Today I spent quite a lot of time with a good number of Grand Masters. Our group consisted of about half of the United States’ Grand Masters, plus the Grand Master of Panama and the Grand Master of Costa Rica.
Our discussion was focused on Membership.
The most interesting and unexpected proposal I heard was to allow our Standard Work to be translated into, and given, in Spanish. Which could of course result (if all went according to the plan) in Spanish speaking Lodges, within our Grand Jurisdiction, in areas with large Spanish speaking populations.
Some US Grand Lodges have already done this successfully. Most have not tried.
Sounds like a great idea to me that in the right jurisdiction provides for more Freemasonry in a way that's better for the local membership. One of the fun aspects of Masonic travel is seeing how other lodges do things a bit differently, and Spanish ritual would certainly count there too.
The ritual & fraternity isn't limited to English, so ... why not?
Great idea. Even those of us that don't speak Spanish would be able to follow along in the ritual. In this area, Tagalog might be another option with so many Brothers from the Philippines.
Before World War I, foreign language lodges were common in the United States. Spanish, French, German, and other languages were perfectly acceptable.
Because of the war, it was thought best to prohibit German, but because singling out one language would look bad, it was decided by many grand jurisdictions to mandate English only in lodge.
Permitting Spanish today would acknowledge reality. The United States is home now to more Spanish-speakers than Spain.
America is an English speaking nation. While other languages are spoken here, our primary language is English. Making a Spanish only speaking lodge means that Brothers who cannot speak Spanish, or Protugese, or Mandarin, or Hindi, or Urdu, or Thai, or any one of the roughly 190 other languages taught in our school systems, could not attend. The end result must, eventually, be a fracturing of Masonry in America.
This may appeal to some under a misguided thought of being "inclusive", and I can easily imagine some very ugle accusations towards those who oppose this, but the end result can only conclude in the Balkanization of Masonry.
In a recient Shrink The Lodge I bought 20 US $1.00 coins, which I passed out to the members. I mentioned that when I picked up the coins at the bank, I asked the tellers if they knew what was written on those coins. Not one of them knew the three word phrase, composed BY a Mason, which is written on every coin. I'll leave it here for those interested to discover those three words, and then do a little research on the Mason who composed them.
Our country is no longer an English speaking only country and neither should Masonry in America. The schools are now hiring heavily Spanish speaking teachers and administrators and there is more coming with Russian immigrants and other languages. Ours is a nation of immigrants. Spanish however is the overwhelming need as large communities of Hispanic people have developed. Should we be a mostly white English speaking organization only or should we open our doors with Spanish speaking lodges. Are we really on the level by not allowing and encouraging Spanish in our lodges? If a group of Spanish speaking men can get together to develop a lodge or work within our current lodges to have special Spanish speaking events I say more power to them. We have a lot to learn.
no, No, NO - Washington does not have any other foreign language lodges; why spanish? The language in this country is English. Sounds harsh but thats the way it is!
My lodge has a sister lodge in Peru and when we were doing zoom meetings we had several spanish speaking brothers join us on our meetings. Our WM also has the idea to have spanish classes at the lodge for our brothers to learn some spanish. We already have other language lodges around the world and it hasn't fractured Masonry. I would like to hear more about the success or failures of other US Grand Lodges that have done this.
Logistically it would make holding grand lodge a bit more difficult. Would we need to have translators? All the materials in multiple languages? I think allowing the work to be translated would be fine, but accommodating other languages at GL may be a lot more work.
Just spitballing ideas here, but could we give charter to a spanish speaking body that would be under the jurisdiction of GL of WA but they handle their own GL in spanish? We wouldn't know the results of votes until we combined the two, but that probably wouldn't be hard to do. Enough spanish speaking brothers would need to step up for this to work, or maybe this would be the goal later on down the road once enough spanish speaking lodges have opened.
There's a lot to think about here, but being able to make even more good men better that are already here, but just haven't learned enough english for our teachings to make much sense to them, I think is a great idea.
A quick look at the top ten languages taught to English language learners in Washington public schools reveals the following
Spanish, a 28% growth over 5 years
Russian, a 25% growth over 5 years
Vietnamese, a 6% growth over 5 yeras
Arabic, a 103% growth over 5 years
Ukaanian, an 18% growth over 5 years
Tagalog, a 20% growth over 5 years
Marshallese, a 78% grown over 5 years
Korean, a 4% growth over 5 years
Punjabi, a 36% grown over 5 years.
