# Question Concerning Recognition



## Visiphon (Jul 4, 2018)

The Grand Lodge of Wisconsin's website has this written in the section concerning recognition of Prince Hall GL's:

"Prince Hall – Recognition Compact is for Visitation Only"

They then list off the relevant jurisdictions.

I am a non-mason who is just curious as to what that means. Thank you.


----------



## Glen Cook (Jul 4, 2018)

Much like the international law which governs relations between nations, Freemasonry has international Masonic law which governs relations between Masonic jurisdictions. Thus, just as nation states recognise one another, so do Masonic jurisdictions. Prince Hall Freemasonry is an historically African American system which grew alongside that of the state grand lodges in the United States.  When recognised, the various Grand Lodges may or may not engage in visiting one another’s subordinate Lodges. They usually do not allow dual membership in both Grand Lodges,   this  largely being a Prince Hall limitation which tends to limit dual membership.

Did that address your question?


----------



## Visiphon (Jul 4, 2018)

I think so. What you are saying is that the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin recongizes those Prince Hall Grand Lodges, but only allows visitation, not dual membership.


----------



## Glen Cook (Jul 4, 2018)

Visiphon said:


> I think so. What you are saying is that the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin recongizes those Prince Hall Grand Lodges, but only allows visitation, not dual membership.


Oh, sure. Cut to the chase. . Yes, that’s correct.


----------



## dfreybur (Jul 5, 2018)

Visiphon said:


> The Grand Lodge of Wisconsin's website has this written in the section concerning recognition of Prince Hall GL's:
> 
> "Prince Hall – Recognition Compact is for Visitation Only"
> 
> ...



Some jurisdictions require that a Brother be a member of exactly one lodge.  When a Brother affiliates with one of their lodges to become a member, they require the Brother to demit from his other lodges to no longer be a member.  These are called single affiliation jurisdictions.  It's like countries that ban dual citizenship.

Some jurisdictions allow a Brother to be a member of as many lodges as he can afford.  This can be lodges in the same jurisdiction and/or lodges in other jurisdictions.  This gets called dual, plural and multiple affiliation.  It's like countries that allow dual citizenship.  Each jurisdiction uses the words dual, plural and multiple differently so you have to look up the local rules to find out if they mean several within the jurisdiction, several jurisdictions or both.  I am a member of lodges in California, Illinois and Texas.  In Illinois I am a member in two lodges.

The restriction listed means that one or both of the regular and recognized jurisdictions in Wisconsin are probably single affiliation or come from a lineage were single affiliation is common so they have limited affiliations in their culture.

And/or that they are very different in number of total members so they want to avoid cultural assimilation. In Masonic history of the UK there were initially the Antients and the Moderns as different jurisdictions.  They United in 1812 so the cultural assimilation process took a century to reach the point of union.  May as well start out with preventative measures if you think your descendants might want to stay independent.

When a state recognizes locally that agreement tends to be used everywhere.  When GLofCA recognized, the MWPHGLofCA+HI was single affiliation and asked for the same restriction.  When California offered recognition to other PHA jurisdictions that request was included in all of the offers.  That probably happens between GLofWI and all of the PHA jurisdictions as well.


----------



## Warrior1256 (Jul 8, 2018)

Visiphon said:


> What you are saying is that the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin recongizes those Prince Hall Grand Lodges, but only allows visitation, not dual membership.


Same here in Kentucky.


----------

