Another reunion of the Valley of Bay City Scottish Rite has come and gone. In terms of things working as planned the reunion was fairly successful. The fellowship, portrayal of the ritual, and the food was all very good.
The only real glitch was one of the degrees being cancelled due to a lack of participation. To fill the void a DVD was shown. We are very blessed in the Valley of Bay City to be able to present for the most part the necessary degrees. We later found out that this is not the case in all of the valleys of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, thus the availability of the DVD.
The class of candidates was unusually small even by today's standards....three instead of the usual 8-12. If one takes a look at some of the class pictures from years gone by they pale in comparison, as far as numbers go. Another interesting note was that in 1983 I spent a half day Wednesday and Thursday, three-quarters of a day Friday and all day Saturday to get my 32nd degree.....talk about numbers now it is a day and a half or one day if needed.
It seems that everything we do in life is now measured by numbers. In my business one lives and dies by the numbers. Our fraternity as well has become one of numbers.
In the days gone by a Mason who desired to be a Shriner had two ways by which they could join the Shrine. One was by way of the York Rite, a lengthy process....or they could become a Scottish Rite Mason and become eligible to join the Shrine.
Also in the days gone by, the Shrine was the playground for Masons. Although they did a wonderful work through the hospitals for the most part the Shrine was known for their parties more than their work for crippled and burned children.
Through the years the Masonic fraternity has seen a decrease in their numbers(there it is again) and were faced with the challenge of what to do. One solution was to eliminate the bulk of the catechism or the "lesson" which required memorization.. By doing this the fraternity could surely increase their numbers....and they did for a short while.
The Shrine was faced with a similar situation and their numbers were suffering also....they too relaxed their requirements to attract more numbers or members.....the way they tried to accomplish this was by eliminating the requirement of being either a York or Scottish Rite Mason. This too seemed to work initially.
Meanwhile the Scottish Rite was left in the cold so to speak. With the Shrine relaxing their requirements the number of members coming into the Scottish Rite dropped dramatically.....those in power would argue that this had nothing to do with the decline in numbers....but in the real world we knew that it had a devastating affect on the numbers(just can't get rid of that word).
So here we are some twenty years later give or take a few years......and the numbers for all three organizations are not what the "leaders" would like to see. We hear a variety of reasons why the numbers are not where they should or need to be.
In my opinion the biggest reason is that we, the fraternity as a whole missed at least one and perhaps one and a half generations. After the end of World War II the men returning home had experienced the value of camaraderie and sought out something to fill that void they experienced while fighting for our freedom. That spilled over into the beginning of the next generation, the Korean War era and our country seemed to be firing on all eight cylinders, and the "family" was intact more than today with the man working outside the home and woman working inside the home. Freemasonry helped to provide camaraderie, social events, fellowship, and entertainment....a tremendous value for the investment.
As we moved into the sixties and change occurred in society and suddenly young men didn't want anything to do with what their fathers were doing. If one adds to that the extreme tight-lipped secrecy from fathers to their sons about what actually took place in lodge added to and set the stage for severe drop-off in our........you guessed it.....numbers.
During the sixties and into the seventies and certainly the end of the seventies and early eighties we saw a dramatic decline in the number of men joining the fraternity. This decline can be readily traced to the decline of the family unit, a strong feeling of young men to not be involved in anything that their fathers were involved in and perhaps the single most dominant reason is.... that we as a fraternity did not "share our secret" with those closest to us, our very own sons.
So, again in my opinion that is how we skipped at least one and perhaps one and a half generations of young men....we, the fraternity thought that we could not breathe a word about what we did, what we stood for, or the ultimate goal of the fraternity to provide an avenue of like minded men in pursuit of becoming better men through the tenants of this grand organization.
Now in the last 10-15 years we have seen a remarkable number of young men seeking out....yes seeking out the fraternity. They are seeking us out because they have learned that their grandfathers....not their fathers(remember we skipped them).....their grandfathers were Masons. With all of the hype of the 21st century about the fraternity there are some that are very close to being factual and others are a little out in left field....suddenly the grandsons are learning that their grandfathers were Masons.
The grandsons ask their fathers about it and they know nothing.....they were the ones that didn't want anything to do with what their fathers were doing. Now we have the grandsons turning to the Internet to find out what the Masons are and what we do. They are intrigued by the history, tradition, and the mystique of the whole situation.
By investigating the fraternity online and reading a little perhaps, they seek us out and want to join. Then when they do join we put on a degree and much of the time we don't do the degree justice. I happen to be fortunate enough to be in an area that takes the ritual very seriously. However, we kind of lose the mystique and rich heritage when we stumble and fumble our way through the examinations at the south, west, and east gates. Here we are representing an institution that is centuries old and presenting our rites and ceremonies to someone that probably knows more about the Esoteric side of Masonry than anyone present and we bobble the only supposed secret parts of our fraternity....the sign-grip-and word.....you only get one chance to make a first impression as they say.
After espousing some of my ideas of why our numbers are at the place that they are......and believe me I have a few more, such as population shifts, competition for one's time, showing the value to new initiates, and spreading the brothers too thin to keep some of the appendant bodies afloat to name just a few.
Again, strictly my opinion here.....I believe that our great fraternity is a lot like water.....in that it seeks it's own level. We are far from extinction.....we need to embrace the changing face of our new initiates and brothers.....also we need to give them what they are looking for. It's time that we ourselves learn the deep and profound lessons of our craft. This will require work, study, and discussion.
My brothers I've come a long way to get to the point of my ramblings.....and thus the title of this monologue......is our fraternity Half Empty or Half Full. At our recent Scottish Rite reunion there were some heads of other Masonic bodies in attendance and they brought remarks. The underlying theme was...."We are all in the same boat my brothers.....our numbers are down."
I found it remarkable that for heads of appendant Masonic groups to say that their numbers are down and that they are in the same boat as the Scottish Rite. I thought to myself how many of the brothers in attendance both in the audience and the head table actually attend Blue Lodge and give it the same dedication that they do in the appendant bodies.....after all the only place the appendant bodies draw from is the Blue Lodge.
I wondered further that all of those pictures that show massive classes.....how many stuck around after it wasn't required membership to be in the Shrine.....just how many stayed because they enjoyed the teachings and quest for further light.
After all this contemplation has our fraternity sought it's own level and now we can build on a more solid foundation.....there is supposedly strength in numbers....perhaps it's time to realize that there is strength in concentration.....quality over quantity........just once I would love for a leader to stand before us and say...."Our fraternity is half-full.....there is still room for more well meaning qualified brothers as we continue to grow this great institution into the 21st. century, our brightest days are ahead, and we've only scratched the surface of the meanings laid down by our forefathers of this great craft we call Freemasonry!"
