancient and Masonic Order of the Scarlet Cord in Surrey....

This Order was revived with the consecration of Scarlet Cord Conclave No 500 in London in December 2006 and was then styled “Royal Order of Masonic Knights of the Scarlet Cord”. At that time, the Scarlet Cord met in Conclaves governed by the Order of the Secret Monitor.

Such has been its success, a decision was made for the Order to become a separate sovereign body with its own constitutions and regulations. Thus, The Ancient and Masonic Order of the Scarlet Cord, was inaugurated on 21st July 2010. For more details on the Order, its history, present structure and development in Surrey please look at the Description section.

Since the inauguration of the sovereign Order in 2010, many Scarlet Cord Consistories have been consecrated in not only in England and Wales, but also in many parts of the world. Indeed, There are now over 150 consistories and it is the fastest growing Order administered by Mark Masons’ Hall.

Membership is open to any Master Mason who is a member in good standing of a Lodge of Freemasons governed by the United Grand Lodge of England and who is also a Prince of the Order of the Secret Monitor (i.e. has taken his 2^nd degree in that Order).

There are currently four Consistories in Surrey, meeting at Surbiton, Croydon, Guildford and Nutfield (Redhill). Three of them were consecrated within the OSM Province of Surrey - the Scarlet Cord Conclave of Surrey No 518 in July 2008, the Hill of Zion Scarlet Cord Conclave No 562 and the Guildford Scarlet Cord Conclave No 563 both in June 2010.

On 21st July 2010 these were given Time Immemorial status (TI) and became, respectively, Surrey Consistory No 4TI, Hill of Zion Consistory No 52TI and Guildford Consistory No 53TI. Together with Warlingham Consistory No 134, consecrated on 30th October 2019, these form the Provincial Grand Senatus of Surrey.

Do please look at the different sections of this website to find out more information on this unique and very friendly Order in Freemasonry. If you would like further details, please submit the form in the "Contact Us" page.

I look forward to greeting many of you as new members of our wonderful Order.

Nigel Thomson
Provincial Grand Summus for Surrey

The Companion Orders

The Masonic Order of the Scarlet Cord

The current Ancient and Masonic Order of the Scarlet Cord is based on an earlier Order, The Royal Order of Knights of the Scarlet Cord, developed in the British Isles in 1889, which was itself derived from 18th Century documents from the Amsterdam Masonic archives.

The rituals and ceremonies were rewritten and enriched by His Honour Judge Fredrick Adolphus Philbrick, KC, and were performed as appendant grades to the Order of the Secret Monitor. The rituals of the Order are taken from Old Testament times, commencing at the period of Joshua, the fall of Jericho and the story of Rahab. The main purpose was to raise considerable sums of money for the Secret Monitor Benevolent Fund, which still plays a significant role in Masonic welfare provision today. The Order ceased working in 1929.

A paper on the original Order written and delivered in 2001 by Peter Glyn Williams, the then Grand Supreme Ruler of the Secret Monitor, stimulated interest in the long-forgotten rituals. In 2006 a Secret Monitor Conclave was Consecrated with the sole purpose of reviving the old Order and conferring updated versions of the original six grades, some of which only remained in fragmented form. A huge appetite for the grades among Secret Monitors led to the Order being inaugurated as a separate Sovereign body in a magnificent ceremony in the Grand Temple at Freemasons’ Hall on 21 July 2010.

Scarlet Cord

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Scarlet Cord

The Companion Orders

The Masonic Order of the Scarlet Cord

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