The situation with the Grande Loge Nationale Française (GLNF) and its embattled Grand Master François Stifani took unusual twists in the last week.
• The hearing in which the Paris Court of Appeal would examine financial reports, scheduled for the end of June, has been postponed until September 8th, because of records submitted late to the court by GLNF.
• In the wake of the GL of Massachusetts and perhaps more U.S. grand lodges temporarily suspending fraternal relations with the GLNF, along with more than a dozen European GLs (including the United Grand Lodge of England cautioning its members not to visit GLNF lodges), Stifani emailed preemptive letters to U.S. jurisdictions on June 29th. Apparently to attempt to curry favor with American Masons, he extensively quotes Pennsylvania Past Grand Secretary Thomas Jackson from a speech apparently given at this year's World Conference of Grand Lodges in Columbia.
• On June 30th, a list was released of 581 GLNF lodges that have voted "To suspend temporarily our Masonic links with the Grande Loge Nationale Française, until such time as a Masonic body that respects the criteria of universal regular Freemasonry shall have been established once more on French territory." The list of lodges that have severed ties is not anonymous, and the decisions required a 2/3 vote of each lodge's members.
That's 1/3 of the approximately 1,665 GLNF chartered lodges, and the number is expected to climb as more internal votes continue this week.