Monday, November 26, 2012

Selling Membership in England

I happened to be going through Google News this morning and noticed a terrible, horrible idea. Apparently, one of the Co-Masonic bodies (considered clandestine by regular Masonry) is selling membership as a Christmas gift.

From the article,
The Masonic Christmas Gift Pack costs £80 and includes a tour of the local Masonic Lodge, an invitation to meetings with masons, and – subject to approval by the local Lodge - a year’s membership to the group.
This has to be one of the biggest affronts to Masonic ideals I have ever seen. There are a myriad of problems with this, from dilution of our Fraternity's ideals by a non-group, the idea that Masonry is so cheap that it can be conferred on anyone for Christmas, and a host of other truly terrible things.

Masonry is a transformative experience. It's not something that can be purchased off the shelf. The donning of an apron without earning it does not make one a Mason. It's in your heart, not in a gift certificate.

We, as regular Masons, must protect ourselves from an innovation like this. We must make membership a pinnacle of a man's life not something that he is given as a gift. Masonic membership is something earned, something granted for hard-work. And anything like this will only promote that which we are not, a social club with nothing to offer a man but a name badge.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

**UPDATE**
For further analysis, head over to Tom Accuosti's Tao of Masonry blog for his take.

8 comments:

47th Problem of Euclid said...

A candidate has to show that he can pay his own fees and dues. When someone else pays for a candidate, we can hardly be surprised when they get suspended NPD a few years later.

MP said...

It seems most have missed the following:

subject to approval by the local Lodge

As for this
We, as regular Masons, must protect ourselves from an innovation like this. We must make membership a pinnacle of a man's life not something that he is given as a gift. Masonic membership is something earned, something granted for hard-work. And anything like this will only promote that which we are not, a social club with nothing to offer a man but a name badge.

such vitriol should be directed much closer to home, to those jurisdictions which your GL does recognize, and which offer "One Day Classes", and towards the AASR which offers all 32 degrees in one weekend.

Tom Accuosti said...

I see that MP beat me to this, but he's got a point. Between our 1-day festivals and our nope-definitely-not-recruiting Masonic Awareness Campaigns, and our push to get those petitions out to our friends and family, how is this really much different?

Raconteur said...

This is indicative of the level of self worth grand lodges seem to have. A strange Congo of high ego, low self esteem.

I wouldn't put this past grand lodges though. Dues are super cheap and you can already ask people to join in many jurisdictions. What's the functional difference?

It all smells like desperation. That's not what I signed on for.

Tall Cedars said...

I have to agree with MP. Look at the Great State of Minnesota--Buy a membership in the Shrine and get a Master Mason Degree for free, and all in one day! Never mind that we are selling an appendant body to men who are not Brothers yet--the Grand Potentate--er, Grand Master--handily waived that prohibition! A free tour should be the least of Gopher State's worries.

Raconteur said...

I guess being a good man just can't compete with the marketing power of funny hats.

Chris said...

How bizarre. As I don't read the Torygraph I missed this one.

I suspect that the Co-Masons are having problems in attracting new members, since they are much smaller and do not benefit from the advantages of being affiliated with UGLE, of course.

I think that the effects of this will be small on regular Freemasonry. Our own Lodge is not having problems attracting new members, as our current members have been very assiduous in identifying friends and co-workers who would be suitable members. The Co-Masons should do the same.

The moral of the story is: good men who are members will attract good men to become members. Men who are satisfied and fulfilled in their Masonry will radiate that to their friends, and that results in more members.

MP said...

And anything like this will only promote that which we are not, a social club with nothing to offer a man but a name badge.

That horse left the barn already, when contributions to charitable organizations became the greater focus of many Grand Lodges in the US.

When GLs use their official mailings to send out appeals for donations to the charities of appendant bodies, it's one more indication that GLs have become shills for the appendant bodies.

GLs should be the end all, be all, of Masonry within a jurisdiction - little GL time/effort should be spent on promoting the other bodies ... certainly not by recognizing every senior officer of those bodies at a GL session ... when, in Craft Lodge (not in GL) symbols/aprons/jewels of those bodies are not permitted for wear.