Stemming the tide of Membership Decline
Our membership is dropping about 6% every Triennium. When I was knighted in 1985, there were 319,798 Knights. In 1997, about 12 years after I was knighted, our membership was 210,019. In 2015, the year i was installed as Grand Commander of Maryland, our membership was 92,180. On the day that I am writing this message our membership is less than 65,000. My Fratres, I know that we do not want to hear this, but what we have been doing for the last 40 years is clearly not working.
We’ve played around the edges of the problem, with decisions to freeze, or evan lower our dues, merge Commanderies, change our uniforms in part (replace the chapeau with the bell or service cap) or in total (adopt cap and mantle), and a variety of “membership initiatives” and mandates for chairman and reporting to the Grand Encampment. None of that has worked.
Change is not easy, doesn’t happen over night, and happens when we take small, consistent steps. I didn’t put on 50 pounds overnight, and I’m not going to lose it that way, either. But, doing the small things every day will lead to the results I need. same holds true for our issue with membership.
Let’s look a one small thing we can do that can have an impact if many of us can do it. No, I’m not going to say “Everyone recruit one person.” Sure, that works, but not very well (obviously), or we’d not be having this discussion. No, let’s consider how we can do something completely different and has nothing to do, directly, with Templary.
We are all Royal Arch Companions. as such, we have received, as our late Brother Paul Harvey might say, “the rest of the story.” Section I of the Constitution of the United Grand Lodge of England declares that “pure, ancient Masonry consists of three Degrees and no more, Viz., those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.” The Royal Arch degree is, if you will, the “fourth section” of the Master Mason degree. How might we share this with our less-informed brethren, especially very new brothers who are just beginning their journey? Glad you asked!
Virtually every lodge wants to confer the EA degree on its candidates, even if there isn’t the ability to confer the rest of the degrees without a lot of help. There are also many affinity groups that like to go and confer the Master Mason degree (law enforcement, Shrine, Grand Lodge officers, etc.). The degree that doesn’t get a lot of love is the Fellowcraft, which is a beautiful and educational degree that deserves more emphasis, not less.
So, why don’t we, in every Grand Commandery, work with our Royal Arch counterparts to establish at least one, and ideally more, “dream teams” of our best ritualists to confer the Fellowcraft degree in the Blue Lodges within our jurisdiction? Use them to not only assist the lodges in advancing their candidates, but we can also offer some Masonic education to the whole lodge on what the Royal Arch is and why it is important for all Master Masons to at least travel that second step in York Rite Masonry. We can explain how the degrees of Mark, Most Excellent, Royal, and Select fit into the Masonic timeline without exposing anything of the Ritual, and how the Royal Arch is the capstone degree for the Master Mason, but also a gateway to more light and Masonic knowledge. Include non-Templars in the team to show that the path is not just to get “to the end of the line.” (I know an outstanding ritualist who does the Middle Chamber beautifully, but as a Jewish brother, is not looking to join Commandery. He’d be on my dream team for sure!)
That’s one idea. How much impact would it have? Well, one Grand Lodge I know has almost 190 Entered Apprentices awaiting the second degree, and another has just over 200. Sure some need to complete catechism exams (another place we can be helpful to Blue Lodges), but many others are on hold because their lodge doesn’t have someone available to confer the Middle Chamber lecture (and let’s not kid ourselves; that is often the hold up). If our Fellowcraft teams could confer say, 10 degrees a year per Grand jurisdiction, and each conferral led to three petitions for the Chapter, Council, and Commandery, that would be over 1800 new petitions in one year just from one simple activity undertaken by a team of 10 Companions based on our 61 Grand Commanderies (and, for those Subordinate Commanderies, this would be helpful as well for your growth!). Chapters and Councils would grow as well. Masonic education is provided. Lodges get much needed assistance. Candidates get outstanding degree work. This can be a winning activity for the whole Fraternity.
No, it’s not the only thing we can do, nor is it the be-all, end-all solution to reverse the membership trend. It is one small step that only takes about a dozen Companions with a desire to serve. That one step can easily become ten, then fity, then a hundred, and before we know it, we’re seeing noticeable results around the globe. Can we afford to not consider doing something like this? I’d love your feedback.