“No one ever joined a Masonic Lodge to pay the bills, or hear the minutes read.”

That's been said by much smarter men than I, for much longer than I've been a Freemason.

It is a fundamental truth that a Lodge ignores at its own peril.

Men become Freemasons in order to learn about Freemasonry, so that they can receive the promise of Freemasonry.

That's it.

If our meetings (that do not include a Degree conferral) focus on the business of the Lodge instead of on Masonry itself we are not providing our members the benefits that they signed up for when they petitioned.

This is not to say that the business of the Lodge should not get done. Certainly taking care of business is vital. It is however my belief that the business of the Lodge should never be allowed to become the focus of the Lodge. Doing business must always remain secondary to teaching and providing Masonry.

Teaching Freemasonry, and sending our Masons home from a meeting with something that will help them to improve their lives is not difficult. It can be accomplished in a myriad of ways, whatever best suits the Lodge, but I'll provide one easy and effective way here for any Lodge that wants to create an ongoing educational forum, without it becoming a large burden for any one individual.

Communicate the importance the Lodge places on education.

The importance a Lodge places on Masonic education is communicated by the educational program's location on the meeting agenda. It needs to be first in prominence.

A Lodge should open and once open immediately move into its educational program. First on the agenda, whenever there is not a Degree to confer.

By doing this a Lodge both communicates that Masonry is the most important item on the night's agenda. It also ensures that there will be enough time available for meaningful discussion to take place.

If Masonic Education is placed last on the agenda, as far too often happens, all the time of the meeting will likely be taken up by less important discussions about things such as the bills, leaving men in a rush to get home, and the Master urging the program to move along quickly.

If time is an issue, ample time needs to be provided to Masonry, if speed needs to be brought into a meeting, the bills and minutes are much more appropriate items to speed through.

How to do it.

One of the easiest, yet also most effective forms of Masonic education is the Round Robin Discussion format.

The Master or other designated Mason chooses a topic, and the Lodge discusses it, each Mason getting his chance to talk in turn.

Getting into the details, almost every Lodge has a library of some size or form. From that library topics can be found.

For example:

“We do not assert that this legend (The Hiramic Legend) is true. We only know that it has come to us by tradition. At what time the legend of the death of Hiram took the place of the older legends in the mysteries of Persia, India, and Egypt, we have no information. Nor is it important for us to know. For Masonry is a succession of allegories, the mere vehicles of great lessons in morality and philosophy.”

The above quote is from Albert Pike's Magnum Opus. It communicates a belief, fairly widely held, that Freemasonry is a continuation of the Ancient Mysteries. That it is just the current successor of those earlier Mysteries. That the lessons taught by it are the same lessons taught in the Ancient Mysteries, that those lessons have remained constant, only the legend itself has changed.

The Master can give the quote from the East, or even better provide it in email a few days before the meeting, and then pose some questions about it.

Some that quickly come to mind are:

Do you believe this succession of the Mysteries to be true?

Why or why not?

Is the truth or falsehood of the assertion important to your own personal Masonic journey?

If so, why?

The discussion then moves around the room, with each Mason encouraged to speak, either answering the questions asked, or otherwise giving his perspective on the topic.

When doing this, it is important that every Mason participate, and it is important that everyone remember that there is no right or wrong answers. What one man believes Masonry to be for himself is right for himself, even if others believe something different.

Such a discussion will likely be lively, of interest to the men of the Lodge, and will send those men home with something important to think about as they continue moving along their Masonic path.

Regularly having discussions like that in Lodge is one of the ways the Lodge actually delivers the promise of Masonry that it holds out to its candidates.

The Pandemic

After writing all of the above, I have to acknowledge doing so at a time in which our Lodges can't actually hold Stated Meetings.

I might suggest that during this health crisis, all of our Lodges should be holding virtual meetings using Zoom or other video conferencing platforms.

A discussion as outlined above, even standing alone, would make for a superb virtual meeting.

If your Lodge is lacking in the provision of Masonic education, I strongly encourage you to improve things by bringing in a good educational program. The ideas outlined above are both easy to implement, and extremely effective.

I offer them for your consideration.

#MasonicEducation #Lodge #StatedMeeting #RoundRobin #AncientMysteries #HowTo

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

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