My Father has been a member of the Masonic Lodge now for ten years. I have been seriously thinking about patitioning our local lodge as well, but have a few concerns. My father is heavely involved with both the Masons white shrine and eastern star and serves as the Secratary for the lodge.He participates in every event and sits on most of the event boards and pretty much does every thing that he can do at,in,or around the lodge. Now my concern is that if I am accepted into the lodge that I may be expected to follow my father in what he does and pretty much be his shadow.I would love to join but not be as active as he is, just take it at my own pace and do what my time schedule allows. Would I be better off trying another lodge in a diffrent town, or not patitioning at all? Thank you in advance for any help or input guys. Dave Fetsch
Originally posted by racin116: My Father has been a member of the Masonic Lodge now for ten years. I have been seriously thinking about patitioning our local lodge as well, but have a few concerns. My father is heavely involved with both the Masons white shrine and eastern star and serves as the Secratary for the lodge.He participates in every event and sits on most of the event boards and pretty much does every thing that he can do at,in,or around the lodge. Now my concern is that if I am accepted into the lodge that I may be expected to follow my father in what he does and pretty much be his shadow.I would love to join but not be as active as he is, just take it at my own pace and do what my time schedule allows. Would I be better off trying another lodge in a diffrent town, or not patitioning at all? Thank you in advance for any help or input guys. Dave Fetsch
Greetings Dave: This is only an educated guess. I believe that your father will be thrilled to see you petition his lodge. However, I believe that no one will expect that you will have to be as active as he is. Freemasonry does not expect all members to be active or become officers. That too is something that each members has to decide on their own free will and accord. My suggestion, just petition your father's lodge and see what happenss. Once you become a Mason, you will see why and understand more about our gentle craft. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter. Fraternally, /s/ Terry, PM Freemason Hot Topics Moderator
I agree with Brother Terry. Not every new mason is expected to carry all of the burdens immediately. Once you are a Mason, you are free to participate in Masonry (and the appendant and concordant bodies), as your time and situation permits. Where I live in Northern Virginia, most men have full time jobs, and the administrative work of the lodge is often taken on by retired people, who have the free time to devote to such activities.
With over 100 (one hundred) appendant and concordant bodies of masonry, no one is expected to join all of them, and devote hours of time to administrative work and volunteering.
You should think of Masonry as a "cafeteria plan", where each individual participant, can seek out the group/groups which appeal to him, and then participate as much or as little as his time and situation permits.
Ive seen something like this in my lodge. One thing to ask yourself is not will the Lodge expect as much time from you as your father puts in, but will your FATHER expect you to do as much as he does. I know one member of my Lodge who has sons and grandsons who wont join because he will expect them to be as involved as he is....he doesnt understand that they have much less time than he does to dedicate to all the appendate bodies, rites, etc.
They all want to join, but know they can not live up to his expectations of how much time to dedicate.
That is one of my issues SgtWilk. I love the idea of the Free Mason's, but dont want what could be such a wonderfull and joyous thing to be clouded. I have tried to talk with my Dad about this and allways seems to come back to joining extension groups.I thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. It really does help. Dave
I will be glad to explain in greater detail. I encourage you to continue investigating the Masonic family of organizations.
What you can do, is to petition for the Craft lodge, and then after you are a Master Mason, you can consider getting involved in other appendant bodies.
