A Movement With Meaning

October 10, 2001 – Conference of the Four Western Jurisdictions

Brother Chairman, Distinguished Brethren, Brethren, and ladies,

Each of us is all of us. Wherever I am I represent you, wherever you are you represent me and collectively you and I represent every member of the Masonic Family, past, present and future -- just as they have, do and will represent us.

Yet, because Freemasonry is a personal journey, living up to that responsibility is far more difficult than it appears. We are representatives of, and adherents to some of the most difficult obligations undertaken anywhere, at anytime by anyone.

As Freemasons, we obligate ourselves, three times, in the name of our Supreme Being, to plan, work at being and persevere until we become the best we can be. I doubt that many of us achieve that lofty goal but I am sure most of us here -- never stop trying.

We have some excellent tools to help us.

The Volume of the Sacred Law: is there any more important support for any of us than the words of our God and the values we hold Holy?

Our rituals: filled with useful advice (in the form of allegory) to assist us in our search for perfection. The very use of allegory is a lesson. A lesson: which teaches the importance of independent thought, which teaches the importance of knowledge and which teaches that success comes only from perseverance.

Our Brethren: who have promised to aid our lawful endeavours, hold confidential our lawful secrets and carefully protect that which is valuable and important to us when entrusted to them.

As members of the Masonic family we stand on a foundation of principles, morals and ethics, which have faithfully and honourably served mankind for centuries.

Yet, many question our relevance in the 21st Century.

Before we can be considered relevant, we must be understood. Let us review the contemporary context in which Freemasonry operates.

The society in which we live is very complex and distracting.

For example, a middle manager in a large organization:

• works 50 to 60 hours per week;
• their spouse works 50 to 60 hours per week;
• in addition to the work load, they are also assigned approximately 90 hours of reading per week;
• they average between faxes, e-mails, memos, voice mail messages and telephone calls and personal office visits, 160 contacts per working day.

Plus, if they live in an urban environment, they will receive 20,000 pieces of new information every day, they live in a world where the mass or volume of human knowledge doubles every two and one half years, a world where there is no place where they are unreachable, a world which is in transition and will forever be in transition at an ever increasing pace. And we haven’t mentioned any kind of personal life. That is part of the context in which the Masonic Family operates today.

Is it any wonder that statistically our verbal attention span is 14 seconds?

No one can even begin to absorb and comprehend all the information, which daily enters their life, so their brain shortens their attentions span and throws away anything and everything, which isn’t automatically and easily recognizable as being of interest.

Their world is fast paced and very busy. Yet Human Resources survey after survey reveals that men and women are looking for ethical management, moral principles to guide their lives and the leadership and mentoring to develop and hone those tools in their own lives. Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t recognized that Freemasonry and the Masonic Family is able to provide what is being sought.

Yet it is the experience of many Lodges and even concordant bodies that while we can attract new members, we can’t keep them. In Alberta, every year, Craft Lodges initiate, pass and raise more new Brethren than pass to the Grand Lodge above and still our membership declines. Why?

We know that many look for what we can provide, they come knocking our doors, Lodges and Chapters put the energy and effort into bringing them fully into the Masonic Family and then they drift away. Often before we’ve even noticed.


Perhaps it is time we began to deliver our promise. Perhaps it is time that again we delivered the meaning of our movement and perhaps it is time that we began to recognize that those whom we would want to reach, those who best represent the potential future of the Masonic Family aren’t hearing what we say likely because of the way we say it and even if they do hear it we don’t deliver on the promise.

As a communications consultant I can tell you that individuals will hear only those items of information, which are of interest to them. Consider those who began University this year. It is likely that they were born twenty-one years ago or less.

They:

• were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart;
• are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up;
• have never heard an 8-track, they were 1 year old when the Compact Disc was introduced;
• “You sound like a broken record.” Means nothing to them – they’ve never owned a record player;
• have always had an answering machine;
• Jay Leno has always hosted the Tonight Show;
• have never heard, Where’s the beef?, Help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up; and
• don’t care who shot J.R. nor do they have any idea who J.R. was.

So even though we know they want what we have to offer they don’t know about it because we don’t tell them in an understandable way. I offer the word mark often used to promote Freemasonry. 2 B 1 Ask 1. It is catchy as all “git-out” but if you aren’t one how would you know what one is?

In 1989, a number of US Grand Lodges banded together to measure awareness of Freemasonry. The study revealed that approximately 3% of Americans were even aware of “Masons.” We can be sure that over the past ten or eleven years that number has eroded even more.

I have been very fortunate in my Masonic career. I’ve been mentored and guided by many very fine Masons and last year and this I’ve been privileged to serve two fine Grand Masters. Most Worshipful Brother Gerry Webber’s “Let’s Do It!” Set a tone, which Brethren all across Alberta accepted and worked, to rise to and yet there were many who just couldn’t get started. Most Worshipful Brother Doug Troock’s “Success is within ourselves,” is an equally valid Masonic theme and yet there are still many who just can’t get started.



