Dunwoodie DGGM visit                                                         Feburary 18, 2008

New Paradigms

Our Grand Master has focused on a “back to basics” program in order to build our Craft and our Lodges.  While rooted in timeless values, his directive does not ignore new paradigms as they become apparent.  I cannot think of a Lodge that has honored this duality more faithfully than Dunwoodie Lodge has in the past few years.  In order to fully appreciate their journey, it is necessary to review some history.

The United States of America is often called the great melting pot, in that the majority of its citizens have come to settle here from foreign lands.  Our success as a country has been marked by our ability to assimilate the best attributes of this multicultural stew.  However, being human, we have sometimes limited ourselves by finding our unity solely within boundaries that are more familiar to us.

Masonry, as a group within the body American, has also reflected this practice.  While Lodges might draw upon familiarity to grow, we should also recognize that, sometimes, smaller definitions are what might cause us to exclude worthy candidates who do not fit those definitions.  In a world of cultural formation and exclusion, one marginalized group that needed to solve the problem by forming some new lodges was our Jewish brethren.

In talking with its Past Masters, I hear many Dunwoodians speaking with pride at their being known as “a Yonkers Jewish Lodge”.  If you look at the history of the Lodge, you see many active committees and a membership roll that read like the “Who’s Who” of prominent Jewish members of Yonkers society.  As with other Lodges, Dunwoodie’s faithfulness to their legacy and their roots served them well in their membership.  Then there was the late 1960s.

As we all know, from that time until the mid 1980’s, membership in Masonry began a steady decline.  A society that had built its strength upon community and the individual’s contribution to the whole, was turning inward and focusing upon individual inclinations.  At the same time, Yonkers changed along with other New York City suburbs.  The people that built it had aged, and their sons and daughters were moving away from Yonkers in large numbers.  What was once a Masonic stronghold was becoming a ghost town.

As with most Lodges, Dunwoodie tried to tough it out.  They worked hard at finding worthy candidates in a populace largely not interested in self-sacrifice and community involvement.  As with most Lodges, Dunwoodie began to wither.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, they still had healthy membership rolls; but most of that membership was no longer local.

Some Dunwoodians did stay local, and they carried on the fight; a fight that seemed impossible to win with fewer and fewer hands to do the work necessary to survive.  Even as most would say that Dunwoodie’s end was near, these brothers kept a dream and a Lodge alive.  Thankfully, they were able to sustain Dunwoodie until men remembered the value of being a Mason again.  Then, in conjunction with that societal change, something changed in Dunwoodie.

When our country showed renewed interest in Masonry, no one would have faulted Dunwoodie if they had looked for new members more reflective of their tradition.  But that is not what they did.   Dunwoodie Lodge was redefining their paradigm.  Although formed within a geographical definition, and as a necessary reaction to religious exclusion, they expanded their mindset.  They were no longer defining themselves as a Lodge in any way except one -- Masonic.  When the public light of interest shined upon Masonry, Dunwoodie used that light to reexamine and redefine themselves.

For isn’t that the challenge that faces us all?  How do we leave our smaller comfort zones and reach out to worthy candidates outside those definitions?  Yes, all of us belong to Lodges with specific beginnings and roots.  Yes, we may live in different places, come from different cultures and backgrounds, and, yes, the Great Architect of the Universe speaks to us all in specific and different ways.  But those differences are simply accents spoken in a more common language.  What we are, first and foremost, are Masons. 

Dunwoodie Lodge’s challenges are not over, any more than any of our challenges are over.  We are all always striving to find men of character to include in our Craft.  We are all always keenly listening to hear the new voice with the understanding that it being different does not necessarily make it wrong.  Finally, as we become elders in the Craft and in our Lodges, we are challenged in passing that baton of leadership on to that next generation.

As a parent, I can tell you that there is no larger challenge than knowing that I must let my children learn to go forward without me.  Even though I created and raised them, they will develop their own ideas and their own paradigms.  Yes, they will be rooted in my teaching and they will reflect a timeless code of ethics and love.  But their ideas will be different.  Sometimes their ideas and methods might be foreign and scary to me.  It is then that I must remember that those ideas and methods are still based on our shared values.

Surely I will remind them of the path we have been on together, and surely I will speak of the history that predates them, as well as that of which we have shared.  But just as surely, that is the time when I should remind myself of one of my favorite Thomas Jefferson quotes from an 1816 letter to Samuel Kercheval when he said:

“…laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.  As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

My brothers, we use the word “raise” in Masonic circles quite frequently.  It implicitly speaks of an elevation higher than the one we stand upon now.    We must remember that it is always better to raise brave leaders, so that they can better see our brighter tomorrow from their higher vantage point.  Our newer brothers are the next leaders of our Craft, and surely we must equip them to advance our Lodges beyond today. 

I consider myself extremely lucky to be a Mason, and even more fortunate to lead our District at such a time of growth and change.  I am filled with an overwhelming sense of thankfulness that I seem to have been given front-row seats to experience Masonic history in the making.  As I watch our Lodges honor their past traditions and yet take brave strides into their more promising futures, I feel like I am reading a great book, a real page-turner.  And while I have absolutely enjoyed Dunwoodie’s story so far, it is clear that they are already writing a new chapter, as we gather here tonight.  I cannot wait to read yet more of their story.

Worshipful Master, I thank you for the courtesies extended to myself, the Grand Sword Bearer, and the Brethren in attendance this evening.  Most importantly, I want to thank all my Brothers who are here tonight, for being part of another chapter written, in the great story of our building a better tomorrow.  Thank you.