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Rose Croix

Welcome To The Ancient and Accepted Rite

Welcome to the website of The Ancient and Accepted Rite (more familiarly known as Rose Croix) in Norfolk. We hope you will find something that piques your interest in our beautiful and hugely enjoyable Order. For many of its members it is ‘a metaphor for Life’ and the happiest and friendliest Order in the whole of Freemasonry. It is a vibrant Order that welcomes all Freemasons to its ranks.

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History of The Ancient and Accepted Rite

The Ancient and Accepted Rite is one of the oldest independent Orders in Freemasonry deriving from the Rite of Perfection which developed in France in the mid eighteenth century. It was formalised in a document in 1762 and thereafter by The Grand Constitutions of 1786. Despite being one of the oldest Orders, many Craft Masons know little about it.

It consists of 33 degrees of which Rose Croix is but one.

Any Master Mason may offer himself as a candidate for membership providing he has stated that he is willing to be Perfected into this Order by way of a degree based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Rose Croix

The Supreme Council

The Order is ruled by a Supreme Council which is also responsible for certain Districts and Chapters overseas. 

Each member of the Supreme Council holds the highest degree of the Order, the 33°, as do some 50 Sovereign Grand Inspectors General in England and Wales to whom authority is delegated to manage their appointed Districts (usually equivalent to a Craft Province) and a few others who contribute very significant services to the Order or to Freemasonry in general.

These include the Order’s Grand Patron, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent and it is the only Order he chose to join beyond the Craft.

Where the Rose Croix Meets

The Order in Norfolk

The District of Norfolk was Inaugurated on the 4th March 1998 when the new District of Cambridge and Isle of Ely was also formed thus completing the division of the old District of East Anglia.

The District extends over the same geographical area administered by the Craft Province of Norfolk. It consists of 14 Chapters, two of which (Albert Edward and Clarence) date from the 19th Century. 

The Order in general has a flat structure and so the hierarchy of a District is very different to that of a Craft Province.

As mentioned, a District is overseen by a Sovereign Grand Inspector General and for Norfolk this is Very Illustrious Brother Robert James Hannam 33°.

He is aided by an administrator known as a District Recorder and for Norfolk this is Illustrious Brother Michael Joseph McCormack 32°.

This is the complete hierarchy for the District.