A Future Worthy of Our Grand Lodge

Akram R. Elias ,

DGM

In 1811, the Society of Freemasons organized its presThe external mission consists of engaging one’s surence in the capital of the United States by establishing roundings and environment outside the Lodge in order our Grand Lodge. In as little as four years from now, to help build a better humanity. Community outreach, precisely in 2011, we the Freemasons of today will face true charity, and civic involvement are essential ingredian impressive milestone – the bicentennial of the Grand ents to making a difference in the world in which we live. Lodge of Free And Accepted Masons of Washington, DC! What does a bicentennial mean? What implicaOur Internal Mission: The Lodge tions does it have on us today? What future will it bring? Let us compare the Lodge to a three legged stool –Much was accomplished over the past two hundred remove one leg, and the stool falls; have one shorter years. In spite of difficulties at than the other two, and the stool is times, our Grand Lodge has had its moments of glory. It is there“While being the unstable. Indeed, the Lodge is supported by three pillars –fore our duty to preserve that rich Beauty, Strength and Wisdom. legacy and to carefully build on it. custodians of our Grand Beauty An essential part of our bicentenThe source of beauty in a Lodge is nial, therefore, will be to celebrate Lodge’s past, we are our Sacred Art – the Ritual. The that history and share it with the delivery and assimilation of the ritgeneral public as much as possible. But there is another part to also the architects of its ual are the two factors that determine the degree of beauty the bicentennial which must focus on our vision of the future of our future.” within a Lodge. How does a Lodge perform its ritual? What Grand Lodge. While being the decorum does it have? What custodians of our Grand Lodge’s ambiance has it created? What Masonic education propast, we are also the architects of its future. What will grams has it instituted to assist the initiates in digging Masonic historians write about our generation fifty years deeper into the meaning of the ritual? What mentoring from now? How will history judge our actions of today? practices are in place? It is by answering these quesTo help us answer these questions, we must do some tions first, determining what needs to be done next, and introspective work, reflect on our strengths and weakenacting concrete measures that meet those needs, nesses, and develop a vision worthy of this Grand that we become better prepared to embrace our bicenLodge. tennial.

Who Are We?

Let us first and foremost establish who we are. We are Free Builders – Free to think, dream and plan of building better men and a better humanity. In other words, we have a dual mission – internal and external. The internal mission consists of having each initiate in our Society develop the knowledge and skills that enable him to build his temple within in order to become a better man. This is done within the confines of the Lodge and with the assistance of fellow Freemasons. The Lodge’s beauty, strength and wise actions are therefore essential to the initiate’s temple building efforts. Strength

The Lodge’s strength lies in the degree of its professional management. How effective are the Lodge’s meetings? How efficient is the Lodge’s internal communication system? What opportunities for fellowship and bonding does the Lodge have in place? What is the level of engagement by the members of the Lodge? What about the esprit de corps among the officers of the Lodge? How well are the assets of the Lodge managed? Is the Lodge meeting its obligations to “relief” and the assistance of widows and orphans? It is by answering questions like these and adopting a blueprint

for professional management and leadership that we guarantee a degree of strength worthy of our celebration.

Wisdom

The degree of wisdom depends most heavily on the quality of the Lodge’s leadership and its ability to make decisions today that contribute to the long term building prospects of the Lodge. What long term building plans are on the Lodge’s trestle board? Is every Master simply doing his own thing or is he building one important section of a larger structure that has the long term commitment of the Lodge? What about the long term financial security and prosperity of the Lodge? Is the dues structure adequate? Will the Lodge be in a position, fifty years from now, to meet its “relief” obligations? It is by planning for the future and building consensus along the way that a Lodge displays wisdom in its actions. Are we ready to take on our bicentennial?

Our External Mission: The Community

Being in the nation’s capital, our Grand Lodge is uniquely positioned to encourage Freemasons to engage at three different levels – locally, nationally, and globally.

