How to start a Lodge of Exploration

Note: To those who have been waiting for this information, thank you for your patience. I wish there were 40 hours in a day and 10 days in a week, but I have the feeling I'd still be working overtime.

One of the new programs that's been really successful for us in Niagara District B is the Lodge of Exploration.

A Lodge of Exploration provides an opportunity to delve into the symbolism of each degree. It is a counterpart to the Lodge of Instruction, insofar as where the Lodge of Instruction seeks to impart the 'how' and 'when' of the ritual, a Lodge of Exploration seeks to impart an understanding of the 'why.'

These meetings are held within our masonic district, but they could be (and were) open to accommodate brethren from nearby districts.

Preparations.

Announcements go out at roughly 60 days from the start of the event. Typically you'll need dispensation to hold the event from your Grand Lodge, and you'll need to coordinate with your District Deputy Grand Master (or equivalent).

Follow ups are done every couple of weeks to keep it in people's heads. Doing a bit of visiting to make announcements really helps too. Get it in the lodge summons/trestleboard, but don't rely on that as the only means of getting the information across. Many men check the dates for meetings and that's it (in my experience anyway as a publisher of a summons).

We started with the EA degree, but I don't think you have to. I really think it depends on your particular district.

Study

Get a group of Masons together interested in dissecting the symbolism of a particular portion of the degree. We have a list of who does what parts when we're conferring a degree, and we used the same sheet to work from in assigning roles. It made sure everything was covered.

Delve into your portion of the degree. There are many excellent resources for this, the key is just start reading and pull out what you feel is significant or noteworthy.

Get a couple study sessions together and talk about what you've learned. Some of the most interesting conversations happened at this stage, as you're dealing with passionate masons about something they've become conversant in, and the learning, and exchange back and forth was something really spectacular. You may find this is the best part!

Draft your presentation

Take the rough ashlar that is your research and turn it into the perfect 10 minute presentation ashlar using some of the tips here at Presentation Helper. I found this a really helpful resource, especially to cut through to the essence of what I was trying to get across. There can be as many as 12-15 parts, and so at 10 minutes apiece they still make for a long morning. In your presentation, you're trying to accomplish two things.

1. Help them think about the symbolism of your part of the degree in a way they haven't before.
2. Give them enough raw material to help them form their own personal connection to the symbolism.

The other thing to remember here is that many masons have never been told to really do this. The emphasis has usually been on the rote of the ritual, not really stopping to understand the deeper meaning behind it. I know this is a generalization, but I've seen enough lodges to know it's a common problem. If it's not happening in your lodge, you're further ahead than many.

Have your day!

This is what the agenda roughly looked like on the day of our event.

• 9am: Coffee and reception
• 9: 45 Welcome and Introductions
• 10am - 11:30am: presentation
• 11:30-12noon discussion and questions
• noon - ? lunch and fellowship

Each brother tried to keep their presentation to 10 minutes or less.

The reception was phenomenal, and we recently did a second Lodge of Exploration for the FC degree.

If you follow these steps, you will have introduced a program into your district that promotes learning about Masonic symbolism in a way that is difficult to find in our regular lodges. I think this exercise is important because it highlights that brethren are eager for such experiences, and that their preparation isn't a hardship.

Calm before the storm

Not seeing a lot of action on the Masonic blogosphere recently. I think many are getting back into the swing of things now that the summer is fast approaching its end.

I expect the swell of ideas will begin to rise very soon.

Great Architect of the Universe

I did this a long time ago, just looking for someplace to put it. I built the Square and compasses myself, and overlaid a few Hubble telescope images underneath. The logo in the side was something I started for my lodge that never really went anywhere, because nobody but me was interested at the time.

Around the time I started working on this I really started to get a sense of the widespread impact of Freemasonry on faith. If we acknowledge that all faiths are worthy of consideration into Freemasonry, then we accept that our various faiths are just different paths to connect us with the divine. That was really what prompted me to again begin learning about other religions and the teachings. I feel more freemasons need to point out what brings us together in common than what separates us, and faith is as good a place to start as any.

District Lodge Map

I was playing around with Google Maps today and added this one for our district.

http://tinyurl.com/niagaramasonmap

I also decided to use tinyurl's alias feature so that I could make something more memorable. Still need to figure out how to embed it here.

A long-time friend becomes a brother.

