The Tao of Masonry

The number 300 now being associated with half-naked, well-muscled Spartans, I didn’t want to confuse anybody with the approximate number of  Masons who attended the Grand Lodge semi-annual communication in mid-October of this year. Last year I complained a bit about the people who come to these meetings and then leave as soon as possible, so I’m not going to revisit that topic. I was, however, pleased to see that all of the lodges were represented, with only one exception — a marked improvement over the last few years. It might be cynical of me to mention that some lodges may have been motivated this year by one of the items to be voted on: the increase in a monetary fine to those lodges that fail to send any representation from $25 (barely the cast of gasoline and lunch) to $250.

I got there about a half hour before the session started, got a coffee (no donut, thanks), and chatted with people I hadn’t seen in a while. When I finally went inside the main room to find a seat, I discovered that the Deputy Grand Master had gone to the hospital the previous night for chest pains (at this point, it seems that he’s fine), and would not be attending. The rest of the officers were in a mild panic because they would have to move up a chair in order to open the Grand Lodge session.  Why is this a problem? Because the nine members come from different lodges, and most of those lodges have peculiar traditions and customs. Since Grand Lodge officers don’t have any rehearsals (ahem), it’s not unusual for somebody to miss a cue. And even for those officers who are familiar with what passes for standard Connecticut ritual, it might have been years since one of them actually sat in that respective chair in a Blue Lodge. What with the rituals for York Rite, Scottish Rite, Eastern Star, Rainbow, the Shrine, etc., in our heads,  it’s a wonder that half the Masons remember as well as they do.

During the break, I twittered “Who certifies Grand Lodges officers, anyway?” This is a reference to my one actual duty as a District Grand Lecturer (as opposed to those duties which I’ve made up for myself), that being to watch a potential Master properly go through the ceremony for opening and closing a lodge.  I meant it to be funny, but after the session when people got home, some of them commented about this  on my Facebook page. Soon, it became  a (yet another!) discussion about the perception that Grand Lodge is perhaps out of touch with what the real needs are in the lodges.

Comments about the ritualistic slip-ups were good natured ribbing, however, one brother brought up some good points on the relatively new practice we have of setting standards (and giving out certifications) for anyone aspiring to be the Master of a lodge.

Brother Frank expressed the general frustration that I’ve heard from others around the state.

“There’s so much emphasis on getting these little certifications these days. Does anyone actually look at a Warden and evaluate whether or not he’d actually BE a decent WM? No. But if he’s good at ritual, and can regurgitate the stuff on the little tests, then he gets the nod of approval. Granted, you need to be a decent ritualist, but that’s only 25% at best of what the job is.”

And he’s right, of course. Being able to memorize a few paragraphs of ritual doesn’t make you qualified to run a lodge. Neither, in fact, does your attendance at a couple of half-day seminars, nor your ability to memorize the various rules and regulations that the Grand Lodge has codified.
Frank sums this up nicely:

“[Grand Lodge] is overly concerned with certifications these days and not concerned enough about whether the Master is making lodge … Read More ENGAGING for this great crop of new Masons we have coming in. We should be concentrating on giving these new guys a great sense of fraternity, and in many lodges that is missing. Passing the WM certification does not guarantee that a WM can LEAD a lodge — and LEADERSHIP is the key.”

Ironically, the Grand Lodge would agree. That’s why in the last couple of years, we have changed the format of our officers seminars from serial lectures to mini-team building exercises. Aspiring Masters and Wardens are arranged in small groups and mentored through various tasks. The exercises are not arbitrary; all of them are based on developing the kinds of programs that have been shown to work well in lodges. Even better, each officer has a chance to talk to the others in his group about possible issues he might face in implementing such programs in his own lodge, and to get input from those in different circumstances.

Does even this type of education guarantee that someone will be a good Master? Of course not. But it’s a step in the right direction, because it makes potential Masters aware that there are various ways to approach developing a program for their year.

As the District Grand Lecturer, it’s my job – in fact, my only official function – to observe a potential Master open a lodge, receive a dignitary, go to refreshment, come back to labor, and then close a lodge. If he does is by the book (or at least, pretty close to what they believe might be in the book), then I declare them certifiable certified for ritual, and they have fulfilled that particular requirement in order to sit in the big chair at the East end of the room.

