The American System
In the United States, a national Grand Council charters local councils, which confer their degrees on selected Royal Arch Masons. Most councils are limited to twenty-seven members, but the Council of the Nine Muses is limited to nine authors (the new Sovereign Master must read a new essay), and the Grand Master's Council has no limit, either numerically or geographically.
The officers of a council have mostly the same titles as the officers of a Masonic lodge, with the president being the Sovereign Master. The councils also study Freemasonry with a view to improving service in it. The Grand Council has created some internal honours, the most notable being "Knight Grand Cross".
Read more about this topic: Allied Masonic Degrees
Famous quotes containing the words american and/or system:
“The train was crammed, the heat stifling. We feel out of sorts, but do not quite know if we are hungry or drowsy. But when we have fed and slept, life will regain its looks, and the American instruments will make music in the merry cafe described by our friend Lange. And then, sometime later, we die.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union.... I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)