A Sad Story About My Former Lodge

jpeffer2007 · 05-07-2008, 02:00 PM

I will not use any real names of the Lodges or the Brothers....all I will say is that in was in the Grand Lodge of Alabama.

About 3 years ago my Lodge (Lodge B) merged with another struggling Lodge Lodge H). The merger was completed a few months before the annual communication and some of the officers of Lodge H had in interest in their positions and some of our members were allowed to pro-tem those chairs for the remainder of the Masonic year. (After the merger was complete I never attended Lodge H) When annual communication rolled around I was called and told I need to attend so I could pick up my perpetual membership card and my Past Master certificate and told I should vote for Bro. J for WM. Bro. J had been WM of Lodge B before the merger and it was explained to me that the concensus of the Lodge was that Bro. J was to be voted WM of Lodge H.

I decided to attend annual communication since it had been several months since I had attended lodge. When the election of the WM was held it was a close vote. Bro. J won the election but Lodge H's SW Bro. D came in a very close second. It was obviously that Bro. D was stunned that he wasn't elected as WM. Bro. D had even invited his father to travel to see him be elected WM. It was a sad occurence. It gets worse....

(Shortly after this I demitted from the Lodge but still have several friends there)

The next year when annual communication rolled around Bro. D was well prepared and ready to be elected WM. When it came time to vote Bro. D wasn't elected but the Bro. who was elected WM refused and said he thought Bro. D should be elected. After a second ballot Bro. D was still not elected....at this point Bro. D offered to please be removed from the ballot and openly discussed demitting from the lodge. The Bro. who was elected, again, refused and pointed out that it was Bro. D who deserved the position.

So...after a third ballot Bro. D was elected to the position of WM. In the third ballot there was even someone who voted "anybody but Bro. D." When this story was relayed to me I felt sick. I was also glad that I demitted from that Lodge and left that Grand Body.

This past Monday night I told this story to my current lodge. It helped to display not only the differences in what Free-Masonry used to be and is now, but also the difference between the system of Masonry I/we were in and the system we are now a part of.

Jamie

Stealth · 05-07-2008, 02:18 PM

Brotherly love and affection are mere words in most GL jurisdictions and others it meaning is based upon whether you are in lock-step with the local Lodge of the GL.

Jayman · 05-07-2008, 09:05 PM

sounds like some of the Bretheren have been watching too much Survivor.

This isn't about voting blocs or juvenile popularity conntests. It's about who is best to lead the lodge as WM.

**** I'm naive.

D. W. Brown · 05-07-2008, 10:44 PM

I like the idea of ballots, cannot get much more democratic than that. However, this getting in line to WM or moving through the chairs whatever you want to call it stinks. The WM or any seat for that matter should only be filled by whom can best perform the job.

Stealth · 05-08-2008, 12:13 AM

They should have never allowed the guy to get inline which in MSM means you go through the chairs to the East.

After they all but tell you to your face they don't want you as WM then why take it? Its all an ego thing to wear that PM title.

I know this lodge well and Masonic education equals knowing the ritual and thats it. Being WM is nothing more than being a puppet. Its all so silly.....

Stealth · 05-08-2008, 09:01 PM

I looked today of the GL website and they even have the WM's name listed wrong! They really didn't want this guy did they??

I would like to ask him how he feels that his "brothers" turned on him?
How he feels about being Master of a Lodge where no one really wanted him as Master?
Does he really trust them?
Do they control him? or is he his own Master?
Is he still there becasue of fear? or the feeling he needs to be wanted?
Lodge (H) is in the fastest growing city in Alabama hidden in a ditch off the main highway behind the Cadillac Dealer really easy to find don't you think?