In the year and a half that I’ve been doing this, the weirdest thing for me was to certify a member of my affiliate lodge, Chip Stamm. Why was that weird? Because not only is he a Past Master, he is also a Past Grand Master. But rules are rules, and there’s no reason that former Grand Lodge officers should be exempt from them, right?

Anyway, I figured that would be about the weirdest thing that I would face in my current duties, and frankly, I haven’t thought much about it since last year.

Until now.

A couple of months ago I was at a GL Seminar given for incoming Masters. After the seminar, I was outside the door selling books, trinkets, car decals, and the various other things that we Masons like to buy, when a tall gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and said “Tom, can you get me your contact information?”

“Sure thing, Bro. Jake,” I responded. I wrote my phone number and email down on a notepad and handed him the paper. “Don’t tell me,” I joked, “You need me to come up and certify you for ritual, right?”

He smiled. . . well, more like winced.

“Yeah, it looks like I might be going to the East again,” he said.

My jaw dropped open. You see, Bro. Jake – that is, Right Worshipful Jake – was the District Grand Lecturer who certified me.

Back then, the DGLs didn’t have much of a job. It wasn’t until the end of 2005 that Connecticut made ritual certification a requirement, so there are a number of other Grand Lodge officers who have not had a ritual certification because they weren’t planning to be Master of a lodge.

Anyway, that’s how I ended up at Evening Star 101 on one of their degree rehearsals.

I remember this time three years ago, when I was one of the first Senior Wardens to be certified. RW Jake visited, along with a couple of District Deputies, an Associate Grand Marshal, and the GL officer for our district. A few Past Masters dropped by, and some of the junior officers were on the sidelines. In contrast, Jake and I just grabbed a table in the corner and went back and forth, with the both of us playing all the parts. We were done in 10 minutes, the quickest I’ve ever seen it in my short career. Afterwards, I went upstairs to watch them rehearse for a Master Mason degree.

Yes, he passed.

I like Evening Star lodge; while it doesn’t have the cadre of younger members that Friendship does, it has a down-home, meat & potatoes feel to it that is comforting. Being on the edge of the more rural area of Hartford County, I can imagine that the lodge hasn’t changed much in a generation or two – not in the sense of being stagnant, but in the good way, in that you know that things will be done right, with a minimal of fuss and fussiness that one often see in other lodges.

I’m looking forward to visiting next year; I know that they will have a Master who is experienced, and who has a good sense of humor.

This District Grand Lecturer position is a totally sweet gig. All I’m actually required to do is make sure that the incoming Master of a lodge passes a ritual test, and at rare times, oversee a little written test on the Grand Lodge rules and regulations. In Connecticut, most lodges have their installations from December to January; human nature being what it is, this means that I would be at my most busiest toward the end of the Masonic year as I do the certifications during October and November. The rest of the year I am free to spend on loose cars and fast women, while basking in the fame and glory.

Well, I suppose I could if I really wanted to.

A while back I had a discussion with a brother who insisted that the District Lecturers were unnecessary, and that the simple requirements could easily be done by the District Deputies or their Associate Grand Marshals. And indeed, he’s quite correct; the position as it now stands does not require much work, and carries very little authority. I’ll be the first to admit that almost anyone could handle the minimum requirements. Hell, they asked me, didn’t they?

But why would anyone want only the minimum requirements?

Over the last year, several lodges have asked me to help them polish their ritual proficiency and floorwork, and so I spend most of my time at lodges reviewing degree work, and at rehearsals, giving tips, making suggestions, and (hopefully) inspiring new officers to be better by coaching them along. Not surprisingly, this is exactly how I was taught in my own lodge by experienced Past Masters.

Recently, the Master-elect at one of my lodges asked if I would be willing to help out at their degree rehearsals. As it turns out, all of the junior officers are new guys, and the Wardens are not Past Masters. You might think that this would have been a challenge, but in fact, I was thrilled to see that all of the officers put in a lot of work to learn their parts in such a short amount of time. It’s really a good feeling to be around men who take pride in their work and who want to make an impression on the candidates. We spent a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon going over floorwork, coordinating the parts, and rehearsing lines. As it turns out, this was also helpful brush-up for the new Master who hadn’t done an EA degree in 28 years.

The result was a very fine degree two nights later, and a group of very proud officers. They’re so pumped that they’ve scheduled another EA degree for mid-February. Considering that this lodge had been having some difficulties over the past few years, it’s heartening to see that things are turning around for them.

