Are We There Yet?: Making Our Way Back to The Lodge

ARE WE THERE YET?

MAKING OUR WAY BACK TO THE LODGE

Andrew U. Hammer, Deputy Grand Lecturer and Grand Historian

WB Andrew U. Hammer

As our Lodges have returned to labor, it would be easy for any brother to take a quick look across our grand jurisdiction and determine that after all of the disruption brought by COVID, we are finally back to “normal”, whatever that may now mean.

Yet we all continue to cope with the ongoing effects of a global pandemic, amidst concerns over new variants of the virus, and worries as to whether our vaccines (which hopefully, we have all received by now) will continue to keep ourselves and our loved ones away from danger. The Omicron variant has proven to be less dangerous for the fully vaccinated, but so virulent that the Grand Master has now allowed the Masters of our Lodges to invoke Section 2005.09 of the Masonic Code, allowing them to call off stated or called communications if the situation should become more concerning in the days ahead (Decision No. 2022-2). Our responsibility to be responsible is no less than what it was a year ago. We remain on guard. Nevertheless, we are moving forward.

Thankfully, we are meeting together. Increasingly, we are eating together. And all the while, we are masked, sanitized, and joyfully doing that work we love again, despite the limitations. The opening words of Thaddeus Mason Harris’ Charge at the Opening of a Lodge, written in 1795, could not seem more timely to us today:

“Brethren, I behold you again assembling together, with those complacent emotions of affection which animate the meeting of dearest friends who have been for some time separated. After this interval you must have acquired an increased relish for the interesting exercises of this retreat; and you undoubtedly return with new alacrity to your labors of love.”

But are we there yet?

Masonic Lodges, particularly larger ones with over 100 members, are well acquainted with the generations-old issue of only about 10 - 15% of their members being present for meetings, and even less of that number being what one might call active members. Masonry has never escaped these kinds of concerns. Coming back from COVID to find that the same brothers we never saw before are not there now is nothing that really worries us. We are always grateful for their financial fealty to the Lodge, but we don’t expect to see them, so we don’t really miss them.

What some of us are noticing now, however, is a different kind of absence from the Lodge. Brothers we do expect to be with us, brothers who were fully engaged until the pandemic, have not yet made their way back to the Lodge. Some of us need no reminder of why this may be. But those of us whose lives were lucky enough to not be directly affected by the virus, should be aware that the unseen consequences of this virus— even on those who have never contracted it— are insidious; they have ripped chasms in the lives of many Masons who are still struggling to find a way to reconnect with the things they enjoyed before.

Freemasonry talks to us of faith; of an all-seeing eye; an omnipotent being. The normally remote contemplation of theodicy, which one might previously have reserved for plane crashes and earthquakes, has now become foremost in the minds of brothers we know and love, and they may find it hard to celebrate the praises of Deity that we so revere in our temples. They are not there yet.

The psychological impact of isolation for some, and the sad or sudden realization of an incompatible relationship for others, have produced wounds to the soul that do not heal as easily as we would like. So while we do our best to resume our Masonic lives, in some places the quarries are missing some of our best master craftsmen.

It is at times like these that the Craft, if we let it, and if we remember its teachings, can seek remedies to the matter. We are fortunate that the Apprentice is taught, minutes after his initiation is sealed, the obligation to relieve the distressed. Four times in this one section of the lecture, it is emphasized that we have a duty to tend to the mental-emotional health of our brethren. Saying that, however, is not as easy as doing it. Some brothers may be unresponsive, seeming to have switched the world off. Reaching out to them with a firm grip is what we want to do; in reality, one must find the line between being seen to be a pest, and letting that brother know that you will not give up on him. Even if he is not “present”, some form of communication, be it text, e-mail, or an old-fashioned card in the mail will likely be appreciated, even if it is not acknowledged. He knows you’re there, and he sees that you care.

With that, it’s important to say that your communication should not be only focused on the Lodge, and when he is coming back to it. Even with the best of intentions, that approach can appear no different from a fund appeal, which does not see the brother, but only what you want from him. Let sincerity guide you, and always consider how you would want to be approached if you were in his situation.

There has never been a better time to practice the principal tenets of our order. Because although our distressed brother may not see the need for Masonry in his life at the moment, it is only through Masonry that he will be able to make his eventual return.