I learned recently that a college buddy of mine recently joined Masonry at another lodge nearby. I couldn't think of a man better suited to the fraternity, although at first glance you might think otherwise. He's always been a free thinker, open to new experiences, just one of the 'good guys.' He reminds me of some of the guys who have been getting press in LA and Boston.

I've called this friend a brother for a long time, and now I'm comforted by the fact that it takes on a whole new meaning.

Can't wait to sit in lodge with him for the first time.

New Trend: All those young'uns in Masonry

It seems like more reporters are hopping on the trend of young men joining the Freemasons. Following up on the LA Times article, it seems like the Boston Herald can't be left out of the picture and have found their own local angle.

It's true. For any writer that might stumble on this, you can go to your local lodges (look them up in the yellow pages under 'Secret Societies'[sic] or 'Service Clubs') and ask about their young members. You will find the same story just about everywhere.

The story is simple. We found our lives were lacking something. We were introduced to Freemasonry in any number of ways, and it resonated with us. The result is we're getting involved in our communities again, we're getting connected with our families again, and we're making the world a better place again.

A welcome poetic surprise.

A recently raised mason has approached me to get permission to read a poem he wrote about his experience in lodge.

I'm overjoyed that someone has even thought to do that, and humbled that he would like to share it in our lodge room.

I can't wait to read it myself, and have it read in open lodge.

The importance of the Widow's pin

I was out with a brother last night visiting a few of our recent widows and providing them with a pin similar to the one you see here.

The pin is meant to remind both us and them that they are still connected to Freemasonry, even though our brother is departed. Once family, always family, and in the busy-ness of our own lives we sometimes lose track of that.

On both visits, the surprise was palpable; neither expected that such a show of support would have even come. To me this indicates we might need to do a better job of explaining to our families in general, and our wives in particular, the depth of the fraternal bond that we share with one another. Too often we might come back to complain about the difficulties we might face in lodge, without reminding the ladies in our lives that these are the same as, or at least similar to, the family squabbles we face within our own homes.

So we listened, learned, and helped in a small way to celebrate the life of our departed brother and remind his wife that she always has a place amongst us. All in all it was a very rewarding experience. I'm writing this particularly to any younger brethren that also might be new to this experience. If you have the chance to participate, do it. You'll find that any hesitation you feel will quickly melt away as you learn more about the members of your extended Masonic family.

It seems that I'll be Master this year

Well, it seems that I've passed the examination by the Past Masters, so I'll be installed this May 5th as Master of Adoniram Lodge No 573, GRC, Niagara Falls, Canada.

I've often called my trip to the East the Orient Express, because I will celebrate my 4th Masonic Birthday a week after I'm installed. I've learned so much in that time about my self, my lodge, and Freemasonry in general though that I'm confident about how I'll do.

Hrmph. New father, new master, new job. Yet I feel pretty balanced in all this turmoil. I guess I must be learning something about being centered.

Breakthrough at Lodge: 'Great Wall' of age coming down.

Last night at our board of general purposes meeting I started laying out my plans for my upcoming Masonic year to the brethren.

One of the key programs I am going to institute is an officer mentoring program, where a group of volunteer past masters take individual officers and help them learn the ropes of their new position as well as guidance in transitioning to the next officer role.

My goal is two-fold: give the incoming officers all the tools they need to succeed, and make sure the past masters feel needed and valued for their contributions and experience.

I had no idea how important it was going to be.

Turnout was low. Attendance consisted of two of the "old guys," two past masters who had also served as Grand Lodge officers and had spent the last four years of my Masonic career telling me what was wrong with how the 'young guys' were doing things. There were two of the newer brethren there as well, a master and a fellowcraft. The fellowcraft is eager to get involved and was there to offer some assistance cleaning the lodge room prior to one of our meetings. Rounding out the room was a younger (late 50s) past master and our current DDGM. He's a big fan of preserving what needs preserving, but also changing what needs changing, and I would consider him one of my top three masonic mentors. Our conversations about the Craft have always left me invigorated rather than discouraged.

When I arrived I found the brethren there complaining about how participation in this meeting had diminished in recent months. Looking at the crowd I had the distinct feeling it was going to be a tough room.

So I addressed the attendance issue right away. I asked if anyone had heard anything that would lead them to think there was a problem keeping them away. A few mumbles at first, but nothing concrete to push with.