That lodge joins my affiliate lodge in the ranks of those who are making concerted efforts to improve the quality of their ritual and degree work by setting higher expectations for the officers, scheduling one or more rehearsals for each degree, and having back-up plans in case of last-minute emergencies.

Each lodge is responsible for their own degree work. Unfortunately, many junior officers have not seen good degree work modeled for them, and so aren’t able to pass on those good habits when they become senior officers. Connecticut typically runs one ritual seminar per year… at least, they used to. We stopped even that for a few years when the District Grand Lecturer system was put into place, in essence taking away the one opportunity that many officers had to learn. Last year, the Lecturers got together with the Committee on Masonic Education to put on the first ritual seminar in four years – and it attracted over a hundred Masons from around the state, plus another few dozen purple aprons. The feedback was so positive that we’ve scheduled another one, to be held in February.

I think that’s great.

I also think that it’s not enough.

And this bring me back to the point about the necessity of the District Lecturers. Some of us have held “mini-seminars,” inviting the officers around the district to an evening of instruction, held at a particular lodge. I’ve been working with one lodge at a time at rehearsals, believing that it’s better to work with officers in smaller groups. Either way, we all believe that it’s important to address the ritual issues, and having one or two officers in each district dedicated to Masonic education and instruction seems like a better approach than waiting until an officer is ready to be elected to the East.

Many jurisdictions have appointed officers to oversee ritual instruction, but how they handle it varies widely. Some have an appointed person in each lodge, so that there is always one authority on what to do (or not) at every rehearsal. I like that idea because it prevents the multiple cross-feedback loops that new officers get when two or more Past Masters have varying ideas of how things should be done, and spend half the rehearsal arguing over why their way is better or how they never did something that way before.

Anyway, they asked me if I’d be interested in doing this gig again next year. Of course, I agreed; It’s just too sweet to pass up.

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So, it started off simply enough. I was to travel to Newington to Sequin-Level Lodge No. 140 in order to check the ritual proficiency of one of the officers. We opted to do this on a night that they were to have a degree rehearsal – a plan that I encourage because running a degree is nerve-wracking enough without the officer worrying that I’m going to be checking little flubs on my clipboard. Certifying at a rehearsal gives me a chance to coach the officer, and perhaps toss out some ideas for the rest of the lodge.

Unfortunately, the officer had some issues which prevented him from attending the dress rehearsal. Even more unfortunately, that left nobody to take the East for the EA degree that was only 2 nights away. Fortunately, the Senior Warden, who has been filling in as Master for the last few months was ready to take the helm.

Perhaps that’s because a few years ago, he was the Grand Master in Connecticut.

I took the chair across from the Most Worshipful Chip and we went right into a dress rehearsal. We paused several times to give tips to the Senior Deacon because this degree was to be a “move up” night for the officers, but it was an otherwise smooth experience.

Despite the fact that he was a Grand Lodge officer, MW Chip did an exemplary job of opening and closing a lodge, and accordingly I’m now able to certify our Past Grand Master for Ritual Proficiency.

This means that he’ll be able, should he be so elected, to move up into the East in his home lodge.

As to the rehearsal? The way it stands now, it looks like I will be sitting in the Senior Warden’s chair for the upcoming EA degree on Thursday evening. I’ll let you know how things go.

Pictured above: The officers of Sequin-Level at rehearsal on Tuesday evening:
1st Row: Marty, John, Steve
2nd Row: Bob, MW Chip, Larry
3rd Row: Chuck 2.0, Bill
Back Row: The District Grand Lecturer

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Who’s Certifiable?
Well, for starters, Eric and Ryan

On Sunday, August 12th, the Friendship Lodge officers set aside the afternoon to take a shot at testing their proficiency as Worshipful Master. “Proficiency” in Connecticut is actually very simple; unlike some other US states in which entire passages of ritual need to be recited and judged for exactness and conformity to some standard, we only ask for five things.

