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Finding new paths toward Masonic revival
Willpower, alternative approaches could ensure the future of lodges
Beth Grace, Editor, North Carolina Mason magazine
It’s not easy being a Freemason in North Carolina these “It’s OK to close if you need to, but make sure you’re
days. Ƥ Ǥdz
For example, try meeting fewer times a year and make
The chatter is everywhere: membership is down, lodges ǡ Ǥ
are merging or closing, brethren are aging out, and new mission. Be an observant lodge.
ƪ
Ǥ
One lodge – Royal White Hart #2 in Halifax – changed
That sounds like bad news. But depending on how you Ƥ
crunch the numbers and your view of what will fuel the threatened the future of the historic lodge located just
ǡ ơ yards away from Joseph Montfort’s burial site.
interpretation.
First, some numbers. In the last 12 months, 10 lodges about 20 Masons who joined the lodge last year to
have merged or surrendered charters (one charter ensure it would live on. None of the new members live
ȌǤ ǯ ͛
in Halifax, but all of them care about preserving such a
Ǥ ǡ ͛͞͝ ǡ major site in Masonic history.
Ǥ ǡ
two new lodges have sought dispensation or opened in “Royal White Hart retooled how and when they met,
that time. and who its constituents are,” he said. “They are
reinventing who they are.”
The number of brethren is dropping, as it has for many
years. North Carolina logged its highest number of Some lodges in the course of life run out of steam.
͙͚͘͡Ǥ Ƥ
Ƥ ǯ
World War I, dropped again during the great Depression get along as well, or don’t do things they all enjoy. In
and bumped upward post World War II. some cases, MW Thompson said, those lodges are right
to close.
The number of lodges in North Carolina has remained
relatively constant since the 1980s, while the number “The ultimate goal of any lodge is to be close to one
of Freemasons last peaked in the 1980s and has never another and enjoy being in each other’s company and
rebounded. The current membership in North Carolina – doing the things that they do. We don’t talk about lodge
͛͜ǡ͘͘͘ Ȃ culture all that often, but maybe we should – sometimes
memberships recorded in the post WWI era. lodge culture just changes over time. Too many lodges
stick together because they have a charter. But they’re
ǡ Ǥ not friends anymore.”
Jr., the numbers tell a bigger story.
Dz ƪ Some suggest that capping membership in lodges is
things,” he said in a recent interview. “And I think, with
Ǥ ǡ
ơ
ǡ ǯ ͙͘ǡ͘͘͘
Ƥ Ǥdz 2021. The culture there is to limit lodge numbers to a
Dz ơ size that supports close friendships and fellowship.
going anywhere but forward,” he said.
Newer observant lodges are capping membership at
That said, it’s a sad day when a lodge closes or merges. 50, as a way to make lodge meetings more collegial and
Inevitably, some brothers won’t attend the new lodge transformative.
ơ Ǥ
lost to the Masonry they once loved. Entering such a lodge, MW Thompson says, “you
Ǥ
“It’s a hard thing,” MW Thompson said. “Some lodges
Ǥ ǯ
ƪ
Ǥdz
just get to the point where membership is down, or
brothers are simply not coming to lodge, and they don’t A lodge shouldn’t be a social club or just another man
know what to do next. They may not know that it’s OK to cave, they say.
ơ Ǥ
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