Local Mission

Our first and most important commitment is to our local community of Washington, DC. Almost all of our Lodges are engaged in some form of community service and/or charity. The key question that we must ask ourselves is, “can we do more, greater, and better?” To help us meet the challenge of our bicentennial, we need to answer the following questions and adopt actions that will take us where we need to be:

- What strategy does the Lodge have in place to reach out to the residents of Washington, DC that can have an impact on its membership? - Does the Lodge have a “public affairs” plan that can help it answer questions by the general public about Freemasonry in general and the Lodge in particular? - What coordinated long term effort has the Lodge put in place to impact on education in the city? – [Since supporting public education is one of the most important duties of a Freemason.] - Are city government and civic leaders aware of the Lodge’s contributions to the community? National Mission

Our location in the nation’s capital enables us to contribute in a limited yet important way to the growth, development and richness of our Society across the United States. What can we possibly do? - Washington DC is visited annually by more than 15 million Americans attending professional conferences, touring cultural sites and enjoying the beautiful offerings and surroundings of our city. Are there types of activities that we can engage in or things that we can do that “expose” these visitors to Freemasonry? - Can we think of initiatives similar to the “Initiated Eye” paintings exhibit that can contribute to this effort? [The exhibit is currently on tour across the country.] - Can we bring more exposure to the Congress of the United States and our national leaders? MWB Stewart Miner, our Grand Secretary Emeritus, traces the lack of focus by our national leaders on Freemasonry to the day when the Conference of Grand Masters of North America stopped holding its annual February meeting in Washington DC. Should we endeavor to convince the Conference of Grand Masters to meet here every four years, especially during general election years (2012, 2016, etc. – too late for 2008) at which national leaders and even Presidential candidates can make an appearance and speak?

In other words, should we renew our national commitment to Freemasonry and take the necessary actions by 2011 in order to re-position our Grand Lodge to play that role?

Global Mission

As the capital of the United States of America, Washington DC is also a center of international relations, economic, political, and civic matters. Our Grand Lodge is therefore uniquely positioned in our country to offer Freemasons an opportunity to engage at the global level in ways that can truly make a difference in the world. Imagine the goodwill that can be generated by Freemasons working together across the oceans on building bridges of mutual understanding and establishing exchanges that contribute to better relations among the peoples of the world!

What about the Grand Lodge?

The emphasis of everything so far has been primarily on the Lodges and what they can do to enable us to

meet our bicentennial challenge. The reason is simple. Legislation and Governance Lodges make Masons and Lodges provide the environThe Grand Lodge plans to hold regular meetings with ment for the nurturing, growth and development of its the Masters and Wardens of the constituent Lodges to members. Grand Lodges do not! The strength and discuss potential challenges and opportunities. The effectiveness of a Grand Lodge depends most heavily focus of these meetings will be on building consensus, on the strength and effectiveness of its constituent identifying practical solutions, and developing recomLodges. What then is the role of the Grand Lodge in all mendations for policy legislation that could be of this? introduced at our Grand Lodge Communications. We experts in the various Lodges, not on conferring one of the three Degrees. have a duty and an obligation to think through important Capacity Building policy issues and draft the necesThe first and foremost obligation “Imagine the goodwill sary legislation that will help us and duty of a Grand Lodge is to keep moving forward and assist its member Lodges in their “capacity building” efforts. In that can be generated by achieve greater heights. other words, the Grand Lodge Strategic Partnerships should institute developmental Freemasons working The Grand Lodge will endeavor programs and training workshops that build the capabilities of together across the oceans to build relationships with our local community that will Lodge officers and empower strengthen the Lodges’ outreach them to carry out their Lodges’ on building bridges of efforts and enable them to better internal mission more effectively. interact with various sectors of To that end, the Grand Lodge plans to organize the following: mutual understanding and our community. - Training workshops for Lodge office holders on December 15, establishing exchanges Lodge has already started a dialogue with city government 2007, to provide management training, useful tools and techthat contribute to better officials to identify ways through which our commitment to supniques early in the process before the holiday season. relations among the peoples porting public education in our city can be better fulfilled. - The Grand Lodge School plans to go to each Lodge and of the world.” - We are also exploring ways to effectively partner with local assist a Lodge’s officer corps in universities to provide interns on the performance of their work, on their home turf, where a regular basis that can help our Grand Lodge expand they can all be together as a team and work closely with its services to our Lodges and in the process, expose one another. more young people to our Fraternity. - Instruction seminars will be held for those who wish - The Grand Lodge is also in the process of identifyto become proficient in degree conferrals and lecture ing opportunities for Freemasons to volunteer such that renditions. Members of the Work and Lectures Committhey can have an impact on their community and the tee will focus their energies on graduating new ritual Lodge’s membership. Degrees on behalf of Lodges. National and Global Outreach - Masonic education seminars will be offered to the The Grand Lodge plans a number of activities membership at large, and more especially to new memaimed at raising the profile of Freemasonry bers, on the esoteric and symbolic significance of each nationally and globally. - For example, the Grand