- Open the lodge in full form
- Receive a Masonic dignitary (A District Deputy or Grand Master, for example)
- Go to refreshment (some people refer to this as “calling off”)
- Come back to labor
- Close the lodge in full form

Having talked to people from other jurisdictions, I’m almost embarrassed at how little we require of our officers, both in the way of ritual proficiency and proficiency in the bylaws and regulations of the their lodge and Grand Lodge. While I agree that we are all volunteers, and have limited time in which to memorize ritual and to study obscure bylaws, the fact remains that in volunteering for the job, we gave an implied promise that we would do everything possible to be up to the task at hand. If all you need to do is know how to open and close a lodge, and to remember, or at least know where to look up an appropriate rule, then complaints about a lack of time begin to smack of a lack of effort.

But that’s a rant that I’m going to save for another day. Right now I’d like to introduce you to Eric and Ryan.

Eric is the Junior Warden at Friendship, and he’s been at my right hand ever since he joined the lodge. I escorted him around the lodge when he was an EA (not an easy job – Eric is easily six feet, and at the time was of a rather husky build), and when I went into the South, asked him to be my Senior Steward. Despite the fact that he could barely boil water, Eric toughed it out and proved himself to be dependable and conscientious. He stayed at my right hand to become the Junior Deacon, and then Senior Deacon when I was Master last year. Eric is now the Chairman of the Friendship Lodge Website Committee, and requested that I be on that committee – probably so he now has the opportunity to boss me around count on my support.

Being the most senior officer, Eric was on trial first. I explained that while it might not seem fair, that I was going to hold him to a higher standard for ritual than I might otherwise do for someone else. Friendship has a well-deserved reputation for good ritual work – not for just memorizing the words, but for good delivery; we believe that the candidates should have the best degree possible, and sometimes that means not just dead-on memorization, but a “drama show” that emphasizes the points.

I hope it goes without saying that Eric did an exemplary job, and that we can all be proud of him.

Ryan was a member before I joined; a former DeMolay with a head for memorizing ritual, I didn’t see him much for the first couple of years while he was in college, but after school he joined the officer’s line – not a surprise because he was very active in the Marcus Holcomb DeMolay chapter that is sponsored by our lodge.

Back in November, Ryan was the Senior Steward that jumped into the Senior Warden’s chair for that meeting when all the top officers were missing. He did miss one line in the opening then, but he did a great job in the East; better, in fact, than some twice-termed Masters that I’ve seen.

Naturally, I’m proud of both Eric and Ryan, but I also want to give props to Kevin and Kyle. Kevin is the Senior Steward, and Kyle (Eric’s actual brother) is the Junior Steward. Both of them made an attempt to open and close a lodge, and considering the short amount of time that they have been officers, I think that they really deserve some kind of honorable mention. Both needed prompting, but both of them were able to get through the ritual. They had the words in their minds, they just needed some help getting them in order. My guess is that next year they’d be able to qualify.

I did, however, want to mention one more thing. Although Eric, Ryan, Keven and Kyle are all young enough to be my sons, I try to always think of them (and I hope I’ve succeeded) as brothers. I’ve seen Eric go from a nervous, hesitant young man to being more self-confident, and more willing to take on leadership tasks. In the last few years, I’ve seen Ryan graduate college, look for jobs in his academic field, get married, and more recently, have a baby. I’ve known Kevin since he was a young teenager, and I’ve now had the opportunity to see him become more mature and become more active in the lodge. Kyle, the youngest of this group, has always distinguished himself as being ready, willing and able to pitch in whenever there was work to be done.

Why do I mention this in a post about Ritual Certification?

There is much more to running a successful lodge than being proficient in ritual, as I discovered first-hand last year. The Master of a lodge must be able to depend upon his officers for help, but too often I hear of Masters who do not call upon some of the younger lodge members, except, maybe, to help move something heavy. I think that this is a mistake on their part. Good officers – good Masters – are made not just from moving stones in the quarry, but from being shown where to place them. Too often, younger members are not given tasks that carry a lot of responsibility or visibility. They are overlooked so that more experienced members can run a program or plan an event. Let’s not forget, however, that experience comes from being given such responsibilities. New members, especially younger members, do not want to join an organization in which they’re expected to stand aside – many of them probably get enough of that at work.

Good Masters will understand that it’s part of their job to help develop the younger officers so that they can become good Masters one day. Sit with them. Get their ideas. Let them come up with a program and run with it, even if you’re not crazy about it yourself. The worst that could happen is that it might not come off perfectly (and what does?), but the best thing that could happen is that you’ll all be able to sit down and process the event, and that they can learn from it.

As a Worshipful Master, it’s your year. But that doesn’t mean that the year is all about you.

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