The Proper Place For Business

It's not a suitable substitute for Freemasonry

I haven’t written here for a couple of days because two commenters on my previous post broke my brain.

Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but they certainly got me thinking! And I’ve spent those days doing just that.

So this post is inspired by Brothers Lawrence Nielsen and Clayton M. M. La Vigne.

Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash

In brief, Brother Lawrence mentioned that it would be nice if we could conduct the sacred parts of our Craft separate from the business of the Lodge. I suggested that there probably wasn’t much business to do in the days our ritual work was conceived, as that was prior to our large scale building and charitable projects. Clayton suggested that we discuss it further. Hence this post.

It is a universally adopted custom in my Jurisdiction that Lodge business can only be conducted in an Open Lodge on a Stated Meeting night.

This custom is so solid here that I always assumed it to be required by our Masonic Code, and as near as I can tell, everyone else thinks it’s required to be that way in our Code as well.

But, a couple of days ago I actually read the relevant sections of our code with care.

And nope. It doesn’t say that Lodge business must be conducted in Open Lodge. It says that it ‘may’ not that it ‘must.’

Now, this could be an error in our Code. In my years working with it I have discovered that as it has evolved over time the Brothers of my Jurisdiction have been awfully loosey goosey with works like ‘must,’ and ‘may,’ and ‘shall’ and ‘should.’ These words mean very different things, but seem to be just rather interchangeably used in our Code. As someone who has written and worked with actual governmental laws for many years I know that these word choices are of vital importance, but of course most Masons don’t have that experience with the law.

So, maybe it is an error. Maybe, as we all assume, the intention was to require that business only be conducted in Open Lodge, and whomever wrote that code section just accidentally used ‘may’ in place of ‘must.’

But, it could also be a misunderstanding of an old Code section. Maybe when that section was originally written it was intended to simply allow Lodge business to be conducted in Open Lodge.

Maybe that was the case, but those who came before us in our Lodges just started doing all the business in Open Lodge, and all who came after just thought it was a rule.

Who knows?

But the fundamental point is dead on.

We ritualistically Open our Lodge, which is the building of sacred space on the spiritual plane.

And then we do the most profane things imaginable within that sacred space. Things like paying the dinner bills. Planning parades. Reading expulsion letters. All that business that no man ever joined Masonry to debate and discuss.

Then we ritualistically Close our Lodge, returning that sacred space, that Temple, to the profane world.

Honestly, it seems more than a little absurd.

There are a couple things we can do to change it.

We can of course amend our Masonic Codes to ensure that the business of the Lodge can be taken care of at regularly scheduled business meetings. Meetings that do not include our ritualistic work.

Much like what is done in my Jurisdiction with meetings of the Temple Boards.

But, I’m not sure that we have to go that far to still bring about a meaningful change in the experience.

We can front load the Masonic parts into our Masonic meetings.

Brother Lawrence also mentioned that in his Lodge’s meetings the business is done first. Then, if there is still time, they will do something Masonic.

Frankly, it is just like that in most of the Lodges in my Jurisdiction.

Not all. A small number put their Masonic programs, discussions, education, or what have you first. Right up there, front and center. Then they handle the business quickly afterwards. But, it’s a really small number of Lodges that do this.

Most do business first, making the Masonic discussion feel like an afterthought, and quite often rushed as the business items on the agenda took up far more time than they were worth.

Having done a lot of visiting in both styles of Lodges, I can easily tell you which style is much more likely to thrive. But, I don’t imagine I need to tell you, as you know it yourself.

So, that’s what I think we need to do.

We need to ritualistically Open our Lodge, then immediately go into our Masonic discussion, program, educational piece, or whatever else Masonic we have planned for the evening. Only when that is done, and shoved to the very back of the meeting, should we discuss those items of a business nature that relate to the profane world.

By changing the meeting agenda in this way, we will completely change the focus and feel of our meetings. Protecting the sacred space that we have opened.

And as a side benefit, if business is at the end of the meeting it will go much quicker as the Brothers will be eager to get to refreshment. And let’s be honest, do we really need to spend half of an hour each at a couple of meetings debating the spending of two or three hundred dollars?

We spend a great deal of effort, particularly memorization, to Open our sacred space. Let’s do what we can to protect that which we build.

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If you missed the earlier post, it is here: