A hundred years ago, the pillars of the community were also the pillars of the Lodge. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, researchers, scientists, architects, businessmen, judges, churchmen, politicians, statesmen, policemen, they didn't talk to their families or non-Masonic friends about being Masons, but they were proud to be part of a fraternity like ours, that was active and involved in the community. Their community. These men were known across the community as special in some way. They were known to be moral men, just, trustworthy, honest, reliable, men to use as patterns for the youths of the day.
We still have such men in the Lodge. Pillars of their communities. A few. I know two judges (Judge Black and Judge Williams), one lawyer (Gil Gaudet), a dentist (Phil Amyss) and a doctor (Craig Goss), one churchman (Carman Riggs), a couple of politicians (John Buchanan and Jamie Muir), but at this point, I start running out of prominent people in the Craft. They don't join in the numbers that was once the case. Why not? We haven't changed? What they saw in the Craft a hundred years ago is still here. Nothing is lost. We're just as we were, a hundred years ago. But, are we? Should we be? Why haven't we changed? Everything around us has changed. Why have we stood still? Good questions; let's look at some of the answers. In less than a hundred years, our world has witnessed a score of events which have shaken the old lifestyles a hundred times. World War. The nuclear age. Radio and Television. Computers. Cars. Planes. Rockets. Space Shuttles and Sputniks. Diseases and cures. The changed definitions of "Family" and "Society". Lower attendance at churches, synagogues, temples and mosques all over the religious spectrum. Women's Liberation. Political Correctness. Change has screamed across our world, reshaping our society, and we have done little to keep up with those changes we have seen. In fact, we have largely laboured to keep change from affecting us at all. Why would we do that? Well, another name for change is "innovation", and you all know how we as Masons feel about "innovation", especially within the Craft.
The Antient Charges and Regulations of the Craft, to which every Master in this Jurisdiction must give his agreement before he can be installed, includes one on "innovation". Charge 11 reads "You admit that it is not in the power of any Man or Body of Men to make any Alteration or (here it comes, that dreaded "I-word"!) Innovation in the Body of Masonry. Without the consent first obtained of the Grand Lodge. Without the consent first obtained of the Grand Lodge. Most times, when this Antient Charge is spoken or written, it is abbreviated. That last, key phrase is usually omitted. Most Masons believe that Innovation cannot be permitted.
They're wrong!
From the earliest period of our history, Innovation has not only happened, it has happened regularly! The Fraternity was constantly being rewritten and improved, made more interesting or more open or more something. In the 18th Century, the Craft experienced significant change in more years than it stayed unchanged!
So, when did we stop welcoming change?
Shortly after the Union of the "Moderns" and the Antients" in 1813, change in the Craft slowed to a crawl, at least in Grand Lodges which owed their existence, to a greater or lesser degree, to one of the "Home Grand Lodges" of England, Scotland and Ireland. Ritual development stultified. Degree development left to find more open homes. The spirit of change left, and hasn't returned. How do I know that? Because when the development of Degrees and Ritual stopped in the English speaking Masonic world, it continued in the non-English Masonic world.
Now, I'm not going to suggest that the infamous Italian psuedo-Masonic lodge, "Propaganda Dué" or "P2", was in any way an example of good development of Masonry Universal. Far from it. We'll get back to them in a bit, though. What I am going to suggest is that Continental Freemasonry continued to change in response to the changes in the world around it. Continental Masonry is not just unrecognized Masonry, or clandestine Masonry, or improper Lodges and Grand Lodges. It exists, and is part of the worldwide Masonic fact. But it is more than that. Continental Freemasonry is growing. At rates that often exceed ten percent annually.
Yes, growing at more than twice the rate we are shrinking.
I'm not going to suggest that they have all the answers, but some of them sure have answers we don't have and could certainly use.
About that "other" Masonry, like P2; it was never a part of any genuine form of Masonry, but think about this. When some evil men wanted to hide their skullduggery under a wrapping of apparent innocence, they didn't choose our brand of Masonry to mimic. "Mainstream Masonry" wasn't even of value to crooks.
