Should our Lodges hold Stated Meetings using the Table Lodge style from time to time?
Should our Lodges, as Lodges did of old, consider conferring the Degrees at a Table Lodge?
I know that in many, perhaps most Jurisdictions one or both of these things would require code changes. That certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility, for such things are a valued part of our Masonic history, but, if the Code wasn’t an issue, should our Lodges do these things? If it is an issue, should we work to change it?
In the Swedish rite it's recommended that every lodge holds at least two table lodges every year. They are held in first degree, and follows a strict ritual. They are considered more or less ad an extension to the normal agape we have after every normal lodge. Very appreciated by all brethren.
Being in the UK we dine after every meeting. It is sometimes the best part of the evening. We have a toast list which we work our way through ie the King and Craft. It takes up about 2 and a half hours after every meeting.
Jan 30, 2023·edited Jan 30, 2023Liked by Cameron M. Bailey
I serve as a DDGM for my district. The GL last year held a quasi Dinner/table lodge in each district. Having traveled I have attended many table lodges outside of our jurisdiction, including appendant bodies I thought it refreshing. I had a brother approach me with condemnation of the table lodge, saying it was the most unmasonic thing he had ever heard of. I reminded him of the history of freemasonry and how it frequently was held above a tavern where food was a centerpiece. He still disagreed, but that's okay for us to disagree. Here in the bible belt we still have, especially in the older generations, an abolition against having any function other than a fish fry or a gun raffle. However time and cultures are changing. Personally, If we are holding a table lodge, Id prefer not to focus on business', rather the food and family there. Our business meetings tend to be full already as we are extremely active but thats my local lodge.
My lodge does a Table Lodge for its June Stated Meeting. 7 course meal, 7 toasts. We begin the meal and toasting at 6:00, then actually convene the formal Stated Meeting and ritual at 7:30. The floor work looks different than usual to work around the tables which are set up in a large square. The first few years it went 4 hours, but we have streamlined it down to 3 hours or a bit longer. We have lower attendance than for a regular dinner (which is usually finished by 7:00) and Stated Meeting, but those who do attend more than one seem to thoroughly enjoy it. Those who have tried it and don't return the following year don't like the big meal (especially with meal courses served as late at 8:30 in the evening) or being committed to that long a gathering, especially if worried it might go 4 hours again. There would be no spare time for a degree conferral in our format, but I don't believe that our code would prohibit a degree conferral occurring once Lodge opened.
If we were in a truly intimate appreciation for food in all nations experiencing communities where food deserts exist, food injustice, hence today's growing food insecurity we might at almost an extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic frankly wear the majority concerned with here we are now in North America, actually where due to the socioeconomics be willing to go to battle over the placement of certain customs in our psychology field, or sociology field which was translated actually for North America, (a translated version), by Harriet Martineau, noted as a 'neglected founder' of sociology from the United Kingdom since we live in an interconnectedness that serves us much of the variety of healthy equities that we embed in our societies abroad with a sense of holism. The art of the craft that we are in no mistake about apparently divides us by our obvious personal health needs moreover we could in a blink of an eye take to perhaps the situation we create, for example, in lodges where we are sat with a variety of duties to which we do owe the Architect of all things thereby all men in the same factor of balances we commit to upholding in worthy ideals which I believe in theory might suggest we are to owe some of the symbolic interactionism to some external sourcing since we are in a global pandemic over which compasses are managed remotely for us online particularly which deliberates an extremely higher amount of digestive system- sponsored eustress, (positive stress), compared to pre- Coronavirus segment processing we remember much unlike the rate of keyboard- dusty punching we deliver into our vulnerable ecology in the science term of a well- put working span unto one day out of the year, just imagine, so that once we look at the development of reasoning onto how we should come to such a thing as food tables in question with regard to personal development as it is paramount, pertinent, and regarded highly in the lodges, that in to any level of health equity, or development what we are at when we are levelled up on the essential acknowledgement of living things in need of food to grow essentially reinstating portions of substance- base population equity diversifying our neighbors by subscribing across the world for what our lodges are worth at base- substance value to which what of an effect we could continue to only imagine as less the compliment of partnering nations at the culinary expertise of chefs whom deliberate all spellbinds of time, and custom external to the table lodges yet conquering so much of what we in the line of duty, or charity are eating to the 3rd Degree over which means we could do a lot either way since we don't presently have a table lodge to combat the majority of mass population about. We at a table lodge would at this point gentlemen, and ladies to the accustomed culinary craft of etiquette would be not safe as a lodge is not sponsoring us even in the human society to campaign politics by the lodge membership, as I certainly believe table lodges would suggest a domestic position on food in the first degree unto the parts of the world governed by Great Britain democracy ideals for which a democracy stands.