We talked for a few minutes more and I noted an observation that the past masters had been decreasing their attendance at this particular meeting since the younger masters started coming in, about 3 years ago.

Nods of general agreement. "Let's keep going in this direction," I thought to myself.

Some more statements arose that indicated the beginnings of a split in lodge. In suggesting that this was the absolute worst thing for the lodge, I received whole-hearted agreeement, which was great.

I chair these meetings in my role as senior warden. After letting them know we'd spent 10 minutes on that subject already, I asked if we could table it to the end of the meeting so that we could get through the needed business portions, and then we can return to this, because it's important and we have to start right away on a course of action. I told them that I had been thinking about this issue for a while, and I have a few steps right now that might work, but would need their input and polish before we presented them to the rest of the lodge.

Agreement around the table. The whole table. The whole freakin' table.

I just want to point out this was my 10th meeting, and I'd never had agreement around the table. Never. Until now. I've had consensus, and I've been able to get enough people to agree to get recommendations through to the regular meetings for voting, but never unanimous agreement.

So we get through the rest of the meeting. We had some business to take care for upcoming meetings, that went fine, then we talked about our installation and the upcoming officer line. I told them I would be putting together packages of information for the new officers. They need every tool possible to succeed. No arguments. I'm going to need to spend some money on this (< $100). A bit of hesitation, but no arguments.

The business portion taken care of, we moved back to the issue of division amongst lines of age in the lodge.

A few years ago, I had identified that there was a generation gap in our lodge, that there were very few men in our lodge between the ages of 40 and 60. I had mentioned then that this group had formed a bridge between young members and old members. Without such a bridge, conflict would ensue, in large part of the frustration expressed in each group with not understanding the other.

At that time, many agreed with me, but when asked what to do about it, I never had an answer. Personally, I hate identifying a problem without also proposing a solution, but the best I could muster at the time was "I'm working on something."

Over the years, I found my answer in the body of Masonry. Throw them all in the quarries, get them together for some authentic shared experiences through work, and in time the respect and understanding will follow. That was the inspiration for my officer mentoring program.

Outlining my plan quickly, I saw everyone around the table nodding their heads in agreement. The secretary of our lodge, a grizzly old past DDGM who I've butted heads with since I became a member had started writing a list of past masters whould would be interested in volunteering and priortizing them by how good he thought they'd be and also by what roles they'd be best at teaching.

I gained a lot of support last night. Support I never thought I'd get during my year as Master. I was humbled in that support, and I know that if I can support them properly in this important work, my year as Master will be one of the best years of my life.

Masonry and the Open Source Movement

There's something to this, and I've been thinking about it for a while.

It has been said that masonry can be found anywhere one chooses to look, and for a long time I think I've been seeing it in open source software.

A recent article that Chris Hodapp found relating to 'builder geeks' re-inheriting Masonry really started to stir my thinking on the topic.

Here's a few resources that I'm using to assemble my thoughts.

• Make Magazine: Masonic Conspiracy Revealed! By Paul Spinrad
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond
• The Meaning of Masonry, W.L.Wilmshurst
• The Hacker Ethic, by Pekka Himanen, Linus Torvalds, Manuel Castells
• Reform Freemasonry, by Richard Graeter
  

There is a connection I want to explore between the Masons' advocacy of equality for all, and the open source movements' advocacy of that same freedom for information, which is coming to be a key metric of freedom in our society today.

Any resources any of you might recommend to help shape this research would be warmly received.

Interview with Karen Armstrong: A renewed perspective on the Bible.

I recently learned about the CBC show 'Tapestry,' and it's been a great source of inspiration and thinking about all things faith-oriented.

In her most recent interview with author Karen Armstrong, host Mary Hynes discusses the bible as a source of ageless interpretational wisdom; that in general we should look more to the bible as a source of inspiration for daily living today and less as an historic account of times past.

I think one of the most important points she covers is that as the texts of the various Abrahamic faiths developed, they initially started as interpretive, symbolic, works that were meant to provide an example for people to follow, and not be taken as literally as they are now in some contexts. While there are many ways to learn from the Bible, I think this particular manner has not been given the attention its due.

Again, the parallels to how many Freemasons identify with the Volume of the Sacred Law are numerous, and I thought it would be great to share the podcast with you.