- The Grand Lodge will host the 9th World Conference bring greater visibility to Freemasonry and increase our of Masonic Grand Lodges in Washington DC on May 7 footprint in this city. – 10, 2008. For the first time ever, the leaders of Freemasonry from all over the Unites States, Canada, Destiny at our Doorstep Mexico, Central and South America, Our Grand Lodge finds itself Europe, Africa and Asia will meet in today at a major crossroads –our nation’s capital under the theme of “Universal Fraternity in Action” to dis“The increased public with opportunity knocking like we have not seen in decades. cuss ways and means for Freemasons to work together and make a differinterest in Freemasonry is The increased public interest in Freemasonry is a blessing ence in this world. Exciting activities that comes with challenges are planned for that conference, including special tours of the Capitol a blessing that comes with that if not met can wither away. “Fortuna” is on our and White House and a wreath laying ceremony at the World War II Memochallenges that if not met side, but we must rise to the challenge and meet our desrial. A special reception, hosted by members of the Congress, will be held can wither away.” tiny face on. We must ready ourselves, our Lodges and on the Hill in honor of the leaders of our Grand Lodge for the next Freemasonry. two hundred years. Freema- The Grand Lodge is currently in the process of identifying opportunities for cornerstone laying that may sonry is a serious Society that has a very serious mission. We need serious leaders to construct a beautiful, strong, wise and lasting edifice.

Looking Ahead to the Annual Communication continued from page 5

b) To properly identify those with voting privileges in

Grand Lodge c) To eliminate the need for roll call votes in Grand

Lodge d) To generally reduce time spent and increase efficiency and accuracy in the process of our deliberations and voting

To achieve this aim, the Grand Secretary’s office, prior to the meeting, will prepare a record for each lodge, indicating its Master and Wardens and their proxies, and a list of their living Past Masters. A list of the elected officers of the Grand Lodge, Past Grand Masters and Past Officers, who have a vote in Grand Lodge, will also be prepared.

A registration table, manned by the members of the Credentials Committee, will be set up and, before entering the meeting, each brother will sign in if he is entitled to vote. This will replace the present card system. A brother so registered will be given a card which is distinctive in size or color. At the same time, he will be presented with a ballot as it is presently used in Grand Lodge.

During the meeting, when a vote on a motion is called for, those entitled to vote will hold up the card given to them for this purpose. For election, the ballots can be received at any time during the day by placing them in available receptacles set up for the purpose. Promptly at 2:00 p.m. the Grand Master will call for the ballots to be removed from the Lodge room and the results of the election tallied and report back to Grand Lodge. In the event of an additional ballot being required, blank papers shall be made available and then picked up by appointed tellers from all those holding up their cards.

This is an organized and easily workable system that will help save time and increase efficiency and accuracy. There may well be a need for adjustments and some fine tuning this system, as we go along, before it is perfected. But here, like in most other areas of our activities, we rely on our brethren for cooperation and assistance through timely, positive and constructive advice.