As of Sept 1st, we’ll be closing the Victoria Masonic Site. Many other Masonic sites around the world have come to pass over the years. We get little traffic here and no traffic on the discussion board. We’ve become a small side channel from the main Masonic information highway since 1994.

We want to thank all those who passed by and contributed over the years to the Victoria Masonic Web site.

Ron

There are 2 people that carry significant experience and weight in every lodge. The secretary and Master of Ceremonies. Some say the true governance of any lodge is actually in their hands. Obvious, if you’re serious about chance, knowing and cultivating these two brethren would be important in any successful venture.

More often in the past decade there has been considerable pressure to make changes. How does one go about creating change within an organization deliberately created to make change difficult?

Real change only occurs from grass roots opportunities through people that commit to the fraternity not only to it’s existing tenants, but also in the belief in changes that are legitimately the right thing for the Fraternity as society changes around it. This is done through brethren who commit years and possible life times to changes because they are convinced in making Masonry relevant in their “watch”.

With the right approach and attitude, new directions are accepted and new members see Masonry in terms that resonate to their lives. The fraternity continues to exist and the cycle repeats itself insuring the message for Freemasonry continues to build good men and society reaps the value of brethren, committed to God, their country, their family and each other. In addition, allowing them to do good and works of charity that make a better world.

Now – go out and make a difference!

Comments are always welcome

Author
Bro Ron Merk – PM
Vancouver & Quadra #2
GL of BC and Yukon

Often by the time the “Keepers” of the temple become aware of the situation, it’s almost too late. Often it takes years to get multi Lodge Temples to agree on by-law changes that will allow Temple Associations to put in place revenue generating opportunities.

It all starts when you begin to here statement like; “It’s a beautiful building. We’d hate to lose it or go anywhere else.”

A typical story goes something like this. In 1926, four Freemason lodges got together and built their temple. But, 83 years later, it’s expensive to keep open. Last winter, the heating alone was $40,000 from October to March. Dues from the four lodges and other groups that use the building use to pay for most of the upkeep.

But over the years as the number of members dwindled, the revenue to keep the build running started to go down. Finally it’s wasn’t enough to sustain the building anymore.

After much discussion and consternation the Temple Association receiving approval to offer the building for use by outside groups. The Temple Association began to supplement the dues from the Lodges and other Masonic groups by renting out the building, but the events weren’t rolling in because the use of liquor was not approved.

Three more years passed and it was obvious that the idea to rent the building out wasn’t working. In this last year alone, it was only rented 5 times.

Earlier this fall the Temple Association was faced with a tough decision. They had to either find a way to get enough money to keep it open or sell the building and move out. In desperate need, the four Lodges who owned the building finally stepped up with a business plan to make the building self-sustaining in one year.

The plan has several parts. One involved the lodges fronting $50,000 to get through this winter. The boilers were also worked on to make the heating more efficient and new thermostats were installed. Not only to make the building more comfortable when the building was in use, but also to save costs when the building wasn’t occupied. One of the largest expenses for the building is the heating.

The plan also limits Mason meeting nights to two nights a week to cut down on the number of days that need to be heated at a higher level.

Another big part of the plan to make the building viable involves increasing membership.

The lodges in this Masonic Temple were some of the first Freemason group in their Grand Lodge. One Lodge alone peaked around the 1940s and 1950s and had more than 700 members. That declined over the years to around 160 members ten years ago.

A few years ago, the lodge made a push toward recruiting new members and now membership is up to 185.

Every year for the past four or five years they’ve seen positive growth, meaning the new members offset the deaths in the lodge and in fact actually have increased membership.

The youngest member is 19 years old and the oldest is 96 years old. Each lodge within the Masonic Temple Association has set a goal to have 20 new members this year. To help achieve that goal, the Masonic Tempe Association made a radio commercial and advertised specific information through other media channels as well.

A number of open houses will be offered by each of the lodges over the next year and is aimed at answering questions potential new members may have. It also will give people a chance to take a tour of the building. If nothing else, it will satisfy the curiosity of the public at large. They drive by the building every day and never knew what was in there. This will allow the Lodges to showcase their building.

The hope is to attract members and event rentals. Since some renovations started, event booking have been increasing. The ballroom just got repainted and the lobby is in the process of a makeover. In the last ten days, seven people have toured the building and all seven booked their events.

“We’re seeing a vast increase in the number of people who are interested in renting the building,” Chairman of the Temple Association said.

The ballroom will seat 350 people and the mezzanine will hold another 180. It is a popular location for wedding receptions. The auditorium or Temple room is a good place for the wedding ceremony. It has 320 permanent seats and room to add floor seating. The social room, which has couches, televisions and pool tables, is also available to be rented.

One big change that’s helping the Masonic Temple fill up the event calendar is that it now allows functions to have alcohol. It was a long-time rule that no alcohol was allowed in a Masonic Temple. But three years ago, the Tempe Association petitioned their Lodges to get that changed.

The resolution was made with a trial period to get it passed. So far there’s never been an incident.

As of last year, the alcohol ban was lifted, and the future of the this Temple Association and it’s building looks promising.

Now that a plan is in place, it’s sure to succeed. The Freemasons will be here for many years to come.

The Masons are planning to have a grand re-opening ball in June 2010, similar to the original grand opening ball that was held when the building corner stone was laid.

Some rituals are well guarded, revealed only to those who have accomplished prescribed measures of enlightenment.

“We have to keep some things secret because otherwise it will diminish the effect on the candidate,” said Michael Molloy, who as a 33rd degree Master Mason is one of a small band of highly revered brothers at the top of the scale.

“It’s all a surprise. The ceremony is a way of enlightening and teaching the candidate by using ancient ritual and symbolisms of history. We try not to ruin it for them by letting them know what will happen in advance.”

In addition to camaraderie and ritual, Masonic lodges also are involved in many charitable deeds. Euclid Lodge 65 sponsors the local Scholastic Bowl, takes part in Habitat for Humanity projects and Naperville’s Labor Day parade.

In our jurisdiction, any man over 18 can join the Masons. (Some lodges have groups for women as well). The lodge has about 180 members. The youngest is 21-year-old Adam Daeschlein from Wheaton, who has a special reason for being part of the fraternity.

“When I was 13, my father passed away,” he said. “I wanted to surround myself with older and well-respected men. (My father) was a history teacher, and he would have been really proud of me. It’s given me a nice place to socialize and feel comfortable.”

Tim Ory, the lodge’s historian, has been a member for 15 years.

“I started compiling information so we wouldn’t forget the men who had gone before us,” he said. “It went from curiosity to almost an obsession.”

The history of Euclid Lodge 65 shows it was begun in 1848 by Joe Naper and some of the town’s other founding fathers, such as James Wright and Lewis Ellsworth. The Masons had a presence in Naperville ever since, with their current building constructed in 1916.

And they don’t shrink from the light that Brown’s book casts upon them — although they stress it is fiction.

“I think Brown’s latest book is extremely positive,” Ory said. “It’s accurate and debunks a lot of myths.”

All the information about passwords and handshakes, he noted, is on the Internet.

“But they aren’t the true secrets. You can’t think about them as a tangible thing,” Ory added. “We are always in the process of seeking enlightenment. The knowledge is what I consider to be the secret.”

Members of Albert Edward Lodge, at Greenhead, are posting parcels of goodies to servicemen posted in Afghanistan where morale has taken a battering after Tuesday’s atrocity which left five British soldiers dead.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of five the British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman.

The servicemen – three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police – died when the Afghan police officer turned his gun on them at a checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province on Tuesday.

Another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the shooting, which sent shock-waves through the coalition mission in Afghanistan.

The masons’ gift packages, which contain everything from sweets to cosmetics to books, are sent in masonic Buddy Boxes, which have been co-ordinated by the British Ministry of Defence.

What a great Idea!! Hopefully many other lodges across Canada & the US will consider similar programs.

For the past 11 years, anyone applying to be a judge or a magistrate for the first time had to declare on an application form whether they belong to the Freemasonry.

But Jack Straw, the justice secretary, said that as a review had shown no evidence of impropriety or malpractice as a result of a judge being a Freemason it would be “disproportionate” to continue with the practice, introduced in 1998.

