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The Grand Orient of Belgium (French : Grand Orient de Belgique, Dutch : Grootoosten van Belgie; or G.O.B.) is a Belgian cupola of masonic lodges which is only accessible for men, and works in the basic three symbolic degrees of freemasonry.
The Grand Orient of Belgium was founded in 1833, three years after the independence of Belgium. The Grand Orient joins the Grand Orient of France and other Continental jurisdictions in not requiring initiates to believe in a Supreme Being (Great Architect of the Universe). This meant that in the 1870s the Orient broke with the United Grand Lodge of England.
In 1921, the Grand Orient of Belgium was a founding and influential member within the International Masonic Association. It remained a member of this international alliance until 1950. During World War II, members of the Grand Orient of Belgium founded the Lodge Liberté chérie in a Nazi concentration camp and the Lodge l'Obstinée in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.
In 1959 five lodges of the Grand Orient of Belgium founded the Grand Lodge of Belgium in order to regain recognition by the United Grand Lodge of England which was lost in 1979. The Grand Orient of Belgium became a founding member of the Centre de Liaison et d'Information des Puissances maçonniques Signataires de l'Appel de Strasbourg (CLIPSAS) in 1961, but left in 1996 with the Grand Orient of France over disputes about the place of religious belief. In 1989 the Grand Orient of Belgium, the Grand Lodge of Belgium, the Women's Grand Lodge Of Belgium and the Belgian Federation of Le Droit Humain signed an agreement of mutual recognition. In 1998, these anti-clerical and atheistic Grand Orients founded the International Secretariat of the Masonic Adogmatic Powers (SIMPA), but by 2008, the Belgium Grand Orient had rejoined CLIPSAS.
The GOB has often had a difficult relationship with the Roman Catholic Church (see Catholicism and Freemasonry). The Grand Orient was seen as the main source of anticlericalism during the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the Solbosch campus, the Plaine campus and the Erasmus campus.
In Freemasonry, regularity is one of the factors by which individual Grand Lodges judge whether to recognise one another for the purposes of allowing formal interaction at the Grand Lodge level and visitation by members of other jurisdictions. Each individual Grand Lodge determines which other Grand Lodges it considers Regular.
The Grand Orient de France (GODF) is the oldest and largest of several Freemasonic organizations based in France and is the oldest in Continental Europe. The Grand Orient de France is generally regarded as the "mother lodge" of Continental Freemasonry.
The International Order of Freemasonry Le Droit Humain is a global Masonic Order, membership of which is available to men and women on equal terms, regardless of nationality, religion or ethnicity.
Liberté chérie was a Masonic Lodge founded in 1943 by Belgian Resistance fighters and other political prisoners at Esterwegen concentration camp. It was one of the few lodges of Freemasons founded within a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War.
Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen was a Belgian lawyer and liberal politician known as the founder of the Free University of Brussels. He was twice chairman of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.
Henri-Eugene-Marie Defacqz was a Belgian liberal politician and a magistrate.
The International Secretariat of the Masonic Adogmatic Powers (ISMAP) was an international organization of Masonic jurisdictions of masonic lodges. Its members merged back into CLIPSAS in the early 2010s.
The International Masonic Union Catena is an international organization of Masonic organizations.
Continental Freemasonry, otherwise known as Liberal Freemasonry, Latin Freemasonry, and Adogmatic Freemasonry, includes the Masonic lodges, primarily on the European continent, that recognize the Grand Orient de France (GOdF) or belong to CLIPSAS, SIMPA, CIMAS, COMAM, CATENA, GLUA, or any of various other international organizations of Liberal, i.e., Continental Freemasonry. The larger number of Freemasons, most of whom live in the United States–where Regular Freemasonry holds a virtual monopoly–belong to Masonic lodges that recognize the United Grand Lodge of England and do not recognize Continental Freemasons, regarding them as "irregular".
Freemasonry in Belgium comprises several Masonic obediences, a federation and a confederation. These include Grand Orient of Belgium, the Grand Lodge of Belgium, the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium, the Women's Grand Lodge of Belgium, the Belgian Federation of Le Droit Humain and Lithos Confederation of Lodges.
The history of Freemasonry in Belgium reflects the many influences on what is now Belgium from the neighbouring states.
Freemasonry was introduced by the Dutch to what is today Indonesia during the VOC era in the 18th century, and spread throughout the Dutch East Indies during a wave of westernisation in the 19th century. Freemasons originally only included Europeans and Indo-Europeans, but later also indigenous people with a Western education.
CLIPSAS is an international Masonic organization that serves as the primary coordinating body for Liberal and Adogmatic Freemasonry worldwide. Established in 1961 through the historic Strasbourg Appeal, CLIPSAS represents an alternative to Conservative Anglo-Saxon Masonic recognition systems, emphasizing absolute freedom of conscience and inclusive Masonic practices.
The Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium is the independent learned society of science and arts of the French Community of Belgium. One of Belgium's numerous academies, it is the French-speaking counterpart of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. In 2001 both academies founded a joint association for the purpose of promoting science and arts on an international level: The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB). All three institutions are located in the same building, the Academy Palace in Brussels.
The Symbolic Grand Lodge of Spain is one of the main grand obediences in Spain. It is one of group of obediences included in CLIPSAS, and can be defined as a mixed or egalitarian, liberal and non-dogmatic Grand Lodge.
Events in the year 1834 in Belgium.
Events in the year 1833 in Belgium.
Events in the year 1899 in Belgium.
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