"The York Rite is a perfect place to further your Masonic knowledge!"

The York Rite of Freemasonry is an appendant body of the Blue Lodge. It consists of three separate organizations, the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, the Council of Royal and Select Masters and the Commandery of Knights Templar.

The organization takes its name from the City of York, where, according to Masonic Tradition, King Athelstan created the Rite as the first “Grand Lodge of All England” to reward the Masons and Knights who helped unify Saxon England after years of conquest by the Norsemen.

York Rites are organized at the state and local level. Each of the York Rite Bodies are part of an international organization.  For the Master Mason, the York Rite experience answers questions about, and explains in greater detail, the degrees of the Symbolic Lodge.  The allegories used by the three bodies of the York Rite center around themes summarized by Restoration, Preservation and Continuation.  The York Rite of Freemasonry is unique to the United States, although many of the degrees were taken from English Freemasonry.

If you are a Master Mason in good standing and would like to further your Masonic education, you may contact marty@freemasonry-siouxland.org for more information. Petitions for membership are available here.