There were “existing safeguards that help support the proper performance of judicial functions”, including the judicial oath and an official complaints procedure, Straw said.

The United Grand Lodge of England made representations to ministers in May and indicated it may seek judicial review of the policy. This followed two cases at the European court of human rights where Italian Freemasons successfully argued it was discriminatory to be asked to declare membership of a non-secret society.

The Ministry of Justice said all levels of the judiciary were affected by the decision, but not coroners, who are appointed by local authorities.

Chris Connop, the United Grand Lodge’s information officer and a magistrate for 17 years, said: “We are delighted at the decision. We have been feeling very miffed about this for a very long time.

“Even when the rule was introduced in 1998 after a report by the home affairs select committee, we were told there was no evidence of any impropriety on the part of judges who were members, but merely that there was a perception that it could be a problem, which is ridiculous.”

Connop said he hoped the Home Office would now change the rules which currently require potential police officers and anyone working for the probation or prison service to declare whether they are Freemasons.

The Freemasonry is “blatantly” not a secret society, said Connop, adding that members were forbidden to use Freemasonry for financial gain.

“We never objected to declaration, but we objected to being singled out. Where do you think most business deals take place? On the golf course. So shouldn’t people have to declare which golf course they are members of?” he added.

There are more than 330,000 Freemasons in England and Wales, and an estimated 6 million in the world.

Source: Guardian UK

There are some religious faiths which have an aversion to depicting the Supreme Being in any physical form whatsoever. For such individuals the Letter ‘G’ simply cannot stand for the God of their faith. Yet as the birth of modern Freemasonry is generally considered to have taken place on June, 24th, 1717 in the back of a Tavern in London. Considering the Freemasons who met on that date were probably of Christian faith and spoke English, “G” for God seems right.

Scottish Freemasonry does not impose the meaning of symbols (which would smack of dogma) on members, each individual is free to interpret them according to their own views.

Some take the Letter ‘G’ to represent GOODNESS, the essential goodness of Freemasonry and of humankind. Others argue that the letter ‘G’ stands for GEOMETRY the basis of the operative craft that gave birth to modern Freemasonry.

There is one Scottish Rosslyn Templar who argues vociferously that the Letter ‘G’ indicates GREEGRIMENT, an old Scots word meaning harmony or concord. There are other interpretations but these are, as far as we are aware, the three main ones, four if one includes the latter opinion. There are some countries, notably England, that no longer use the Letter ‘G’

So .. How do you interpret the “G” within the S&C? Lets hear your comments.

His ceremonial dress includes white gloves and tie, black tails and the Masonic all-seeing deity’s eye in a pyramid, hung from his auspicious gold chain.

He heads a fraternal order that traces its origins at least as far back as the 14th-century English stone Masons and adopts their symbols and religious pillars.

He is Ontario Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of Canada, and he looks like he just stepped out of a storybook.

He acknowledges the Masons — so besotted by mystical symbolism, rituals, secrecy and confidential handshakes — represent an “anachronism.”

And he’s proud of that. Their old-fashioned ways will help ensure their survival, he said in an interview Saturday during a trip to Owen Sound.

Even fiction writer Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol, which presents an action-packed and exaggerated peek behind the doors of the Masonic temple, should help too, Daniels said.

The married, retired Kitchener high school history and music teacher and trained classical musician said what goes on behind lodge doors stays there, to be sure.

But he thinks Masonry will survive not because of its mystic trappings, though they’re important, but because Masonic teachings build character, he said.

There have been serious membership declines over the past 40 years and the Masons are trying to adapt to the times without changing fundamentally.

They’re on the web, at www.grandlodge.on.ca, they’re doing more media interviews to tout what they have to offer and they use teleconferencing.

There are now Masonic demonstration sites at Black Creek Pioneer Museum, Fanshawe Pioneer Museum and at Upper Canada Village and there will be a centre of Masonic studies at Brock University, Daniels said.

Annually about 1,300 men join Masonic temples across Ontario. Five new members joined North Star Lodge last year. There are more than 50,000 Masons at more than 570 lodges province-wide.