It shouldn't take much imagination to see how moving towards a multi lingistal modelwould quickly drown our resources, and fracture our lodges into ethocentric groups. One can only imagine the arguments of why this lingusitic groups gets more resources than that one, and why a third and fourth and fifth group is being excluded.
I can only wonder how many here are thinking about Cloward & Piven.
This post has inspired a lot of interesting discussion, as well as some pretty strong stances.
Making Spanish speaking Lodges? Yikes on the logistics! Would we then have to print or publish on Grandview English AND Spanish translations of all of our forms? And like Bro. Cramer noted, would we have to have two Annual Communications, one for each Language, then meld the votes together? How would a Grand Master, or the Grand Lodge team, handle a Jurisdiction that works in two languages? It would certainly be beneficial if the Grand Master were bilingual, but would that eventually become a “requirement” to be available for and elective Grand Lodge office?
Here’s a better question – are there any Masonic Jurisdictions in the world that work in a bilingual manner? I do communicate with many Jurisdictions in foreign countries, particularly Japan and the Philippines. Also Germany. Sure enough, all the communication is in English, even though it’s not the primary language of those Jurisdictions. It is indeed nice (for us) that most countries in the world can speak English. But then again, Freemasonry is based on the United Grand Lodge of England, so I can see how the English language would be the predominant language for the organization.
Just some thoughts to toss out there. I might have more as the day wears on. Excellent topic.
Fabulous idea and I'm encouraged to hear your thoughts. Think Central Washington! The latino population is huge and they are very social people. Freemasonry is a perfect match for them. We have many Latino members in the Okanogan Valley and Yakima Valley. This could aid those of us non-spanish speaking Brothers who want to learn Spanish to do so much easier. I am for the idea and willing to work with any who feel the same to make it happen.
Chasing the answer to the elusive "how do we improve membership?" question takes us down many paths of distraction. Language is one of those paths, in my humble opinion. The language our work is in is far less important to the membership question than whether or not we are providing men with the meaningful experiences they seek and whether we are a relevant force in their lives and our communities. Nowhere near 9,000 Washington Masons attend Lodge in Washington on a monthly, or even annual basis. These are presumably English speaking Masons, so I don't think we solve a problem by expanding language options, because language itself isn't the problem. Adding languages to the Standard Work will not address the root membership challenges, which have more to do with the demographics of age and geography, as those things that impact member retention.
Sounds like a great idea to me that in the right jurisdiction provides for more Freemasonry in a way that's better for the local membership. One of the fun aspects of Masonic travel is seeing how other lodges do things a bit differently, and Spanish ritual would certainly count there too.
The ritual & fraternity isn't limited to English, so ... why not?
Great idea. Even those of us that don't speak Spanish would be able to follow along in the ritual. In this area, Tagalog might be another option with so many Brothers from the Philippines.
No. This is America. If you live here, speak English.
Before World War I, foreign language lodges were common in the United States. Spanish, French, German, and other languages were perfectly acceptable.
Because of the war, it was thought best to prohibit German, but because singling out one language would look bad, it was decided by many grand jurisdictions to mandate English only in lodge.
Permitting Spanish today would acknowledge reality. The United States is home now to more Spanish-speakers than Spain.
No.
America is an English speaking nation. While other languages are spoken here, our primary language is English. Making a Spanish only speaking lodge means that Brothers who cannot speak Spanish, or Protugese, or Mandarin, or Hindi, or Urdu, or Thai, or any one of the roughly 190 other languages taught in our school systems, could not attend. The end result must, eventually, be a fracturing of Masonry in America.
This may appeal to some under a misguided thought of being "inclusive", and I can easily imagine some very ugle accusations towards those who oppose this, but the end result can only conclude in the Balkanization of Masonry.
In a recient Shrink The Lodge I bought 20 US $1.00 coins, which I passed out to the members. I mentioned that when I picked up the coins at the bank, I asked the tellers if they knew what was written on those coins. Not one of them knew the three word phrase, composed BY a Mason, which is written on every coin. I'll leave it here for those interested to discover those three words, and then do a little research on the Mason who composed them.
