Int. Order of the Rainbow (for Girls)

Origins and history

Rainbow was the idea of the Reverend William Mark Sexson, a Christian minister and Freemason of McAlester, Oklahoma, who was then Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of his state. Sexson had followed the progress of the Order of DeMolay, founded for boys in Kansas City only three years earlier. When he was invited to speak to South McAlester Chapter No. 149 of the Order of the Eastern Star in 1922, he suggested that girls would benefit from a similar order of their own. He then wrote its ritual himself.

The first initiation took place on 6 April 1922 in the auditorium of the Scottish Rite Temple in McAlester. Accounts of its size differ: the revised edition of Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry speaks of “more than seventy-five girls”, while the figure usually quoted today is 171. The idea caught on quickly. Mackey’s encyclopedia records that within four years the Order had spread to thirty-one states and some 40,000 members. In those early days members were aged 13 to 18 and were daughters of Masonic or Eastern Star families, or their friends.

The Order was first named the “Order of the Rainbow for Girls”. It later became international, and in 1950–51 its members raised the money for a headquarters building, the International Temple in McAlester, which has housed the Supreme Assembly since November 1951 and was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Why “Rainbow”?

The name comes from the Bible. In the story of Noah, the rainbow is the first visible sign of God’s promise to mankind, and Sexson used it as the Order’s central symbol. Each colour carries its own lesson, and the colours together make up pure white light, which in Rainbow’s symbolism stands for the Holy Bible. Seven of the officers’ stations are named for the colours and the virtues linked to them: Love (red), Religion (orange), Nature (yellow), Immortality (green), Fidelity (blue), Patriotism (indigo) and Service (violet). Faith, hope and charity, which also give their names to three officers, remain the cornerstone of the teaching.

Although its founder was a Christian minister and its ritual draws on the Bible, the Order today welcomes girls of every religion. Its emphasis is on a belief in a Supreme Being, dignity of character, effective leadership, cooperation with others and service to the wider community.

Coming to Australia

Rainbow reached Australia through Mrs Frances Livermore, who learned of the Order and brought it to Sydney. The first Australian assembly, Sydney No. 1, was instituted in April 1930, with Mrs Ruth Palmer of Michigan conducting the ceremony. (Freemason NSW & ACT gives the date as 26 April; the United Grand Lodge’s website gives 28 April.) Australia worked as a single jurisdiction until 1966, when it was divided into New South Wales and Queensland. Assemblies later opened in Victoria and South Australia under the New South Wales jurisdiction, and Western Australia had an assembly for a time in the 1950s. Today the Order works in Australia through the jurisdictions of New South Wales/South Australia and Queensland, with assemblies meeting in Masonic centres such as Blacktown in Sydney and Hawthorn in Adelaide.

Membership

Historically Rainbow has been open to girls aged eleven to twenty; a member reaches “majority” at twenty, and some jurisdictions allow her to stay on until twenty-one. In Australia the Order has described its members as girls aged 11 to 21, with younger girls of 7 to 11 belonging to Pledge Groups (they have promised to join at eleven) and girls under seven known as “Sparkles”. Other jurisdictions run Pledge programmes from about age six.

A family link to Freemasonry or the Eastern Star is no longer required. A girl may ask for a petition from a Master Mason, an Eastern Star member or a Rainbow girl. She must believe in a Supreme Being, be unmarried and have her parents’ or guardians’ permission.

The petition is read at a meeting of the assembly she hopes to join. If none of the members knows her, a few girls and an adult advisor visit her and her family to explain what Rainbow involves and to answer questions. They report back, the members vote, and if the ballot is favourable she is initiated at the next meeting. In Australia the joining fee covers her copy of the ritual, the Rainbow jewel presented after initiation, her certificate and the dues owed to the Supreme Assembly.

Since 2000, young women who have reached majority in Rainbow have been eligible to join the Order of the Eastern Star, which gives many members a path into the adult side of the Masonic family.

How the Order is organised

The local unit is an Assembly. It is run by the girls themselves under a presiding officer called the Worthy Advisor, assisted by the Worthy Associate Advisor and by officers named Faith, Hope and Charity, together with a Recorder, Treasurer, Chaplain, Drill Leader, the seven colour stations, two Observers who guard the doors, and a Musician. Officers usually serve terms of four or six months and commit part of the ceremony to memory, and by custom the officers advance each term until they reach the chair of Worthy Advisor.

Adults support rather than lead. Each assembly has an Advisory Board of between seven and fifteen adults, who may be Master Masons, members of the Eastern Star or the Order of the Amaranth, former Rainbow members or family members. A Mother Advisor acts as the link between the girls and the board. Each jurisdiction elects a Grand Worthy Advisor, who visits its assemblies with a team of grand officers during her term, and is overseen by an adult Supreme Inspector or Supreme Deputy.

The whole Order is governed by the Supreme Assembly in McAlester, the city where Sexson lived. Its senior body, the “House of Gold”, has fifty lifetime seats held by the Supreme Officers and Supreme Inspectors. The Order’s highest honour, for members and adult leaders alike, is the Grand Cross of Color, awarded for outstanding service.

Rainbow today

Rainbow reports more than 850 assemblies worldwide. It works in 46 US states and in Australia, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, the Philippines and Romania, and in the past it had assemblies in Cuba, Germany, France, Panama and Vietnam, mostly near American military bases. Each assembly meets formally at least once a month for its ceremonies and business and also gathers socially, for barbecues, games afternoons and outings. Local and jurisdiction-wide service projects take up much of the year, and joint events with DeMolay and Job’s Daughters are common.

The Australian jurisdiction sums up its purpose in one line: “Rainbow gets girls ready for life”.

Learn more or join

For meeting times, or if you would like to join, please visit:
– https://iorg-nsw-sa.org/ (New South Wales and South Australia)
– https://www.gorainbow.org/ (Supreme Assembly)
– https://www.iniorg.org/
– https://www.facebook.com/SupremeIORG/
– https://gocarainbow.org/
– https://nhrainbow.org/