I salute all who sit in a Grand Lodge chair and who strive to improve the Craft and maintain the high standards set by their predecessors. All those who hold office in a Concordant Body who strive to improve the Masonic Family. All those who hold an office in a Craft Lodge and work to improve the understanding of Freemasonry in our society by simply living the principles of our obligations.

The obligation I undertook, said a great deal about supporting every Brother in times of trouble and difficulty. I took that to mean at any time in their life including in Lodge and while holding office. I took that to mean support any time, anywhere, for any lawful reason. I didn’t find anything in any of the obligations about whether or not I liked or was close to them.

We have much to offer and still there are many among us, who cannot finds ways to build up, many who offer criticism not critique, many who are petty and even vindictive, many who wish control, because it is easier to deal with than understanding.

For the most part these persons care as much as anyone about the future of the Craft and so I have to ask: “If we all care what is the problem?” Can we not sit down openly and honestly and discuss where we think the Craft should be going. All the while recognizing that none is perfect.

Without doubt, Freemasonry is a personally journey, but for the journey to begin for any of us – all of us must come to realize that the journey is personal and we are required to support and assist when asked or required. We must accept that mistakes are part of each journey and of individual growth. Often the best a Brother can do is demonstrate what he considers to be proper even if it takes him out of his way. That’s the obligation I took. Please, don’t think I get it right very often. I don’t and few will but it would be interesting to see what would happen if for one month every Brother, every member of the Masonic Family made supporting and assisting each other (including those who are not part of our Masonic Family) a significant part of our lives. Why we would be practicing Masonry and all it represents in the real world.

We need to recognize that the world around us impacts us. While we try to avoid the discussion of party politics and religion inside our Lodges and Chapters, let us be aware that many issues being presented as political today are really moral and ethical issues usurped by politicians as answers to and for those who seek moral and ethical influences in their lives. Let us not forget that as we come face to face with other cultures and religions that understanding each other can promote brotherhood, peace and order and that Freemasonry is one of the very few organizations, which holds meetings where such understanding can be created without dissention and disagreement. As has often been said, “Knowledge is power.” Knowledge not opinion is a significant paving stone in the foundation on which we stand.

The search for knowledge is part of the instructions to a Mason and a significant part of each personal journey through the Craft. The standards are there for any who would look. Physicists, architects, theologians, astronomers, engineers, justices, politicians, physicians, photographers, chemists, philosophers, naturalists, horticulturists, poets, artists, composers and even clowns. Many of the best and brightest are or have been Brethren.

Will we ever know what impact the tenets of the Craft have contributed to the many who benefited the world?

Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin mould.

Abd El-Kader, who saved many Christian lives during the Muslim riots of 1860 in Damascus.

Sir Edward Appleton, discoverer of the Ionosphere.

Luther Burbank, developer of the blight-resistant potato and a remarkable range of fruits and vegetables.

Marc Chagall, Russian artist whose work was heavily influenced by Biblical themes.

Pasha Ismail, Viceroy of Egypt who encouraged the building of the Suez Canal.

Franz Von Listz, composer and virtuoso pianist.

James Oglethorpe, began working in 1729 to improve the lot of those held in London’s debtor’s prisons and formed the colony of Georgia as part of that effort.

Francois Voltaire, philosopher and writer.

Booker T. Washington, educator, author and promoter of racial harmony, and Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut, Louis Armstrong, musician, Simon Bolivar, liberator of much of South America, James Boswell, author, Robert Burns, poet, Thomas Chalmers, theologian, Walter Chrysler, manufacturer, Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, Henry Ford, industrialist, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian patriot, Karl Grock, Swiss circus clown and Oliver Hardy and Charles Hilton and Edward Jenner, discoverer of the principle of vaccination, and Rudyard Kipling, and Dr. Charles Mayo and Wolfgang Mozart and Norman Vincent Peale and Branch Rickey and The Ringling Brothers (all of them) and Robert Scott, polar explorer and Sir Walter Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton and Red Skelton and Joseph Smith and Jonathan Swift and, and, and, and.


It is my personal belief that Freemasonry and the Masonic Family need to be more visible in our world. Public awareness will assist us in growing and create the opportunities for understanding with non-Masons.

The Masonic Family has a wonderful story to tell, has important principles to share, has practical advice for each of us, has support and mentoring and guidance for everyone who will participate and has the potential to be exactly what it offers a retreat of friendship and brotherly love. A haven of relief and support. A home for truth. A place where information can be shared and discussed in harmony. It can inspire, instruct, share and support.

The Masonic Family is truly a movement. From time to time it moves at the speed of light and at times it grinds like a glacier but always the Craft provides to any who will look: meaning in a life, a guide to personal growth and support for the personal journey we know as living.
 

Redwood Lodge #193 AF&AM