Georgia speaks. Grand Master Jennings on the Georgia Affair.

I’ll save my thoughts for the end…

The Grand Lodge of Georgia of Free and Accepted Masons
J. Edward Jennings Jr. – Grand Master

August 19,2009

EDICT No. 2009-1

TO ALL CONSTITUTENT LODGES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GRAND
LODGE OF GEORGIA, FREE & ACCEPTED MASONS:

WHEREAS: Freemasonry has existed in Georgia since it founding in 1734 and is the oldest Fraternal organization in the State, and;

WHEREAS: Freemasonry is universal in scope, being a Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God, and;

WHEREAS: the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Free & Accepted Masons, holds membership in this worldwide Brotherhood, and;

WHEREAS: our Ancient and Honorable Fraternity welcomes to its doors and offers its privileges to men of all races, colors and national origins who believe in a Supreme Being, as stated in our Degrees and Lectures, and;

WHEREAS: no reference is made to exclude any petitioner with regard to race, color or national origin in any of the Rituals or Masonic Code authorized for use in the Constituent Lodges chartered by the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Free and Accepted
Masons, and;

WHEREAS: it is incumbent on all members of our Brotherhood to abide by the Rule’S, Regulations, Laws and Edicts of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Free and Accepted Masons;

THEREFOR BE IT RESOLVED:
That no negative reference be made by any officer or member of any lodge chartered under the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Free and Accepted Masons, in reference to a petitioner’s race, color or national origin, who believe in a Supreme Being, during any Lodge communication, conferral of degrees, proficiency practice o proficiency examination;

Further, be it resolved, that it is the responsibility of the Worshipful Master of each Lodge constituted under the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Free and Accepted Masons, to insure and enforce strict compliance with this EDICT, an, further, to have it read at the next two communications of the Lodge after receipt by the Lodge.

Any Lodge reported in violation of this Edict will be disciplined.

Given under my hand as Grand master of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, Free and Accepted Masons, this 19th day of August, 2009.

Signed:
J. Edward Jennings Jr.

Attested:
Donald I. DeKalb

The Resolution addresses the issue of the “incident” that took place in June about the charges brought against Gate City Lodge (see My Brothers Keeper) for their raising of  an African American to the degree of Master Mason and then allowing him to progress to an officer’s position.

Reading the above, it seems to say nothing of the charges brought, or their spurious nature, any past exclusion based on race, or impropriety of racial segregation.  Essentially, it is a safe way of saying that “we don’t promote any bias on race, religion, or color (never mind sexual orientation)” despite what people say.  Neither does it seem to suggest any acknowledgment of the bias that this edict was written to.

What do you think?  Is this enough?  Does this speak to an enlightened brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God? Is it enough, or should it say more?

The originals below.

edict2009-1_1

edict2009-1_2

UCLA and the California Grand Lodge to bring Freemasonry into academia.

Postdoctoral Fellowship. The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Masonic Grand Lodge of California are pleased to announce a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA from September 15, 2010 through June 15, 2011. The position is open to a recent Ph.D. with a strong interest in the history of civil society, fraternalism and Freemasonry.

This second postdoctoral fellow will teach one course in either American (North or South) or European history with emphasis on Freemasonry, designed in consultation with Prof. Margaret C. Jacob, Distinguished Professor of History, and work with a graduate student research assistant with an interest in any aspect of the field. A $50,000 stipend, office space for the nine-month period, and a modest relocation fee will be provided. The postdoctoral fellow must remain in residence while classes are in session.

Applicants should submit a CV and three letters of recommendation to Prof. Margaret C. Jacob by December 15, 2009. UCLA is an AA/EOE. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

Freemasonry is the world’s first and largest fraternal organization. The Masons of California have supported public education since 1850 and are proud to advance academic research and study in the field of Freemasonry and fraternalism.

 

Are We Killing Each Other Off?

Are we killing each other off? 

Are we so intent upon the proper form, the correct procedure, the purity of the Craft, the monopoly of the fraternity disallowing any competition, that we are turning possible members off and losing good candidates?

