Lodge Southern Cross #44 AF & AM
Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon

Why is the Unaffiliated Mason?1

by Bro. W. L. Boult

Ask half-a-dozen Masons the question that heads this article and you will probably get as many different answers, though all will agree in placing the responsibility on the unattached brother.

Our Worshipful Master is not much given to speech-making, but at the last "regular" he handed us a little talk which set more than one of us thinking. The result is still "on the knees of the gods", but my own opinion is that he has "started something". What he said - I quote from memory only - was this:

A few evenings ago, brethren, I went into the office of the ___ Hotel. There I found four men, all of whom are Masons and none of them active members of any lodge. They were discussing this coincidence as I entered, and Number One, as I shall call him, was speaking.

" 'I don't know,' he said, 'that I am really entitled to call myself a Mason at all. You see, my father and many of our friends at home belonged, and I had grown up with a great respect for the Order and a vague hope that some day I should be admitted. But I never took any steps to realize that hope up to the time I was twenty-three years old, when I decided to come to Canada. I got the idea that being a Mason would give me a sort of foothold and mitigate the loneliness of my position as a stranger in a strange land. I had no difficulty in finding sponsors, and in the course of a few weeks I was accepted and had received the degrees. By the time I was ready to leave for Canada I was equipped with a Master Mason's certificate and a certificate of life membership, I had also received a mass of instruction which was more confusing than enlightening, but which I was told would assure me a cordial welcome and fraternal assistance wherever I might find myself. As it happened, I secured work almost immediately on landing and did not come in contact with Masonry for several months, by which time the memory of what I had seen and heard had become so blurred that I had no confidence in my ability to prove myself, and I did not feel inclined to expose my ignorance. I am in the same position to-day, with the added handicap that I have had ten busy years in which to forget the little I ever knew. I have kept my certificates, but that is all.'

" 'Well, there is some excuse for you,' said Number Two. 'You do not know what you are missing, whereas I had eight years' experience of the privileges and benefits of Freemasonry before I dropped out. I did not intend to do anything of the kind. I just moved from one town to another, dimitted from my Mother Lodge, and then started for British Columbia before I got round to affiliating. After that, I was on the move for a year or two, and somehow I got out of touch. Now I am married and the youngsters take up a good deal of my evenings when I am not at the store, so I never seem to have time for attending lodge, even as a visitor. But I often think I should like to do so, if I am not too rusty to pass.'

" 'I am worse off than either of you,' said Number Three. 'I was pretty active at one time and got to be Junior Warden of my lodge in Ontario. That was in 1916, and the same year I went to France. When I returned, I could not settle down to office work, so I came to British Columbia, and I have been logging and prospecting ever since. I am years behind with my dues, probably suspended for N.P.D. long ago. I don't know what it would cost or how to go about getting squared up; so I have just let the whole thing go.'

" 'I gave up paying dues to my lodge in Quebec soon after I moved to Manitoba in 1914, and I have regretted it ever since,' said Number Four. 'I was homesteading, and money was scarce. There was no lodge within forty miles, and I did not see any benefit to be derived from paying dues to a lodge sixteen hundred miles away. After a few years I came further west, and now that I have settled down I should like to get reinstated; but I am ashamed to write to my old lodge, after neglecting them for nine years, and I do not know that it would do any good, anyway; so I guess I'll have to forget about it and join some other order, just for the sake of the fraternal association and fellowship.'

"Now, brethren," concluded the Worshipful Master, "some of you may not see much in the incident I have related, but what strikes me is this: There are four men in this town who really belong to us, all, so far as I can judge, of the type we most need, and all .practically lost to us. You will notice that not one of them blames anyone but himself for his position. But I would like each of you to seriously ask himself, 'Why are those four, and many others, not here to-night? Is the responsibility wholly theirs?'

"Why is the unaffiliated Mason, anyway? We all know plenty of them; we meet them every day in this town, within a hundred yards of the lodge room; but how often do we try to find out why they are unaffiliated? Do we ever take any trouble or show any interest in getting them back into our ranks? A little fraternal sympathy would, in most cases, meet with a ready response, and if these wandering brothers felt they were really wanted many would gladly take the necessary steps to get ‘squared up’ - and they would probably be surprised and pleased to find how easily it can be done.

"Personally, I am going to make it my business to check up those stories I heard at the hotel, and I know our Secretary will be very willing to write to the lodges concerned on behalf of those or any other Mason who may be holding back through ignorance of how he stands with his lodge 'back home'. Then we will see what can be done.

"Surely, brethren, we have a duty towards these brethren! Why don't we persuade them to visit us, and assure them of a welcome, making it our business to see that the welcome is forthcoming if they do accept our invitation? If they are doubtful of their standing, why don't we get the names of their home lodges, or introduce them to our Secretary, so that he can make enquiries for them? A little unselfish interest, a little tactful friendly advice, is often all that is necessary.

"We need them, brethren, though not, perhaps, as much as they need us, and I cannot feel that we are fulfilling our duty and our obligations so long as we imply, by our attitude of indifference, that their position does not concern us. It is true, 'I am not my brother's keeper,' but I should be my brother's helper."

top

© 2006-2008, Lodge Southern Cross No. 44, BC&Y
Last Updated: 28 Dec, 2007/TMC