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.
I would enjoy it if they were a regular thing here like they are in your area. Here very few Lodges ever hold one, and only one Lodge that I know of holds them regularly. It as well holds two per year, in an extremely formal manner. Those are very successful events for that particular Lodge.
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.
We go to a mexican restaurant fill the bar and spend about 2 1/2 hours eating tacos after the meeting as were not allowed fun in the building. I've been to a few of your table lodges in the UK.. WOW you brothers do it right! 5 course meals, tosts, I felt like i was going to rupture!
We also all wear black suits black tie and black shoes. If you are a WB you can wear pinstripe trousers. We all take pride in how we all dress. There are no jeans no suit means you are not coming in even to dine afterwards
We have a few english appendant bodies here in my home town. My favorite is Masonic order of Athelstan. I have my pinstripe trousers ready to go! while our business' meetings are not always formal, we definitely encourage people to treat the meeting with some respect.
I think its nice to get into your suit and dress up as it were. I know you might say wearing a suit does not change the person but you then are all the same at every meeting
One of the Lodges I am a member of has built a quite beautiful library/lounge. Meals take place prior to the meeting, but afterwards all retire to that library/lounge for drinks and cigars. I would guess that most do end up staying for two hours or more.
It has proven to be a truly superb way of building fellowship and brotherhood within the Lodge. I am hopeful that I'll be able to convince my local Lodge to do something similar.
Mine? Generally our buisness meetings are 2 hours of work discussing coming events, improvement, masonic education, etc. Our meals are about a hour before hand. We host a breakfast every 4th Monday.
Thanks! My local Lodge is fairly similar. My Lodge in Seattle has a much shorter Stated Meeting, but with a long and excellent fellowship time following.
I usually get home about midnight to 1 am Long business meetings because were active and have a lot going on. We fall back to a local restaurant after the meeting and are with them till they close and run us out.
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.
In my Jurisdiction we used to have a local appendant body that had been created by a DDGM many decades earlier. It was called the Prestonian, and it was a monthly formal table Lodge that worked its own unique ritual. The highlight of each meeting was hearing from the guest speaker.
It was, I think, the most enjoyable Masonic group I've ever been a part of.
Unfortunately, it lost its meeting space and never really recovered from that loss. It hasn't existed for many years now, but I keep thinking to myself that I need to put in some effort to start something like it in our Jurisdiction again.
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.
I find it interesting to learn that attendance is lower for your Table Lodge, especially as your Lodge only holds one per year.
Local to me, Tenino Lodge holds two per year, with the full ritual and toasts, along with 7 courses. Theirs is extremely well attended. I was the speaker at their last one and the dining room was full.
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.
In Washington Lodge Stated Meetings can certainly be held in the dining room if desired. When we were re-doing the Lodge Room floor in Centralia's Temple we met for a good many months in our dining room instead of the Lodge Room.
Additionally, more recently, for a short period of time, due to very unique circumstances, Centralia had two Lodges meeting in its Temple, both with Stated Meetings on the same day and time. One of the Lodges met in the dining room, the other in the Lodge Room.
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?
You make an interesting point. If the Table Lodge is Tiled, and if it is done with our Jurisdiction's suggested ritual for a Table Lodge, does that turn the dining room into the Lodge Room for purposes of the code? If it does, it would indeed take much of the fun out of a Table Lodge.
An interesting point, and question. I don't know the technical answer.
However...
If I were in charge of a Tiled Table Lodge, using the suggested ritual, and a complaint was made to me about it, I think that I could successfully defend myself against the complaint. Relying upon the historical forms and traditions of Masonry. Such things are an important part of our Masonic history, and in Washington at least, that history is a consideration in our Masonic law.
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.
I could be wrong, but at least here in this jurisdiction, a table lodge is tyled, a festive board is not. They are, however, very similar, as the programs themselves (shape of the tables, seating, toasts, etc) are almost identical. But the table lodge is for esoteric discussions and presentations, as the guest speaker would provide a program that would only be appropriate for masons. I wouldn't necessarily hold a business meeting at a table lodge, but you could if you like.
Someone more familiar with it could confirm or deny, lol.
Your point about tables being removed reminds me that we do have two Lodges that I know of in this Jurisdiction that do something similar, as neither have a building containing separate spaces for dining and Lodge work.
One dines prior to the meeting, so eats then removes the tables. The other does it after the meeting, so adds the tables.
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.
Outside of the formal Table Lodge setting, I think that toasts are a superb way of building fraternal feeling and bonds of Brotherhood. We should, I think, be toasting our Brothers. Their successes, accomplishments, challenges overcome. It is a good way of recognizing and celebrating each other.
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
Sharing buildings like that seems to me to be a much better idea than how it is done in my Jurisdiction. Here generally each Lodge has its own building, which often results in great struggle to pay for that building. I presume that as time moves on we will begin to share buildings more and more.
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.
I would enjoy it if they were a regular thing here like they are in your area. Here very few Lodges ever hold one, and only one Lodge that I know of holds them regularly. It as well holds two per year, in an extremely formal manner. Those are very successful events for that particular Lodge.
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.