But more than 5,000 men per year poured into Masonic lodges annually between 1946 and the 1960s, Daniels said.

Then they wanted to recapture the camaraderie and male bonding of the war years, Daniels said.

Membership in the Masonic fraternal order also used to signify attachment to an influential social and political force.

The last Canadian prime minister who was a Mason was John Diefenbaker and the last such U.S. president was Gerald Ford.

Friday night, Daniels attended a pub night at the Owen Sound Legion, then a lodge meeting Saturday afternoon and a dinner that night to celebrate the city’s 135-year-old North Star Lodge.

It is the slightly younger brother of Owen Sound’s St. George’s Lodge, which is more than 150 years old.

Today, new members are looking for order in a chaotic world, Daniels said.

Some new members “have been disappointed in their business career,” or “somebody’s let them down somewhere,” he said. “This is what they’re telling me.”

“The world is not providing much stability. It’s not providing much continuity. It’s not providing . . . the same role models that I grew up with,” Daniels said.

“Business, industry, even the church — not always providing the ideal role model that we used to have.”

Through self-education by earning ascending Masonic degrees and support from fellow Masonic “brothers,” Masons build better members of society, Daniels said.

“If we are an island in a sea of chaos . . . maybe that’s the role of a fraternity like this. Where a man can find stability,” Daniels said.

“We believe that when I give you my word, that’s my bond. We believe that a handshake is sincere,” he said.

“Yeah, we are an anachronism in so many ways. But we’re damn proud of it.”

The Sune Times
Scott Dunn

Each year since, membership has declined, in line with those of other service organizations. The current membership? 1.4 million.

Now, though, the group’s leaders are hoping that the publication of novelist Dan Brown’s latest thriller, “The Last Symbol,” whose plot is tied to Masons, will revive interest in the group. This past Saturday, most of the 129 Masonic lodges across New Jersey held open houses to answer questions from aspiring members.

Word that Brown would feature Masons in his newest novel did not initially please some Masons. After all, the author is still viewed as villainous in many Catholic circles for sinister portrayals in “The Da Vinci Code” in 2003 of the lay Catholic group Opus Dei, another group that, like Masons, has long been viewed as overly secretive. (It didn’t help that “The Da Vinci Code’s” premise claimed Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had descendants.)

After reading reviews of “The Lost Symbol,” however, Masons seem more likely to hold a “Dan Brown Appreciation Day” than to bad-mouth him. Treatment of Masons in the new novel, released last month, is generally positive.

“From what I’ve read, it’s not that critical of Masons, it’s just a couple of rogue Masons going against the code of what we believe in,” said Mike Rems, secretary of the Jersey City Masonic Lodge. “Dan Brown actually respects the Masons.”

Historians disagree on the Masons’ origins. Many believe the first ones were in organized groups of medieval stonemasons. After 1717, when the first Grand Lodge of England was founded, the group became easier to trace. Through the three ensuing centuries, it has been an international fraternal and service organization requiring members to believe in a supreme being, irrespective of which religion, if any, they claim.

Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty ImagesA bust of George Washington, the First US President and a Free Mason, sits on a granite pedestal in the gardens 21 November, 2007 at the Free Masons Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia in the North West section of Washington, DC. A sequel to the blockbuster thriller “The Da Vinci Code” by US novelist Dan Brown is set to lift the veil on mysterious Freemason symbols carved into the fabric of the historic streets and buildings of the US capital. AFP PHOTO/TIM SLOAN (Photo credit should read TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)“The Lost Symbol” involves the leading figure in Brown’s previous books, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, trying to save his mentor, a prominent Mason, in a code-ridden adventure set in Washington D.C.

Like Opus Dei, the Masons have been subject to conspiracy theories long before Brown used them as plot fodder. And both groups saw the need to react to publicity from the respective books.

“Dan Brown’s treatment of Freemasonry is overwhelmingly positive in The Lost Symbol, but he does engage in some dramatic license for the sake of his plot,” group leaders wrote on a new website, freemasonlostsymbol.com, set up for he occasion by The Masonic Society, The Masonic Service Association of North America, and the George Washington Masonic Memorial.

By Jeff Diamant/The Star-Ledger