This file is copyright (c) 1997 The Philalethes Society and all rights
including any redistribution rights are reserved by the copyright holder.
Permission to quote from, redistribute or to otherwise use these materials
must be obtained from the copyright holder directly by contacting The
Philalethes, Nelson King, FPS, Editor, 2 Knockbolt Crescent, Agincourt
Ontario Canada, M1S 2P6. Tel: 416-293-8071 Fax: 416-293-8634 or
nking@freemasonry.org or nking@onramp.ca




          IS OUR MASONIC RITUAL OUT OF DATE FOR TODAY'S MAN?
                       by Robert G. Davis, MPS
             (Reprinted by permission of The Philalethes)

     Ritual  in America. It's everywhere. And it's  habit-forming.  In
fact,  we  are so immersed in it that it would take  an  extraordinary
degree of perception even to note its presence. But still it's  there,
and  its efforts are real and have a tremendous impact on how each  of
us live and act.

     Think  for a moment about its influence in your life. Most of  us
follow  the  same  routine every day of getting  out  of  bed,  eating
breakfast, getting ready for work. We take the same route to our jobs.
We  wear the same mix of clothing. We eat at the same restaurants.  We
usually  follow a repeated routine in how we spend our leisure  hours.
We  flock  to  stadiums on Saturday afternoons.  We  observe  military
parades, inaugurations.

     Our  Sunday  church  services are steeped  in  ritual.  Even  our
architecture  is  a response to the ritual patterns by which  we  live
together and how we socialize.

     You may perceive it as something different. But it's all  ritual.
It's  any  practice  or  pattern of behavior  which  we  repeat  in  a 
prescribed manner.

     All  ritual is communication. In Freemasonry it becomes a  system 
or  collection of ideals and practices which, when repeated  time  and 
again,  and introduced to our new members in the same prescribed  way, 
establishes a fraternal bond between each of us. Its practice lends  a 
formality  and  stability to the fraternity. And  its  uniformity  and 
immutability  is evidence of the antiquity and changelessness  of  our 
institution. It has even been said that, upon the preservation of  our 
ritual, depends the honor and reputation of our Order.

     Certainly, the practice and communication of ritual has been  the 
major  Masonic  activity  of  the last one hundred  or  so  years.  In 
Freemasonry,  it deals with the relationships a man has to other  men, 
to his institutions, with his God, and with nature. It expresses those 
fundamental  values  we attempt to understand and to  control  in  our 
lifetimes  - values that relate both to our social positions  and  our 
sense of the Divine.

     And  the ritual not only says something. It also does things.  It 
correlates  our value systems among our members. It interprets for  us
timeless  statements of truth through symbols. It  prescribes  certain 
patterns of behavior which tells us how we should live. It establishes 
associations  among certain kinds of contradictions which have  common 
meanings. It directs our passions and intellect toward right,  ethical 
values  and to the sound moral principles of our organization. And  it 
has been around pretty much in the same form and in the same  language 
for over 250 years.

     It  indeed  seems the intent of Freemasonry has been  to  try  to 
formulate  a  ritual  meaningful to all people at  all  times  in  all 
places. But the test of how well that ritual communicates its  lessons 
today  largely  depends  on  whether or not  its  form  of  expression 
provides a meaningful experience to those it intends to impress.  This 
raises   a   couple  of  interesting  questions.  Is  it   true   that 
communication  is effective only if it fits our times? Has our  ritual 
become  too  outdated to meet today's needs? Has  our  message  become 
blurred because our form of communication is no longer fitting?

     Yes,  there are some problems with our ritual. For instance,  one 
of  the paradoxes we have always had to confront in our Fraternity  is 
how  to  communicate a single ritual to everyone  from  twenty-one  to 
ninety-one,  learned  and unlearned, from diverse  socio-economic  and
religious backgrounds, in a way that is in touch with reality for  all 
of  them. Newspapers, radio, and television in America have  certainly 
taught  us  one  thing. In all forms of communication,  men  seek  the 
things  that  touch them at their level of  development.  Some  people 
prefer an intellectual approach to things, others an emotional appeal. 
Still  others prefer some balance. So, it is perhaps an  extraordinary 
hope  for  us to expect every brother to take to his  heart  the  same 
ritual  in the same way. It is as unreal as to expect every  teen-ager 
to love classical music.