We go to a mexican restaurant fill the bar and spend about 2 1/2 hours eating tacos after the meeting as were not allowed fun in the building. I've been to a few of your table lodges in the UK.. WOW you brothers do it right! 5 course meals, tosts, I felt like i was going to rupture!
We also all wear black suits black tie and black shoes. If you are a WB you can wear pinstripe trousers. We all take pride in how we all dress. There are no jeans no suit means you are not coming in even to dine afterwards
We have a few english appendant bodies here in my home town. My favorite is Masonic order of Athelstan. I have my pinstripe trousers ready to go! while our business' meetings are not always formal, we definitely encourage people to treat the meeting with some respect.
I think its nice to get into your suit and dress up as it were. I know you might say wearing a suit does not change the person but you then are all the same at every meeting
I think looking your best also shows due respect for the sacred space you are visiting.
One of the Lodges I am a member of has built a quite beautiful library/lounge. Meals take place prior to the meeting, but afterwards all retire to that library/lounge for drinks and cigars. I would guess that most do end up staying for two hours or more.
It has proven to be a truly superb way of building fellowship and brotherhood within the Lodge. I am hopeful that I'll be able to convince my local Lodge to do something similar.
Might I ask how long the meetings prior to the meal are?
Mine? Generally our buisness meetings are 2 hours of work discussing coming events, improvement, masonic education, etc. Our meals are about a hour before hand. We host a breakfast every 4th Monday.
Thanks! My local Lodge is fairly similar. My Lodge in Seattle has a much shorter Stated Meeting, but with a long and excellent fellowship time following.
I usually get home about midnight to 1 am Long business meetings because were active and have a lot going on. We fall back to a local restaurant after the meeting and are with them till they close and run us out.
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.
In my Jurisdiction we used to have a local appendant body that had been created by a DDGM many decades earlier. It was called the Prestonian, and it was a monthly formal table Lodge that worked its own unique ritual. The highlight of each meeting was hearing from the guest speaker.
It was, I think, the most enjoyable Masonic group I've ever been a part of.
Unfortunately, it lost its meeting space and never really recovered from that loss. It hasn't existed for many years now, but I keep thinking to myself that I need to put in some effort to start something like it in our Jurisdiction again.
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.
I find it interesting to learn that attendance is lower for your Table Lodge, especially as your Lodge only holds one per year.
Local to me, Tenino Lodge holds two per year, with the full ritual and toasts, along with 7 courses. Theirs is extremely well attended. I was the speaker at their last one and the dining room was full.
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.
In Washington Lodge Stated Meetings can certainly be held in the dining room if desired. When we were re-doing the Lodge Room floor in Centralia's Temple we met for a good many months in our dining room instead of the Lodge Room.
Additionally, more recently, for a short period of time, due to very unique circumstances, Centralia had two Lodges meeting in its Temple, both with Stated Meetings on the same day and time. One of the Lodges met in the dining room, the other in the Lodge Room.
Interesting! I may have to challenge the status quo next year.
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?
You make an interesting point. If the Table Lodge is Tiled, and if it is done with our Jurisdiction's suggested ritual for a Table Lodge, does that turn the dining room into the Lodge Room for purposes of the code? If it does, it would indeed take much of the fun out of a Table Lodge.
An interesting point, and question. I don't know the technical answer.
However...
If I were in charge of a Tiled Table Lodge, using the suggested ritual, and a complaint was made to me about it, I think that I could successfully defend myself against the complaint. Relying upon the historical forms and traditions of Masonry. Such things are an important part of our Masonic history, and in Washington at least, that history is a consideration in our Masonic law.
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.
I could be wrong, but at least here in this jurisdiction, a table lodge is tyled, a festive board is not. They are, however, very similar, as the programs themselves (shape of the tables, seating, toasts, etc) are almost identical. But the table lodge is for esoteric discussions and presentations, as the guest speaker would provide a program that would only be appropriate for masons. I wouldn't necessarily hold a business meeting at a table lodge, but you could if you like.
Someone more familiar with it could confirm or deny, lol.
Your point about tables being removed reminds me that we do have two Lodges that I know of in this Jurisdiction that do something similar, as neither have a building containing separate spaces for dining and Lodge work.
One dines prior to the meeting, so eats then removes the tables. The other does it after the meeting, so adds the tables.
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.
Outside of the formal Table Lodge setting, I think that toasts are a superb way of building fraternal feeling and bonds of Brotherhood. We should, I think, be toasting our Brothers. Their successes, accomplishments, challenges overcome. It is a good way of recognizing and celebrating each other.
Would the degrees be in food or individual dishes?
I am sorry, but I don't think that I understand your question?
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.
OK, thanks! That is about the same time period utilized by my local Lodge.
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
How much are your dues every year, if you don't mind me asking?
Sharing buildings like that seems to me to be a much better idea than how it is done in my Jurisdiction. Here generally each Lodge has its own building, which often results in great struggle to pay for that building. I presume that as time moves on we will begin to share buildings more and more.
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.
Thank you Brother!
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.
I'm with you in thinking that we should do these more often and in more places. Occasional changes of pace can be wonderful!
You're more than welcome, sire!