Looking at the Craft as a whole, in the months ahead it will be interesting to see what, if any aspects of life during the pandemic linger with us into the future. One thought comes to mind in relation to those ceremonies that take place at or after the conclusion of some Lodges, sometimes called a “chain of union”, and at other times just known as “meeting on the level”. We know that the custom was for the brethren to physically join hands, and come together in a circle, for some form of closing charge. In recent years, a number of Lodges have brought this custom back with great enthusiasm in their assemblies, noting that the custom of joining hands (and often the tips of shoes) had fallen out of practice for no apparent reason, giving way to a loose assembly standing together on the floor of the Lodge. If Masons were doing it, and then just stopped doing it, it’s unlikely that we would have offered ourselves an explanation.

And then, in June of this year, after we were finally able to meet in person again, there it was: those Lodges that use that ceremony were halted at the notion of joining hands. The mind instantly went back to the influenza pandemic of 1918, and pondered if that might have been what caused the change in that practice. If that actually did have an effect, then today we are able to understand why, and remember to return to that practice again when brothers are comfortable.

Another unanswered question about the future relates to the content of Lodge meetings. For some Lodges, the Zoom experience opened up a world of Masonic education that had previously been all but completely ignored. The ability for Masons to access online meetings where essential teachings of the Craft were being discussed in ways they may never have experienced, has had the effect of opening the minds of many brothers to bringing those discussions and programs into their Lodges in real time. Absent the ability to do much of anything else in a Zoom meeting but talk about Freemasonry, Masons talked about Masonry.

Such online meetings afforded the opportunity for what some perceived as a freedom to talk about Freemasonry without feeling restrained by what some might call “institutional inhibitions.” Released from the formal protocol of a Lodge room, brothers felt able to ask each other foundational questions, in a way they might never thought to do in a tyled Lodge. That atmosphere then brought about a sense of inquiry that likely evoked the early days of the Craft, when fundamental principles were still being established, and decisions being made in the present about how we do what we do, and why.

However, there is both promise and peril in the relaxed atmosphere of online Masonic gatherings.

On the one hand, discussions that address the great whys of our fraternity are essential. We cannot dismiss them, and new brothers—living in an age that is as cynical as it is instant—will demand answers which, if we cannot give them, will result in their losing interest in Masonry altogether. Adherence to organizations of all types is at an all time low worldwide. We ignore the big questions at our own risk. The promise comes in our confirming those big answers anew, not only for new brothers, but for ourselves.

On the other hand, Freemasonry is, and always has been, an institution of formality and order. Every man who joins knows that there are rules that must be followed, a decorum that must be preserved. The Constitutions are clear when it comes to the question of how we are to behave in our ideal environment, the Lodge, and the peril presents itself if we do not understand that those customs cannot be discarded simply to make things easier.

Masonry must be open to deeper, incisive dialogues about what makes us who we are and why that is important; yet it must also be much more than those dialogues alone. We maintain that the entire practice of the Craft, in the physical space that allows us to perform our rituals, is the true vehicle for the transformation that we believe takes place inside a man who is ready to become a Mason. All of us can conceive of flying a plane; we can imagine ourselves in the cockpit, contemplating the route we will take to our final destination. The only real way to get there, however, is by actually doing so, by learning to be a pilot, and putting in all the flight hours necessary to prove to ourselves and others that we have mastered the art.

Therefore, one can only hope that those interactions that so many brethren found to be meaningful are not easily forgotten when Masters of Lodges plan their programs in years to come. Good and wholesome instruction is exactly what the Master pledges to give to his brethren, and if we thought it was an interesting exercise on a screen, imagine how much more interesting it is when done in the body of the tyled Lodge. In fact, one of the most frequent observations made by brethren over the past year has been how they finally have come to understand the deeper value of the shared human experience, by way of being deprived of it. The ultimate indulgence of screens dominating every waking hour of our lives, has shown far more clearly than words of admonition could have done, how necessary real, live human interaction is. Now we only have to manifest that. We are on our way back. Some of us are there. We are waiting for the rest of you. And if it is possible to see anything good coming to the fraternity out of this ugly period, it will be a recalibration of our Craft in such a way that we practice the principal tenets of our order, remember the mystic tie that binds us together, and return the work of education and Masonic philosophy to our quarries.