Sincerely And Fraternally Yours,
Victor Williams, Certified Food Laws And Standards Of The Dairy Industry
Interestingly, I've been floating the idea of Stated Meetings in our dining room. I've checked our Code\ Constitution and it refers in general to "the Lodge room" but I can't find anything that restricts the idea of holding the Stated Meeting in a particular room as the Charter and By-Laws refer to an address, not a room.
The Code does prohibit alcohol in "the Lodge room" so any drink or toasts would need to be juice or anything nonalcoholic, but other than that, I can't find any restrictions on holding it in a dining room as long as it can be secured (any more secure than any other tyled Lodge room is secured).
So, other than "traditions" of which those have changed again and again over the centuries, why couldn't all Stated Meetings be held in the dining room?
As far as a degree is concerned, my personal opinion is to use the ceremonial room if available. However, if the Lodge only has a single space for their use, then arrangements could be made to conduct a degree if needed.
Our Washington Masonic Code is quite clear that alcohol is prohibited in the lodge room. So, this begs the question, if you tyle the dining room, isn't that "the lodge room"? Philosophically, the lodge room is any tyled space where a masonic meeting is held. The temple boards are allowed the discretion of allowing liquor in other places within the building. Some ban it outright, while others are more flexible.
I would love to see a resolution submitted to GL to change the code, but I seriously doubt it would pass - too many fuddy duddies still around thinking we're still in prohibition. But until then, I would go out on a limb and suggest that table lodges that are tyled and serve alcohol aren't allowed via WMC. And where is the fun in that?
I recently was asked if I knew the difference between Festive Board and Table Lodge. My searching only added to confusion. I believed (erroneously) that a Table Lodge was a Tyled (Masons only) event and a Festive Board was an "Open" meal/celebration meeting at which families and friends could join with the Masons.
In California they have OPEN Table Lodges (Festive Boards) In England and Scotland they have Festive Boards but not after every Lodge Meeting. It is a more formal special event. In Scotland they meet after each lodge for a very informal get together called HARMONY.
The concept of food at a Lodge meeting derives from the mostly English meetings (Scottish masons had purpose built lodges in which they met with both Lodge room and Dining room) which were held in Pubs. They first had their food, then the tables WERE REMOVED and the lodge layout marked in chalk on the floor (so it could be erased after the meeting was over) .
My preference is to keep the Table Lodge and Stated Meetings separate, There purpose is completely different. But I am an old traditionalist.
In our lodge, we always eat dinner after the lodge meeting (so around 9-9:30 PM). It's a simple but delicious two course dinner prepared by our cook, with wine of course. We have simple toasts, and then one of the brothers generally offers a digestif. We then move into our bar, and have a few drinks with cigars (for those that like cigars). It's an important part of the Masonic experience for all the brethren.
I also regularly visit a lodge where they have a tiled table lodge. It adds a bit of formality, and then there are the fun napoleonic toasts (wine is powder, knife is the sword, glass is canon, we raise the sword and then shoot the canon etc). It's also a nice experience.
Hi each meeting is different it might be just open and close or a 1st which is about 1 and a half hours a 2nd is about 1 hour and a 3rd about 2 hours 15 minutes.
But you must open and close every meeting
We start at 6.30pm have the meeting then dine so finish 10.30 pm 10
Most masonic centres in the UK have have in house catering some times each lodge will have a different cook. Bear in mind each temple might be use by say 10 different lodges and then side orders as well
Ah, that's okay brother!! It was rough trying to reply to the question on my end too. I admired it most of all. I didn't really mean to ask a question; I think I just wanted to share my perspective over the broad scope of the question.
I for one would like to see extreme formal dress, dinners etc. including more traditional table lodges etc. My jurisdiction i feel couldn't muster the strength to make it happen for many reasons not for this format. We have a rare table lodge upcoming and I am looking forward to it.
