Grand Lodge Law and Jurisprudence Committee
I’ve had the honor of sitting through many officer installations: first, as a supporter; next as an elected officer; and later as an installing officer. I’ve been to installations for blue lodges and appendant bodies. Like many brethren, repetition taxes my attention span. Yet, I always try to pull something new away from a degree or lodge activity, and tonight was no different.
To me, Lodge rituals are, in a way, a living communication, much like the bible and United States Constitution. Many people argue that the Constitution is not a living document, but a black and white unchanging law. Others suggest it is living and adaptive. Both, brethren, can be true. But, how can an authority be both unchanging and adaptive? It’s living in the sense that it means different things to different people at different times. Sometimes, it may mean different things to the same person at different times. This can be true without offending intrinsic worth or validity. Those that are committed students of the bible witness the living nature of scripture and how certain passages can lead and minister in one direction during certain life stages or events and inspire in an entirely different direction later in one’s life. Yet, the scripture remains inerrant and unchanging. I believe our ritual should be applied in the same fashion and with the same effort at personal examination. And as Albert Pike instructed, no interpretation is, necessarily, incorrect because ritual is for the individual.
During the installation tonight, I heard a passage that did not strike me with a new meaning but with a new level of importance, which I had not fully appreciated previously. The passage is as follows, as found in your blue lodge textbook:
“If the labors of Freemasonry were confined to the Lodge Room, and its influences did not extend beyond its confines; if it had no mission to perform in this world, except the perpetuation of itself by the mere making of Masons…then, indeed, might it be truthfully said to have outlived its usefulness, and the solemn ceremonies which invite our presence for this occasion a mere waste of time, which could be better employed.”
This section of the text is preceded by a description of the very times we are living, among the Millennials. Yes, indeed! The text states, “in this utilitarian age, when men no longer have time for the sentimental, and everything which is not practical is swept aside in the mad race for wealth and reputation, place and power, the question ever intrudes itself: of what use is it?”
Many good and valuable points have been raised here on social media and in Lodge discussions around coffee as solutions to our numbers problem. I agree, Masonry is too cheap. I agree, we need to hold ourselves to higher standards than the community at large. But what is the gravamen? I believe the answer is within the question posed many many years ago, above, and the ensuing answer. Masonic scholars across the globe have researched the numbers issue by talking in-depth with Millennials, and the answer is how they answer that very question. When Millennials, in this utilitarian age, are asked “what use is making new masons to me,” they answer, “very little.” So they go NPD.
We see this over and over, yet very few are taking the initiative to change it. But, we do know the answer, and it is there in our ritual for installation. There’s nothing esoteric about it. If the “labors of Freemasonry” are confined to the making of new masons (the “perpetuation of itself”) it has “outlived its usefulness.” Lodges that are engaged in only the business of degrees will close. Period. That is the lesson, recorded in each of our textbooks many years ago, and it is still a living truth.
Many of our Lodges are engaged in community outreach, philanthropy, parades, etc. Many Lodges are engaged in turning new Masons into true Brothers. Those are the Lodges that are thriving. If your Lodge’s business is confined to the four corners of the building, please heed the warning within the text and make an effort this year to extend its reach. Our Grand Secretary recently pointed out that the numbers are beginning to favor stability and a leveling off, and I think it is due in part to appreciation of this concept. This is to be celebrated.
I am personally excited about 2020 and the new opportunity it brings. I have joined with several brethren from outside my home Lodge to try something new that embraces this very principal. We’re dedicated to both furthering ourselves so that Masonry “enter[s] into [our] daily life and conduct” through education and to place Masonry into public view. I’m proud of what these Brothers have already accomplished, and I look forward to great things in the coming years. We all have new officers, a new year, and a new decade. As I looked at pictures hung in our Lodge tonight, I saw softball teams our Lodge sponsored 15 years ago. With all this newness, perhaps try something new, and return to the activities of old by spreading Masonry beyond the North, South, East and West walls of the Lodge.
R. Lane Dossett, Esq.
Grand Lodge Law and Jurisprudence Committee
