CLAUDIU IONESCU
Past Master, FORUM Lodge No. 64 and AGORA Lodge No.175, Bucharest;
Assistant Grand Master for Foreign Relations, Grand Lodge of Moldova;
Founder & Director, MASONIC FORUM Magazine
MASONIC FORUM is a cultural landmark, a standard of morality and decency in Masonry. These are the words of brethren, transmitted to me in person or by e-mail or through the intermediary of social media. They gladden me and honor me. When, however, they are uttered by persons whose belonging to the Craft is sensibly equal to my biological age, they represent not only the recognition of a standard of quality, but also the obligation of Forum to be at least equal to its value heretofore.
Benefiting from the support of some of the leaders of Universal Masonry, whose names you find in our Honorary Committee, Forum has made major contributions to the opening of the way for Romanian Masonry to the world outside. This is not my saying it, as founder and editor of this magazine, but it is affirmed publicly by these very men.
16 years of existence of Masonic Forum already represents a tradition, if we measure it against the scale of Romanian society. They key-element of the Craft is tradition. To reach the anniversary of its three centuries of existence, the United Grand Lodge of England, the Mother Grand Lodge of the World, had to go through the celebration of 15-20-25-50-100 years etc.
From the very first issue of the magazine I established masonic foreign relations and I used the opportunity of the recognition of the NGLR by the UGLE in 2008, during the second term of the then-Grand Master Eugen Ovidiu Chirovici, and I became a member of British Freemasonry.
The UGLE was, is and will be the masonic reference of Regular world masonry. Even if the leaders of some of the Grand Lodges in important countries claim and even prove – with statistic figures – that UGLE has one of the highest rates of loss of membership among all the Grand Lodges of the world. The fact that the countries of Eastern Europe are increasing their membership is not a counterweight. Not even the fact that in the countries of Latin America masonry is a veritable mass movement cannot be a true counterweight. Tradition and experience are what really matter.
As member of UGLE, I have come to a better understanding of the British reality. The English keep and cultivate their history and each newcomer in the chain of the unfolding of events is inscribed in the line of the tradition. This is the key of continuity and of the added value, not at all the path chosen by some half-educated types from diverse corners of our round world! Honor is a quality we encounter exceedingly rarely in our modern times, which we live, for the most part, in societies that are still searching for their path.