     In our Masonic ceremonies, there is also an inherent danger  that 
we are conveying our liturgy for its own sake. This in notably at risk 
when  our  ritualists  are not highly sophisticated  in  the  ways  of 
communication.  They feel secure in repeating the same rite  over  and 
over in exactly the same way. A repetitious rite at its best lifts the 
heart; at its worst it is an aberration. There is a fine line  between 
discourse and monotony.

     Ritual  for  its own sake is vanity. It communicates  little  and 
teaches  even  less. Ritual for the sake of its participants,  on  the 
other hand, reflects a thoughtfulness, a concern for its message,  and 
a true commitment to meaning. But it's a sad truth that it's far  more
difficult to perform ritual for the sake of its participants. It takes 
a greatness uncommon to most of us.

     It  would be less than honest, then, for us to presume  that  our 
ritual meets the needs of all personalities within our fraternity.  If 
this were true, our Lodge rooms would always be filled to capacity. We 
all  know that rare indeed is the Lodge which can fill every  seat  in 
its hall at every degree conferral or stated communication.

     It  can  be  suggested,  then,  that  the  "adopted"  ritual   of 
Freemasonry  is not the only important characteristic which  motivates 
men to hold an interest in our Order. In fact, the ritualistic  aspect 
of  our work may not be important but in a very limited sense. It  may 
be serving only those who learn it; i.e., the officers or ritual  team 
of the Lodge.

     And  as long as our Lodge ritualists choose to impart our  ritual 
as though they exist only from the eyebrows up, we will too often fail 
to  communicate  and will merely pass along information.  In  a  Lodge 
where  the adopted Masonic ritual is the only method of  communication 
introduced   to  our  initiates,  our  newly  raised  Master   Mason's 
impression of our work may unfortunately be his last.

     Having  said all this, I now want to reassure you that I don  not 
believe  the  ritual in use in Oklahoma, at least at  the  Blue  Lodge 
level,  needs to be renovated. Nor do I think we need to create a  new 
one  using  contemporary language. (There was a need to do  this  very 
thing with the ritual of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the 
Orient of Oklahoma - and it has recently been done in a very effective 
form and to the delight of many).

     But  the monitorial and esoteric language of the Blue Lodge is  a 
different  kind of thing. It renders order and symmetry to  the  whole 
Lodge  structure,  and  provides  the framework  for  an  ordered  and 
progressive education in our tenets and principles. Further, there  is 
a  discipline or prescribed authority to things in our Masonic  ritual 
which adds to its solemnity, and conveys to the candidate our devotion 
to  our  established customs in a most effective way. But  again,  the 
forms,  the ceremonies, and the language of our adopted  ritual,  when 
considered  alone, may still not be that important to  overall  member 
interest, enthusiasm, and retention.

     What  is  important is that we communicate the  many  and  varied 
elements  which  encompasses the essence of our ritual in a  way  that
reaches  our brethren at their level. We really must take the time  to 
make sure that our candidates truly understand the Masonic  principles 
being  imparted. We must convey our lessons, our history, our  legacy, 
symbols,  and our heritage in a way that really touches the minds  and 
emotions of our brethren in the here and now.

     What  is  needed today is a well developed and  carefully  formed 
Masonic education course undertaken both within and without our Lodges 
and in a format which relates to today's male. If we honestly want our 
new Masons to learn and understand the nature of Freemasonry we really 
must develop and incorporate alternative teaching techniques that will 
supplement, in a meaningful way, the processing of candidates  through 
our  degree  mills.  We should agree in  principle  with  the  Masonic 
observer  who complained, "the nightly grinding out of candidates  may 
make numbers, but it will never make Masons!"

