A Petition For You, A Petition For You...
A Petition for everyone!
During our just passed Annual Communication, the Jurisdiction leader of one of our Concordant Masonic Orders was invited to address the assembled Craft.
He stood up and declared that his organization was dying.
Not enough men are joining, and the final end is in sight.
But…
He offered a solution to the problems his Order is facing.
He suggested that if our Grand Master were to require that every new Master Mason, on his Raising, was to receive a Petition to his Order the Order’s membership problems would be solved. It would face a vibrant future instead of a grim death.
He apparently believes that if only a Petition landed in the hand of every impressionable new Master Mason, his ranks would be filled with men, eager to become involved with his organization.
This is wrong in so many ways. I’ll just throw out a couple.
First of all, and most importantly, Freemasonry is an Initiatory Order. For an Initiation to be effective, work must be performed. Work on the part of the Lodge to ensure that the experience for the candidate is of high enough quality that what needs to be communicated and received is actually communicated and received.
It also requires work on the part of the new Mason. He needs time to reflect upon and consider that which he experienced. For it is only through that internal work and self education that the change he seeks can be found. We don’t just wave a wand to turn a good man into a better man, he does that work through self exploration and reflection. He does it by learning to know himself.
We provide him with Working Tools that he can use to improve himself, but in doing so, we must give him time to actually use them.
When I first became a Master Mason, my Lodge told me that I needed to reflect on the Degrees I had received for at least a year before jumping into an Appendant or Concordant body. It was excellent advice, I ended up waiting quite a few years, and am damn glad I did.
Ancient Craft Masonry alone can fill a lifetime of study. There is no need to jump into the next thing at the first legal opportunity.
Secondly, shunting men out of the Blue Lodge, encouraging them to jump into some other body harms Craft Masonry by pulling time, energy, and enthusiasm out of the root, shunting it off to the leaves. I’ve met high leaders of Appendant and Concordant organizations whom I have never seen in Lodge. That is wrong.
Leaders of these other organizations need to understand that if Craft Masonry does not exist, they do not exist. A tree can not live without roots.
But, neither of those things were why I had such a strong negative reaction while he was speaking.
My strong negative reaction came about because of the sheer absurdity of his suggestion. His scheme would never work.
But sadly, it is a mindset shared by far too many Masons.
The fact of the matter is that Freemasons both the new ones and the ones that have been around for decades know that his organization exists. It is one of the biggies. You can’t not know about it and be a Mason.
The fact is that every Mason also knows that to join his Order, all one has to do is ask. We Masons are kind of funny that way.
His Order isn’t on the verge of death because Masons don’t know about it, or don’t know how to join it, it is on the verge of death because it offers absolutely nothing to the few Masons who are actually willing to join it.
It offers a Mason absolutely nothing of value. Because of that, very few Masons will ever join.
But this Jurisdictional leader, the top dog, can not see that. He will take no steps to improve his organization so that the men alive in this year will want to join. Rather he will continue what may have worked well in 1950, and he will keep pushing that 1950 model until there is no one left.
As he watches his organization pass into history he will never see his own shortsightedness or error. He will simply decide that his Order died because Craft Masonry wasn’t required to put a Petition into the hand of every single new Master Mason.
It’s not a secret…
If we expect a Mason to attend our Lodge, Chapter, Valley, Court, or whatever, we must give him a compelling reason to attend.
The only mystery to my mind is why on earth we would elect or elevate men who can’t grasp that simple fact.
I went to the Annual Communication with great plans to post interesting things I observed over the course of the event. Unfortunately, my plans did not come to fruition.
I don’t know why, because I am used to having massive responsibilities at our Annual Communications, and being extremely busy through them. This time I didn’t have to do much at all beyond looking all serious sitting next to our Grand Master.
But, I was wiped out the entire time.
I just found myself moving from the sessions to my bed this year, unable to do much at all in the way of fun, let alone write.
That’s the reason for my silence, but I did take notes, so I’ve got plenty of interesting things to relate to you in the days ahead.
I joined the SR about a year after I was raised, but I didn’t regularly attend until this past year. I was more concerned with my blue lodge and going up the chairs, learning the rituals, mentoring other men as they joined, etc.
Our SR valley gets plenty of new members every year, but oddly enough, it’s the same faces month after month that show up. Most of the new folks just never seem to come back.
I never even considered joining the York Rite, simply because there are three dues paying bodies to answer to. If you want to call yourself a knight Templar you have to join, and pay dues to, the other two groups. I think that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of.
I joined the SR because I was told it was where the Masonic education was. Outside of the degrees, I am not sure I would agree with that. It seems like the SR is more concerned with their charity and raising money. I just am tired of the constant hands reaching for my pocketbook. All of these groups just exist now to fund their charitable work. While admirable, that’s not why I joined.
As far as the annual communication, my only question is, when did we vote on the budget?
I felt there was a lot of things happening at the annual communication that made me go hmmmm.
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Brothers do things together. Not just lodge business and official ceremonies. They go bowling, fishing, help build fences at each others houses. Take their families for camping trips. Invite each other over for superbowl parties. Have conversations about a wide range of topics.
Where is the brotherhood in most lodges? Where is comraderie?