EMULATION RITUAL

The Emulation way of working takes its name from the Emulation Lodge of Improvement in London, whose Committee is the custodian of this particular ritual. The Lodge of Improvement meets every Friday at 6.15 p.m. from October to June, at Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen Street, London, and demonstrates the ceremonies and "Readings" or "Lectures" of the Emulation way of working.

This particular Lodge, first meeting on 2 October 1823, was specially formed for Master Masons only, to instruct those who wished to prepare for Lodge office and succession to the seat of Worshipful Master. The founders were drawn principally from the Burlington and Perseverance Lodges of Instruction (the former founded in 1810, the latter in 1817). Both had taught the new ritual approved by the Grand Lodge in June 1816, but tended to concentrate on the work of the First Degree and the instruction of candidates.

Originally instruction was by way of so-called Masonic 'lessons', on the system of the Grand Stewards' Lodge, whose lessons describe the ceremonies in detail.

From 1830, in accordance with the general practice then developing, enactments of the ceremonies themselves were also introduced. The Emulation Lodge of Improvement has sat continuously since its formation, and has always had a reputation for resisting any change in the ceremonies, whether voluntary or not, or otherwise unauthorised.

The ritual forms in use in the Grand Lodge of England, as demonstrated by the Lodge of Reconciliation, formed specifically to produce them, were 'approved and validated' by the Grand Lodge in June 1816.

Since 1816 there have been occasional adjustments of a ritual nature, approved by the Grand Lodge; the most important being the changes in the wording used in the Pledges, permitted by a Grand Lodge resolution in December, 1964, and, much more recently, the more extensive change in procedure, introduced by the Grand Lodge resolution of June, 1986, concerning the wording used in the Pledges.

The Emulation Lodge Committee of Improvement has always endeavoured to preserve the ritual as closely as possible to the form in which it was originally approved by the Grand Lodge, and not to incorporate any alterations not authorised by the same source. Thus, while there have been minor adjustments from time to time by authority of the Grand Lodge, accidental error has never been allowed to pass unnoticed, lest it become, in time, an established practice.