     "Well," you say, "Masonic education is the job of the brother who 
teaches the catechisms!" Indeed - but how many of our instructors  are 
teaching  anything  more  than  the "work"?  Are  they  informing  the 
candidate  about the various links we can claim to the past?  Do  they 
discuss  the system of operative Masonry of Medieval Europe? does  our 
instructor  inform  our young initiate where our  word  "Lodge"  comes
from?  Does  he  explain the difference between  a  stonemason  and  a 
Freemason?

     What  about Freemasonry in the eighteenth century? What  happened 
at the Grand Lodge in England in 1717? When did the ritual for the 3rd 
degree  become part of today's system of Masonry? What  was  important 
about the union of the "moderns" and "ancients" in 1813?

     How did our Masonic degrees come to be? Why do we use  initiation 
as  a  form  of  education? Where do we  trace  our  tree  of  Masonic 
knowledge in each of the Appendant Bodies? Why do we use symbols?  And 
what  do  they all mean? Where did they come from?  How  does  Masonry 
differ  from  religion?  Are  those things  which  are  told  will  be 
concealed from the initiate ever revealed to him?

     And  what do we really tell our candidates about the  Masonry  in 
our  own Grand Jurisdictions? Does he know when and where  Freemasonry 
came to America? Or how it evolved in his State? Has he been furnished 
a copy of the constitution and Code of his Grand Lodge? Is he informed 
about the history of the particular ritual his State has adopted? does 
he  know  from whence it came? Does he understand the  duties  of  the 
officers  of his Lodge, or his Grand Lodge? Is he informed  about  the
Government and Authority of Freemasonry?

     Does  he learn about its philanthropies? Can he tell his  friends 
specifically what his Lodge or the Bodies Corporate of Masonry support 
in  his  area?  What  can  he  tell  his  friends  at  all  about  the 
organization he has just joined?

     Brethren,  I  submit that if these questions and many  more  like 
them  are not being explained to every brother who knocks at the  door 
of  his  Lodge  at some time during the  process  of  his  initiation, 
passing, and raising, that we really have little reasonable chance  to 
expect him to become intimately connected to our fraternity. If we are 
not  teaching  our new brother the many historical,  interesting,  and 
fascinating  sides of our incredible organization at the time when  he 
is most impressionable and receptive to learn about them, then we  are 
committing  a  serious breach of faith not becoming to the  ideals  to 
which we are entrusted.

     Finally,  if  we  should expect to retain the old  forms  of  our 
ritual  and, at the same time, communicate effectively in a  way  that 
fits  our times, we should seriously consider incorporating the  audio 
and visual techniques of a modern America to the time tested ideals of
the  past. We should blend our ritual with twentieth century  teaching 
methods.  If  we  cannot educate and train enough  Lodge  officers  or 
leaders  to provide a meaningful learning experience in at least  most 
Lodges  in  our  Jurisdictions,  we  can  certainly  package  a   very 
worthwhile  Masonic  Education  Course  in  the  form  of  videotapes, 
tape/slide  presentations, closed circuit television, or by using  the 
other media tools accessible to almost every community. If Lodges are 
not  so  equipped,  it would be easy to develop  a  Masonic  Education 
series  of videotapes for home study. Bibliographies of books  can  be 
made available for purchase. Lodges can develop libraries and  library 
funds to create an ever expanding local source of Masonic knowledge.

     There is much that can be done. There is much that must be done.

     If Masons would simply invest the time and resources necessary to 
become  knowledgeable on the fundamental subjects of Freemasonry,  and 
to  the extent they can impart this information to each other  and  to 
their  non-Masonic  friends in a conversational way,  then  we  really 
would be communicating in a manner fitting to our times. Then and only 
then, will our ritual have meaning to all Freemasons in all places  at 
all times. And that, my brethren, I am sure was its original intent.

