Crossroads

Brothers my hope and prayer is that everyone survived the holiday season and are enjoying another new year. The weather is brutal cold this morning which seems to go along with the Flint Shrine Circus.

The Grand Lodge of Michigan was extremely pleased to announce that for the first time since 1959 there was positive growth in the membership numbers for the year 2012. What that breaks down to is that we took in more members than we lost through death, transfers, demits, expulsions, and suspensions due to non payment of dues.

Along with growth comes growing pains from inside and outside the fraternity. We are faced with the challenge of meeting and exceeding the expectations of our new members. The lodges that are really growing and making things happen are heavily involved in the community and also have numerous events for the members of their lodges, family, and friends.

Another growing pain is to ensure that the officers of the lodge are friendly, profecient in their work, and are encouraging to the new members without pushing them into things too quickly.

These are just a few of the growing pains from within. Unfortunately growth is also influenced and affected by outside forces.

For many years now, well over 100 years in fact, the fraternity of Freemasonry has had appendant bodies. In fact in the real early years of the the 1800's the Royal Arch had a tremendous amount of members. Of course the Royal Arch is the first step of the York Rite. Through the 1800's into the first half of the 1900's York Rite Masonry was a natural progression for those Masons seeking further light in Masonry. Also during that time the Scottish Rite also enjoyed tremendous success to serve those who sought further light but in a different setting and type of allegory than the York Rite. Both bodies had the same goal but went about it in different ways. The common denominator was Masonic affiliation.

In the late 1800's the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was created by Dr.Walter Fleming and William Lawrence a prominent actor at the time. It was created to be the Mason's playground for several reasons. First and foremost to promote a lighthearted venue for socializing and fellowship. It was thought that the Masons of the day having gone through the "three degrees" and then completed either the York Rite or Scottish Rite needed to a place to unwind and have fun with their brothers.

Masonic membership has always been a prerequisite for any of the appendant bodies and it was only recently that membership in either the York or Scottish Rite was no longer required to be a Shriner; Masonic membership is the only required prerequisite to gain membership in the Shrine.

A favorite blog of mine is Freemasons for Dummies by Christopher Hodapp. Hodapp does a tremendous job of reporting on Masonic events worldwide. Currently their is posted a letter from the Grand Master of South Carolina to the Imperial Potentate of Shriners International. The letter is requesting that all expelled South Carolina Masons be dropped from the roles of membership in Shriners International. Add to this the friction between the Grand Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas which involves the question of expelled Masons remaining on the Shrine membership roles and our recent breakdown in fraternal relations between the Grand Lodge of Michigan and Shriners International ( which thank God has been restored ) and other debates between Grand Lodges and Shriners International and you have a recipe for seperation.

In other words....it appears that through numerous breakdowns of mutual respect and recognition, Shriners International is poised for severing of relations between the two fraternities. If such a separation were to occur, Masonic membership would no longer be required to be a Shriner. I must stress that views expressed on this blog are strictly my opinion based on observations made by me.

If such a separation were to occur what would be the effect on both fraternities? It's hard to guess what the numbers would be after the initial rumblings such an event would create. My thought is that there would be large numbers of defectors from both organizations. There are many Masons who feel very strongly that the Shrine needs to be tied to the fraternity of Freemasonry to remain grounded.....those brothers would probably forgo their Shrine membership. On the flip side there are a fair number of Shriners who for whatever reason have never appreciated the benefits of the Masonic fraternity, in some cases it's just not their "thing", those Shriners would probably not hesitate to relieve themselves of Masonic membership.

I think that the end result would be very negative for both organizations. It would be a tough decision for me to make. I have had a tremendous amount of fun in both sides....actually three sides if you include the Scottish Rite. My roots are in the Blue Lodge, over the years I have grown to love the fraternity...but it made a tremendous impact on me from the start....maybe I had a jump start in DeMolay. The Shrine is a terrific source of fun...of course having been in the clown unit for a number of years probably helped. The work that is done in the hospitals takes one's breath away. The Scottish Rite while ritualistic in nature is a great time, it allows for fellowship with fellow Masons from the local region as does the Shrine.

My hope is that Masonic membership remains a prerequisite for Shrine membership. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and that all involved will remember the tenants of our profession. Through mutual cooperation and respect all will prosper......that's my opinion, which along with $2 will get you a good cup of coffee !!