A Letter to My Brother

To my close and fraternal brother, how are you? It has been a very long time since we have enjoyed your company across the dinner table or in lodge. I hope all is well, I know you are very busy with your work and all of your various professional and masonic commitments. Since it’s been so long, I wanted to take a brief moment and let you know how your mother lodge is faring of late. 

I’m afraid the current situation here is not very good. In fact, I would say the state of affairs in and about our lodge might accurately be described as quite grim. If you were to look just at our numbers you might say we appear quite healthy, but numbers alone can be quite deceiving. Yes, it’s true, we initiate five or six new masons every year, but sadly we only raise two or three. And yes, it is also true that our membership shows well over one hundred living members, but in reality, fewer than twenty of our brothers attend lodge on a regular basis. One might be forgiven for wondering where all of our living brothers are and how many of them might be available and physically able to attend lodge but simply do not?

You might remember several years ago during your year in the East when every officer chair was full and our meetings had twenty or twenty-five brothers filling the seating along the sides; but it saddens me to tell you today that we no longer fill every officer seat at every meeting and we don’t even fill them at election time. In fact, on election night we are normally only able fill as far down as the Deacons’ chairs (and sometimes those just barely); it’s been years since we’ve seated a Steward, and I can’t remember when we last filled the Marshal or Master of Ceremonies chairs. On meeting nights, we do manage to fill the chairs of most of our elected and appointed officers, but we only see eight to ten brothers on the sides; it’s just not the same as you probably remember.

If you were to visit today you would find a few brothers hanging around in the dining room, passing time, shooting the breeze, and a few others perhaps working on their memory work with their instructors. But when we walk together into the lodge room, I think you might be surprised to find that there is an entire generation – possibly two – that is completely missing. Our Senior Warden was raised four years ago and our Junior Warden just two years ago. We were fortunate this year to initiate, pass, and raise a new brother with years of clerical experience from his job and he cheerfully stepped in to fill our vacant Secretary’s position and we are about to observe his one-year masonic birthday at our next Stated Meeting.

While we struggle now every year to fill out our elective line, our Past Masters that still attend are occupied fully with conferring degrees and instructing candidates. They’ve all been through the chairs at least two times – and one or two of them three times – and have no desire to return to the East; these lodge elders are hard at work trying their best to prepare our next generation of brothers. Our lodge has very few mentors to act as the models for our new masons and who can share important lessons on how to manage and run the lodge or how to apply masonry in one’s life. It is somewhat ironic that our most active and experienced brothers also spend valuable personal time traveling to other local lodges to help their brothers confer degrees and some have even affiliated with them in order to help them fill out their officer lines. It saddens me a little when I tell you our lodge is not unique in any regard in this need for experienced brothers and role models.

Some of our key positions, like Secretary and Treasurer, change every year or every other year and the duties are inevitably handed to a new brother that has never held an elective or appointive position; there is little if any continuity and therefore virtually no one who can spot problems or dangerous trends in our lodge data and records. Indeed, it is only the Past Masters and a few of our oldest active members who have read our lodge bylaws or even know the process to change them.

I am also sorry to tell you that many of our favorite lodge traditions are becoming unsustainable. We no longer draw enough volunteers from among the members to organize and run our regular programs and they will likely become unviable very soon.  There are now only a few members that still turn out to provide their time and the necessary labor and to help make our social events and fundraisers successful, there are no functioning committees, and very few of our new members seem committed to the lodge or interested in serving in a chair in the line. Without a strong cadre of active members and Past Masters to lead the way and excite our new generation, I am afraid our most treasured memories and traditions will soon fall by the wayside. My brother, the lodge today is very different than it was when you last attended.

So, how are you doing my friend? I hope life is good for you, I know it’s hectic. I have always admired your search for additional light, your personal “treasure hunt” for knowledge. I know how much you enjoy your labors in the York and Scottish Rites, and I also understand that the important work of you and our many Shrine brothers is indispensable in improving the lives of children and their families. You have enjoyed a rich masonic journey with each organization adding their particular squared and polished ashlars to your personal edifice and I trust that your quest for masonic fellowship will continue to lead you to further light.

Your journey could serve as a valuable (or even priceless) model for this next generation of brothers who are searching; they are in the very early years of their travels, and they aren’t yet sure what it is that they might be seeking. It is a shame these fine men who are thirsty for knowledge and role models don’t have more access to you, your experiences, and all of the new and intriguing experiences you have gained through your masonic travels.

Brothers such as yourself have found and now carry so much light, light that might be shared with a new generation of masons seeking inspiration and direction in their own lives and young masonic journeys, but how will you share this priceless treasure? How will you spread that light? How can you serve as that beacon in the darkness for our brothers if all of your time and attention is consumed outside of our lodge? It is quite a dilemma indeed and I do not claim to know the answer.

My brother, I would never presume to estimate the length of your cable tow or to judge your masonic journey because I cannot possibly know your personal struggles and concerns. We are each responsible for our own choices and, indeed, I would likewise be somewhat offended if a brother offered an uninformed judgement of my decisions or on the purpose and quality of my own personal masonic journey; instead, I would ask you simply this, please share your zeal! Your lodge and our next generation of masons need you and they need access to all the knowledge and life experience you’ve gained from your masonic journey! The load for those laboring in lodge will soon be too heavy to bear and we need help; our active and experienced brothers need a rest, and they need the “missing generation” to step in and step up where they can. We need role models and mentors with ideas and experiences if we are to have any hope of leading the lodge – your lodge – into the future with well-informed, well-instructed, and well-practiced brothers!

My brother, your mother lodge is calling, will you answer?  

**

NOTE FROM AMJ: The thoughts expressed in this fictional letter do NOT refer to any one particular lodge; rather, it describes a composite of many lodges that are experiencing troubling times and worrisome challenges.