Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
John Slifko ( 2008 – seven months ) Slifko was presented with the Charter from the GOdF in Paris , the organization now officially being termed the Grand Orient of the USA .
Jeff Peace ( 2008-2011 ) Peace took over the reins of GOUSA after Slifko was dismissed .
Dale Brown ( 2011-2012 ) Brown was from Mobile , Alabama and according to Peace , had been linked with Regulus Lodge , though Richard Ehrlich mentioned Dale had been a member of Sirius . Although not available for interview , Dale is still close to Peace and , amongst other things , runs an active website provider business .
Richard Ehrlich ( 2012- ) Ehrlich — a lawyer from Florida — was the last Grand Master , and is , according to Peace , now the legal keeper of the name and logo of GOUSA . Ehrlich was , and still is , a member of Spinoza Lodge , one of the last lodges warranted under GOUSA .
The Lodges under GOUSA
Aaron Peavy in his interview discussed how there were around twelve lodges under GOUSA and around 200 Freemasons who were erstwhile members of the organization , with a lodge in Greece named Deucalion and what he described as a ‘ remote lodge ’ in Par- is named Lodge Thomas Paine , which included members of the GOdF . 12 Another lodge appeared in Grand Rapids , Michigan named the Lodge of the Three Luminaries , but nothing much is known of when and where it met , or indeed if it ever did meet . 13 Yet another lodge emerged named Mercury Lodge which was supposedly active in southern California , but again , evidence remains scant . Many of these lodges may have existed only in name , and Peavy mentions that despite having an active online presence , photographs of actual lodge meetings were restricted as they regularly had visiting members that were still officially members of regular lodges , so , as to keep their identity secret with the possibility of online attacks and repercussions to the ‘ regular ’ visitors , no photos were taken and no Tyler ’ s books were ever signed . This may perhaps explain in part the lack of individual lodge records . There were indeed twelve lodges associated with GOUSA , though some lodges were short lived , others only met sporadically , and some may have never met at all . Due to the gaps in the records , I have thus left occasional gaps in the list of numbered lodges :
Lodge des Neuf Sœurs No . 1 was supposedly based in Cleveland , its dispensation dated the 8 th March , 2008 stating that Jeff Peace was the Master , Chris Michalek its Senior Warden and Aaron Peavy its Junior Warden . According
12 There was a lodge that , according to Jeff Peace was created in Paris while John Slifko was there receiving the Charter . According to Peace , the lodge Slifko tried to set up was co-masonic , a move which upset some leading GOUSA members , and contributed to Slifko ’ s removal from office . The lodge however was not named .
13 These three lodges were mentioned in the minutes of GOUSA in November 2008 , which were part of the Peavy documents .
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