In the Swedish rite it's recommended that every lodge holds at least two table lodges every year. They are held in first degree, and follows a strict ritual. They are considered more or less ad an extension to the normal agape we have after every normal lodge. Very appreciated by all brethren.
Being in the UK we dine after every meeting. It is sometimes the best part of the evening. We have a toast list which we work our way through ie the King and Craft. It takes up about 2 and a half hours after every meeting.
I serve as a DDGM for my district. The GL last year held a quasi Dinner/table lodge in each district. Having traveled I have attended many table lodges outside of our jurisdiction, including appendant bodies I thought it refreshing. I had a brother approach me with condemnation of the table lodge, saying it was the most unmasonic thing he had ever heard of. I reminded him of the history of freemasonry and how it frequently was held above a tavern where food was a centerpiece. He still disagreed, but that's okay for us to disagree. Here in the bible belt we still have, especially in the older generations, an abolition against having any function other than a fish fry or a gun raffle. However time and cultures are changing. Personally, If we are holding a table lodge, Id prefer not to focus on business', rather the food and family there. Our business meetings tend to be full already as we are extremely active but thats my local lodge.
My lodge does a Table Lodge for its June Stated Meeting. 7 course meal, 7 toasts. We begin the meal and toasting at 6:00, then actually convene the formal Stated Meeting and ritual at 7:30. The floor work looks different than usual to work around the tables which are set up in a large square. The first few years it went 4 hours, but we have streamlined it down to 3 hours or a bit longer. We have lower attendance than for a regular dinner (which is usually finished by 7:00) and Stated Meeting, but those who do attend more than one seem to thoroughly enjoy it. Those who have tried it and don't return the following year don't like the big meal (especially with meal courses served as late at 8:30 in the evening) or being committed to that long a gathering, especially if worried it might go 4 hours again. There would be no spare time for a degree conferral in our format, but I don't believe that our code would prohibit a degree conferral occurring once Lodge opened.
If we were in a truly intimate appreciation for food in all nations experiencing communities where food deserts exist, food injustice, hence today's growing food insecurity we might at almost an extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic frankly wear the majority concerned with here we are now in North America, actually where due to the socioeconomics be willing to go to battle over the placement of certain customs in our psychology field, or sociology field which was translated actually for North America, (a translated version), by Harriet Martineau, noted as a 'neglected founder' of sociology from the United Kingdom since we live in an interconnectedness that serves us much of the variety of healthy equities that we embed in our societies abroad with a sense of holism. The art of the craft that we are in no mistake about apparently divides us by our obvious personal health needs moreover we could in a blink of an eye take to perhaps the situation we create, for example, in lodges where we are sat with a variety of duties to which we do owe the Architect of all things thereby all men in the same factor of balances we commit to upholding in worthy ideals which I believe in theory might suggest we are to owe some of the symbolic interactionism to some external sourcing since we are in a global pandemic over which compasses are managed remotely for us online particularly which deliberates an extremely higher amount of digestive system- sponsored eustress, (positive stress), compared to pre- Coronavirus segment processing we remember much unlike the rate of keyboard- dusty punching we deliver into our vulnerable ecology in the science term of a well- put working span unto one day out of the year, just imagine, so that once we look at the development of reasoning onto how we should come to such a thing as food tables in question with regard to personal development as it is paramount, pertinent, and regarded highly in the lodges, that in to any level of health equity, or development what we are at when we are levelled up on the essential acknowledgement of living things in need of food to grow essentially reinstating portions of substance- base population equity diversifying our neighbors by subscribing across the world for what our lodges are worth at base- substance value to which what of an effect we could continue to only imagine as less the compliment of partnering nations at the culinary expertise of chefs whom deliberate all spellbinds of time, and custom external to the table lodges yet conquering so much of what we in the line of duty, or charity are eating to the 3rd Degree over which means we could do a lot either way since we don't presently have a table lodge to combat the majority of mass population about. We at a table lodge would at this point gentlemen, and ladies to the accustomed culinary craft of etiquette would be not safe as a lodge is not sponsoring us even in the human society to campaign politics by the lodge membership, as I certainly believe table lodges would suggest a domestic position on food in the first degree unto the parts of the world governed by Great Britain democracy ideals for which a democracy stands.
