Our Meeting Place.
This article is adapted from the work of the late Rev. Neville Barker Cryer.
One of the most striking features of the Chapter room are the standards of the twelve tribes of Israel set out around the pedestal. When Moses was appointed to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt, he needed to organise the exodus so that everyone involved was accounted for and protected. Under divine guidance, an arrangement was established in which the whole body of the people would move and camp. Whenever the camp of the Hebrews was set up there were three tribes placed in the north, three in the south and three each in the west and east, all with their banners or standards to identify them. In this way everyone knew where they were meant to be without constant direction, and everyone also knew where the other travellers were. The placement of the standards in the Chapter room corresponds to the tribes’ positions in their encampment in the wilderness of Sinai. This is as described in the Second Book of Numbers v.1-34; in the east are the tribes of Judah, Issachar and Zebulun, in the south the tribes of Reuben, Simeon and Gad, in the west the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamen and Manasseh, and in the north the tribes of Dan, Asher and Napthali.
The most Holy place in the encampment was a portable tent or Tabernacle, placed in the centre, which was administered by the priestly caste of Levites.
Plan of the camp of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.
The Ark of the Covenant was placed in an inner area of the Tabernacle, protected by curtains or veils, the colours of which are perpetuated in the colours of our Principals’ robes and the Companions’ regalia. The tools that were used to erect and secure the Tabernacle were the pick to loosen the earth, the crowbar to remove boulders and the shovel to help fix and make firm the posts and pegs. The rope would be what the skirret was in later days, the means for establishing the perimeter of the sacred area. One of the surest signs that we are, in our Chapters, in the presence of a Holy place is the white pedestal on which a bowl of incense would once have been placed. Such an alter was part of the first chamber of that wilderness Tabernacle.
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The Bible informs us that the design of the Tabernacle was communicated by God to Moses on Mount Horeb and formed the model for King Solomon’s Temple of later date and Zerubbabel’s Temple which succeeded it.
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The return of the Jews from their later Babylonian captivity was led by Zerubbabel the Prince, and seated with him in our Chapters to this day are Haggai the Prophet who foretold the return and Joshua the High Priest who helped to restore the worship at Jerusalem. Also in our Chapters are representatives of Ezra the Scribe and Nehemiah, the rebuilder of the walls of Jerusalem and they, together with the other Companions, represent the governing body of the Jewish community. This was the Sanhedrim of seventy members which met in the courts around the Holy place of the Temple that had to be re-built. We know that we are now in the precincts of the Temple because the floor of the sanctuary is of black and white squares, which has from time immemorial been a feature of shrines and places of worship. The setting of the same alter of incense upon that sort of floor here confirms that we are gathered in a place like the Temple at Jerusalem. Here again are the implements that helped to construct it.
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An interesting observation concerns the coiled rope on the floor of the Holy place. Only the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies and then only once a year. Because the High Priest had to be in a state of perfect purity which would be destroyed if he were to die or become ill while in the Sanctum Sanctorum, it has been suggested that a rope was secured around his waist and the two ends held by other priests outside the chamber. In this way they could drag him out of the sacred precinct if necessary whilst not themselves trespassing upon the forbidden space. There is, of course, a version of this idea in the ceremony of Exaltation.
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When we meet in the Chapter room, we are thus within an amalgam of three superimposed locations – in the wastes of Sinai, within the Tabernacle and in the precincts of the Temple at Jerusalem.