Two hundred years ago, "mainstream Masonry" on this Continent refused to accept the existence of Black Masons and Black Masonry with the refusal to accept Prince Hall Masonry as regular. That is changing, and while it is darned well about time, it is changing now because some Grand Lodges started trying to change the "mainstream mentality" on Prince Hall over 150 years ago. It's taken time, but it's happening. A hundred years ago, the United Grand Lodge of England declared the Shrine to be a "clandestine" body, in that it was "imitative" of regular Masonry and because it sucked resources and men away from the Craft Lodges. Today, there is a Shrine club in England, and the United Grand Lodge of England has just declared the York Rite Sovereign College to be irregular and threatens all English Masons who join it with expulsion. A hundred years ago, the United Grand Lodge of England threatened expulsion to any Brother who joined the Order of the Eastern Star. While the Star is still not a large part of the Masonic world in England, it exists, and has long been a significant part of the Masonic scene in Scotland, just a few miles to the north of England. In 1717, there were only two degrees, and both were conferred on the same night. By 1730, there were three degrees. By 1743, the Royal Arch was growing. By 1750, the degree we know as Virtual Past Master was part of the Antient's version of Masonry. By 1776, the first version of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite was formed in France. By 1801, it was established in North America. By 1800, the Cryptic Rite was established in North America. By 1800, the Knights Templar were established in North America. By 2003, we knew that the Royal Arch was around in some form before 1600.
Each and every one of these milestones was once "innovation". So was the first Masonic Charity. So were the first Masonic Homes, and Hospitals, and Schools.
The truth is, Companions, we have been innovators for our entire history. Or at least, we were. Until we forgot what we were really here to do. Until we were changed into a secret society. Until we were taught not to discuss our belonging. Until we were taught to be discreet about being Masons. Not discreet about our rituals, our Words, our secret handshakes. About being Masons. That has only happened in the last hundred years. It's an "Innovation". One that almost all of us accept.
We have all been hearing about the worldwide crisis in Freemasonry, with numbers dropping, lodges closing, suspensions and resignations climbing, politicians and maverick churchmen making careers out of hounding Masons out of public life. We've all heard the complaints, and we've all heard the dire threats, that Freemasonry will become extinct, like the dinosaurs and the dodo bird, and nobody has "the answer" to our dilemma.
The continuing shrinking of our membership is causing us pain. It should have caused us pain when it first started, in 1955. But we were too busy looking at ways to make ourselves inconspicuous, so no one would make fun of us, or laugh at our "little cases" or laugh at grown men wearing aprons. So we missed it when it happened, and we're only catching on, now, late, and we are all afraid that the Fraternity, which has weathered wars, rebellions, revolutions, religions and frauds of all kinds for more than three centuries, is going to die out in a mere twenty years. "If we don't change, and soon, we won't be here to discuss our crisis!"
When our numbers exploded upwards after World War II, it wasn't because all those returning servicemen wanted to be made over, like a guest on Oprah or Dr. Phil. It was because they saw the caliber of men who were already in the Lodges, and working still in the communities. Too many of us, that large influx after 1945, only saw that the senior men around them in the Lodges were very good men; we didn't catch on that they became such good men because they took what they saw in men they admired, and put it to work in their own lives, and came to Lodge to be with each other so that their children, us, could learn to be better men with their help than we could be without it.
All we really need to do is look closely at who we used to be. Not just to see the doctors and lawyers and judges and so forth, but also to see the kind-hearted men who founded orphanages to care for the parentless children of the community. The thoughtful men who founded libraries, so the children of their communities could learn about the outside world. The careful men who worked their whole lives in their communities. And took time out of their busy lives, once in a while, to go to Lodge and meet like-minded men who also spent their lives making their communities better places to live.
We've all heard the complaints, and we've all heard the dire threats, that Freemasonry will become extinct, like the dinosaurs and the dodo bird, and nobody has "the answer" to our dilemma.
I have it.
One word.
I'll even share it with you. If you can convince me that you want it.
But you all have to promise me you'll never share it with anyone else. (I've found there is one way to guarantee that a story will achieve wide distribution. Tell a Mason. Works every time.)
Are you ready for the answer to all our problems with falling membership numbers and closing Lodges?
Relevance.
That's all. One medium-sized word.
To stop our shrinking numbers from getting too small, all we have to do, is become relevant again.
Time was, our communities valued us because they knew what we did for them. And they told others about how we could always be relied on to help. And the others watched, and saw, and joined.
Delivered to: St. Andrews' Chapter # 2,
Halifax, NS
May 15, 2003
Subsequently delivered to: Renown Chapter #19
Dartmouth, NS.
June 24, 2003
Copyright©2003 J. Douglas Welsh. All rights reserved
Note: Anyone wishing to use this lecture has the permission of R.Ex.Comp. J. Douglas Welsh to use it but credit must be given to The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Nova Scotia for it's use.