Here is an essay by a long time Brother we affectionately call Ole Blake.  He’s been around awhile.  Yet he obviously doesn’t have blinders on or wish to delve into Masonic politics.

RECOGNITION

If all Brethren are taught the essentials of Masonry, it matters not which Grand Lodges are recognized and which are not.  A Mason is admonished to treat all men with the respect due them no matter what the political, religious or race affiliation.

It is only when we try to enforce equality that there is a problem. Equality is a myth, for no men or women are created equal. No matter how great sounding the words there are always some differences in each of us. A man in no way could be equal to a woman because he cannot bear a child. Other differences are vast.

That does eliminate the fact that we should regard each other on the level as benefiting a Mason, and act upon the square in our dealings with each other, for we are all part of the human team. Each of us has a function and that function is neither greater nor lesser than another.  The internal engine will not run without a piston of some kind, or without a crankshaft or any other common parts.  Humans do not function as well as individuals as they do as a team.  We are all part of the human race.  Just because we don’t see eye to eye on everything does not create enemies.  It would be a boring world if we were all equal with all the same skills and abilities.

So if one Grand Lodge does not recognize another, so be it. That is possibly their loss.

Learning to be a Mason is the best medicine for differences, but just learning what appears on the surface is not enough.

We need to teach true brotherly love and charity and truth. That type of brotherly love does not see boundaries or differences it only sees the person who stands to help or needs help.

When we can learn that, and teach it to our fellow man, our world will be a utopia and life will be wonderful and satisfying. But as long as we argue differences and throw insults at those who do not share our views then we have lost one of the most important teaching of Masonry, that of toleration.

Each of us has a right to be of a different opinion and when we group together with others who share that belief it is not a wrong thing as long as we do not try to force that belief on everyone else who does not share the same brand of thinking. What is wrong is that we have not been teaching the lessons of toleration and respect for other viewpoints. We become selfish and think our way or no way.

A line of poetry an older brother gave me 30 years ago is as valid today as it was in first year of light, “If every man was a Mason, and every Mason walked his mile, there would be peace in every nation and life would be worthwhile”

Are we walking our mile when we clamor to be recognized, when we try to make everyone equal?  Not really, we are agitating the melting pot. It behooves us to learn all the lessons of Masonry from whatever branch or Grand Lodge to which you belong. I recognize a man for who he is, not because of his preferences.

Doubtless the battle for recognition will continue. The reason it will continue in the long run will be found to be vanity.

One line in the working tools lecture says it better, “among whom no contention should ever exist except that noble contention or rather emulation of who can best work and best agree.”

These are my views, I would not presume to speak for any other brother.

Ole Blake
PM #35 Georgia.

The Grand Lodge of Arizona

The Grand Lodge of Arizona is the next stop on our tour of American Grand Lodges.

Arizona Masonic membership:

9,900 – 2006
9,642 – 2007
gain/loss  –  -258
data from MSANA

State population – 6,338,755 as of 2007 (estimated),


About the Grand Lodge:

The Grand Lodge of Arizona does not have a listing on Wikipedia.

The website has no information on the formation or history of Freemasonry in Arizona.
Some of what I found on my excursion there:

azsealThe site at first approach is very impressive.  The URL is catchy and relevant to the site it represents: http://www.azmasons.org.  Entering the URL, the splash page opens with a panorama of images of the state (the Grand Canyon, cactus, state flower), which then fade into images of Freemasonry.  Behind the images is an impressive score of music to usher in the site.  It is a bit surprising, given the volume the music starts at (and that I had my volume turned way up), the auto start music definitely caught my attention.

The site meets the user with a very clear top and bottom layout.  The top header is the anchor art with the navigation sub bar with color coordinated sub menus for the site menus.  This is a straight forward arrangement and navigation and a very simple format to expand as data is added.

glofaz

The Grand Lodge of Arizona website

On the front page there is a clear mission statement of the Fraternity, but without any attribution from where it originated.  Reading it left me unclear if this was the statement of Arizona Masonry or of Freemasonry in general.  There are two calendar entries right on the front page to relevant events, though one was already expired, but only by a few days of my visit.