Our country is no longer an English speaking only country and neither should Masonry in America. The schools are now hiring heavily Spanish speaking teachers and administrators and there is more coming with Russian immigrants and other languages. Ours is a nation of immigrants. Spanish however is the overwhelming need as large communities of Hispanic people have developed. Should we be a mostly white English speaking organization only or should we open our doors with Spanish speaking lodges. Are we really on the level by not allowing and encouraging Spanish in our lodges? If a group of Spanish speaking men can get together to develop a lodge or work within our current lodges to have special Spanish speaking events I say more power to them. We have a lot to learn.
no, No, NO - Washington does not have any other foreign language lodges; why spanish? The language in this country is English. Sounds harsh but thats the way it is!
My lodge has a sister lodge in Peru and when we were doing zoom meetings we had several spanish speaking brothers join us on our meetings. Our WM also has the idea to have spanish classes at the lodge for our brothers to learn some spanish. We already have other language lodges around the world and it hasn't fractured Masonry. I would like to hear more about the success or failures of other US Grand Lodges that have done this.
Logistically it would make holding grand lodge a bit more difficult. Would we need to have translators? All the materials in multiple languages? I think allowing the work to be translated would be fine, but accommodating other languages at GL may be a lot more work.
Just spitballing ideas here, but could we give charter to a spanish speaking body that would be under the jurisdiction of GL of WA but they handle their own GL in spanish? We wouldn't know the results of votes until we combined the two, but that probably wouldn't be hard to do. Enough spanish speaking brothers would need to step up for this to work, or maybe this would be the goal later on down the road once enough spanish speaking lodges have opened.
There's a lot to think about here, but being able to make even more good men better that are already here, but just haven't learned enough english for our teachings to make much sense to them, I think is a great idea.
A quick look at the top ten languages taught to English language learners in Washington public schools reveals the following
Spanish, a 28% growth over 5 years
Russian, a 25% growth over 5 years
Vietnamese, a 6% growth over 5 yeras
Arabic, a 103% growth over 5 years
Ukaanian, an 18% growth over 5 years
Tagalog, a 20% growth over 5 years
Marshallese, a 78% grown over 5 years
Korean, a 4% growth over 5 years
Punjabi, a 36% grown over 5 years.
It shouldn't take much imagination to see how moving towards a multi lingistal modelwould quickly drown our resources, and fracture our lodges into ethocentric groups. One can only imagine the arguments of why this lingusitic groups gets more resources than that one, and why a third and fourth and fifth group is being excluded.
I can only wonder how many here are thinking about Cloward & Piven.
This post has inspired a lot of interesting discussion, as well as some pretty strong stances.
Making Spanish speaking Lodges? Yikes on the logistics! Would we then have to print or publish on Grandview English AND Spanish translations of all of our forms? And like Bro. Cramer noted, would we have to have two Annual Communications, one for each Language, then meld the votes together? How would a Grand Master, or the Grand Lodge team, handle a Jurisdiction that works in two languages? It would certainly be beneficial if the Grand Master were bilingual, but would that eventually become a “requirement” to be available for and elective Grand Lodge office?
Here’s a better question – are there any Masonic Jurisdictions in the world that work in a bilingual manner? I do communicate with many Jurisdictions in foreign countries, particularly Japan and the Philippines. Also Germany. Sure enough, all the communication is in English, even though it’s not the primary language of those Jurisdictions. It is indeed nice (for us) that most countries in the world can speak English. But then again, Freemasonry is based on the United Grand Lodge of England, so I can see how the English language would be the predominant language for the organization.
Just some thoughts to toss out there. I might have more as the day wears on. Excellent topic.
Fabulous idea and I'm encouraged to hear your thoughts. Think Central Washington! The latino population is huge and they are very social people. Freemasonry is a perfect match for them. We have many Latino members in the Okanogan Valley and Yakima Valley. This could aid those of us non-spanish speaking Brothers who want to learn Spanish to do so much easier. I am for the idea and willing to work with any who feel the same to make it happen.
Chasing the answer to the elusive "how do we improve membership?" question takes us down many paths of distraction. Language is one of those paths, in my humble opinion. The language our work is in is far less important to the membership question than whether or not we are providing men with the meaningful experiences they seek and whether we are a relevant force in their lives and our communities. Nowhere near 9,000 Washington Masons attend Lodge in Washington on a monthly, or even annual basis. These are presumably English speaking Masons, so I don't think we solve a problem by expanding language options, because language itself isn't the problem. Adding languages to the Standard Work will not address the root membership challenges, which have more to do with the demographics of age and geography, as those things that impact member retention.