Sincerely And Fraternally Yours,
Victor Williams, Certified Food Laws And Standards Of The Dairy Industry
Interestingly, I've been floating the idea of Stated Meetings in our dining room. I've checked our Code\ Constitution and it refers in general to "the Lodge room" but I can't find anything that restricts the idea of holding the Stated Meeting in a particular room as the Charter and By-Laws refer to an address, not a room.
The Code does prohibit alcohol in "the Lodge room" so any drink or toasts would need to be juice or anything nonalcoholic, but other than that, I can't find any restrictions on holding it in a dining room as long as it can be secured (any more secure than any other tyled Lodge room is secured).
So, other than "traditions" of which those have changed again and again over the centuries, why couldn't all Stated Meetings be held in the dining room?
As far as a degree is concerned, my personal opinion is to use the ceremonial room if available. However, if the Lodge only has a single space for their use, then arrangements could be made to conduct a degree if needed.
Our Washington Masonic Code is quite clear that alcohol is prohibited in the lodge room. So, this begs the question, if you tyle the dining room, isn't that "the lodge room"? Philosophically, the lodge room is any tyled space where a masonic meeting is held. The temple boards are allowed the discretion of allowing liquor in other places within the building. Some ban it outright, while others are more flexible.
I would love to see a resolution submitted to GL to change the code, but I seriously doubt it would pass - too many fuddy duddies still around thinking we're still in prohibition. But until then, I would go out on a limb and suggest that table lodges that are tyled and serve alcohol aren't allowed via WMC. And where is the fun in that?
I recently was asked if I knew the difference between Festive Board and Table Lodge. My searching only added to confusion. I believed (erroneously) that a Table Lodge was a Tyled (Masons only) event and a Festive Board was an "Open" meal/celebration meeting at which families and friends could join with the Masons.
In California they have OPEN Table Lodges (Festive Boards) In England and Scotland they have Festive Boards but not after every Lodge Meeting. It is a more formal special event. In Scotland they meet after each lodge for a very informal get together called HARMONY.
The concept of food at a Lodge meeting derives from the mostly English meetings (Scottish masons had purpose built lodges in which they met with both Lodge room and Dining room) which were held in Pubs. They first had their food, then the tables WERE REMOVED and the lodge layout marked in chalk on the floor (so it could be erased after the meeting was over) .
My preference is to keep the Table Lodge and Stated Meetings separate, There purpose is completely different. But I am an old traditionalist.
In our lodge, we always eat dinner after the lodge meeting (so around 9-9:30 PM). It's a simple but delicious two course dinner prepared by our cook, with wine of course. We have simple toasts, and then one of the brothers generally offers a digestif. We then move into our bar, and have a few drinks with cigars (for those that like cigars). It's an important part of the Masonic experience for all the brethren.
I also regularly visit a lodge where they have a tiled table lodge. It adds a bit of formality, and then there are the fun napoleonic toasts (wine is powder, knife is the sword, glass is canon, we raise the sword and then shoot the canon etc). It's also a nice experience.
Would the degrees be in food or individual dishes?
Hi each meeting is different it might be just open and close or a 1st which is about 1 and a half hours a 2nd is about 1 hour and a 3rd about 2 hours 15 minutes.
But you must open and close every meeting
We start at 6.30pm have the meeting then dine so finish 10.30 pm 10
45pm approximately. It can be a long evening.
Most masonic centres in the UK have have in house catering some times each lodge will have a different cook. Bear in mind each temple might be use by say 10 different lodges and then side orders as well
Hello in my Lodge we pay £135 a year that's cheap my old lodge was £190 some are over £250. Our dining fee is £20
Every lodge pays rent so its cheaper
£135 a year lost my first reply
Ah, that's okay brother!! It was rough trying to reply to the question on my end too. I admired it most of all. I didn't really mean to ask a question; I think I just wanted to share my perspective over the broad scope of the question.
I for one would like to see extreme formal dress, dinners etc. including more traditional table lodges etc. My jurisdiction i feel couldn't muster the strength to make it happen for many reasons not for this format. We have a rare table lodge upcoming and I am looking forward to it.
You're more than welcome, sire!