The site does offer a lot of choices in the navigation. Six main tabs (including a Home tab) with several pages beneath each option, the navigation also repeats on the pages visited on the left side.  All of the major navigation is text (HTML) and easily scalable as updates and additions are made.

Additionally, all of the sites in the navigation go to text based pages without any cumbersome PDF’s or Word docs, which is good, but delving into the data, the pages also seem to be free of unique information to the state.  I will commend them in that all of the navigation stays in site, which keeps the visitor engaged in the content.  Also, there is a very functional calendar with a lot of valuable Grand Lodge data.

Informational Content:

When looking at the site from an informational stand point, I found that it was very light.  With every page filled with content, I found very little of it relevant to someone with an interest in becoming an Arizona Mason.  It did include entries in their about section on myths and misconceptions, the fraternities history, but that was it.  There was no mention of what Arizona Masonry was about.  It also includes a page on “How to Join” which does a very good at talking about joining, but without any means to take the reader to the NEXT STEP.  Ultimately the site does nothing to help convert the viewer into a lodge visitor, let alone a petitioner.  There is no off link to “contact us for more info”, “submit your name and info on line”, or even a phone number for someone to call with questions.  It was disappointing that there was no provision in place to convert the visitor in ANY way on the “How To Join page.  I do want to say that there is a lodge locator page which would be a good next step link with instructions to contact a lodge for more info.  This may be a good interim solution, but would in turn layer more clicks into the visitation process.  There is also a contact us page, with the address of the Grand Lodge (and number) and a contact form for all of the Grand Lodge officers, but again, its disassociated from the “How to Join” page.

As with Alaska, there is a certain presumption that there is an infrastructure in place to field those contacts and manage them as they are received.  This again speaks to the broader organization and the back end of the site (and Grand Lodge) management.  It again raises the question, what is the emphasis of the site: members or prospective members/general public?  Perhaps a clearer idea purpose is needed to define who it is to address.

One item of concern I found was in the about us section; it indicated that Masonry in the state is over 11,000 members which must be old data when compared to the date from the 07 MSANA.  It may seem a clerical over site, but it does seem to link the site to old information on cross reference.

Also, I found a good many of the links on the sites link page to be broken or connected to non existent pages.

Look and Feel:

The colors choices for the site are very powerful and very Masonic, which I like, but from a non Masonic user, they almost feel overpowering.  Dominate Blue and Purple with yellow accents is very strong, and always runs the risk of being TOO powerful.  The balance is meaningful content.

The Arizona Grand Lodge site is definitely content driven and not based on images and art.  The opening header is excellent as it highlights Arizona Masonry, but there is little to follow it up to show some Masonic activity in the state.  Images, I want to stress, are not a mandatory inclusion, but they are an excellent way to tell a story and add value so long as they are relevant.  When you couple the lack of images with the generic content it loses its ability to engage the viewer with any relevant message giving it a “work in progress” flavor.

Overall:

The site looks every bit what one would expect a Grand Lodge website to look like.  But when you drill down into the pages the visual cohesiveness becomes diluted and difficult to associate with the state it is said to represent.  Taking it in a overall context, it feels incomplete.  The form is in place, but it seems to be waiting for the fine hand to weave into it the meaningful (and relevant) images and content.  Or even for an attentive hand to manage the links so as their connections are relevant.

From a visitor stand point there are lots of questions I’d like to find out about by coming to the site: “When did Arizona Masonry begin”?  “What do Arizona Masons do”?  “Why would a young Arizona man want to be a Mason”?  And “How would he best do that”?  These questions are all left unanswered when a visitor comes to the Grand Lodge of Arizona site.  By not answering those questions, it leaves a lot of leads (and conversions) unanswered and potentially result in even more turned off and disinterested visitors.

Coming up next – The Grand Lodge of Arkansas