What is the difference between the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts’ Panama District and the Grand Lodge of Panama?
The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts is the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, chartered in 1733. It was established by Henry Price at Boston's Bunch of Grapes Tavern. In 1792, it united with the Scottish-backed Massachusetts Grand Lodge.
The Panama Canal Zone, also known simply as the Canal Zone, was a concession of the United States located in the Isthmus of Panama that existed from 1903 to 1979. It consisted of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending five miles (8 km) on each side of the centerline but excluding Panama City and Colón.
In 1912, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts began chartering Lodges in the Canal Zone. In 1914, it established the Canal Zone District. In 1917, R.W. Herbert Arthur White was installed as the first District Grand Master.
In 1916, the Grand Lodge of Panama was founded. In 1917, a Treaty and Protocol was signed between the Grand Lodge of Panama and the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, where the “Grand Lodge of Panama was recognized as a sovereign Grand Lodge of Symbolic Masonry” and “[t]he Grand Lodge of Panama by the terms thereof ceded to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in perpetuity exclusive jurisdiction over Symbolic Masonry throughout the Canal Zone.” This Treaty and Protocol was further amended in 1921 and 2006, with a ruling in 1956.
On October 1, 1979, the day the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 took effect, most of the land within the former Canal Zone was transferred to Panama. However, the treaty set aside many Canal Zone areas and facilities for transfer during the following 20 years. On December 31, 1999, all remaining Canal Zone land came under the exclusive jurisdiction of Panama. The dismantling of the Canal Zone and the return of many American Masons to the United States mainland resulted in the merging of multiple lodges across the District, which was confronted with an increasingly uncertain future.
In 2011, a new Treaty was signed with the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts recognizing the Grand Lodge of Panama as the only sovereign Grand Lodge in Panama with exclusive jurisdiction over Symbolic Masonry within the Republic. This Treaty was updated in 2021. The Grand Lodge of Panama, “inspired by the fraternity and with the conviction that Universal Freemasonry is a single one”, grants the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts the operation of four Lodges and the District Grand Lodge of Massachusetts within the Masonic territory of the Grand Lodge of Panama. Ancon Lodge is one of these four lodges.
If you are a North American expat, a military veteran, an international professional, or a resident of Panama who prefers to experience the Craft in English, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts’ Panama District - specifically Ancon Lodge - offers you the opportunity to participate in a storied, distinctive aspect of Panamanian and Masonic history.
