To kick off a celebration of Mozart’s music at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brian Lauritzen of Classical KUSC radio station in Los Angeles interviewed Past Grand Master R. Stephen Doan to learn more about the Masonic themes in Mozart’s famous opera, “The Magic Flute.”
Watch the video here to learn more about this Masonic masterpiece from one of our fraternity’s great scholars.
Listen to the full interview here:
On October 31, the United Grand Lodge of England hosted the tercentenary celebration of organized speculative Masonry. The celebration was one for the ages, with more than 4,000 Masons from around the world, representing 135 grand lodges. The theatrical performance included a custom score performed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Learn more about this once-in-a-lifetime celebration at freemasonrytoday.com or register here to stream the pre-recorded event in full now.
Photo courtesy of Chris Allerton Photography / UGLE
Feature Article: The Men Who Might Be Masons
Gone are the days when California lodges strived for sheer numbers. The emphasis is now on quality: The traits and experiences that make a member worthy. How do lodges identify these traits? How can they encourage the right experiences? And, what does it feel like to be one of the men seeking answers in today’s fraternity?
Read about members throughout California whose Masonic experience brought them exactly what they were seeking: brotherhood, friendship, and the path to a more meaningful life.
Executive Message: Welcoming Our New Brothers
Grand Master Bruce R. Galloway offers guidance for welcoming new brothers who are also great friends.
What Good Men Seek
What draws prospective members to Freemasonry? Here, brothers share what they were looking for in the fraternity.
Why I Became a Mason
Past Grand Master John L. Cooper III reflects upon his personal journey in Masonry — how he came to the fraternity and what he’s learned thus far.
It Feels Like Home
One Los Angeles-area lodge proves that intimate member experiences and deep friendships are the backbone of a thriving brotherhood.
To Do My Part
David Johnson has never met a stranger — a talent he puts to good use for California Masonry. Over the years, he’s struck up lifelong friendships and drawn lost brothers back into the fold.
Crafting for the Prospect Experience
In this series of profiles, we explore pivotal roles in guiding good men through the application process.
Tradition and Evolution
Lodges at the Masonic Homes in Union City and Covina demonstrate that when it comes to relationships between brothers, age is just a number — and an opportunity to increase one’s understanding of the world.
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Have magazine feedback you’d like to share? Email your comments to editor@freemason.org.
In 1717 England, half the population had barely enough food and shelter to survive. Local churches gave relief only to the pitifully poor who were elderly or disabled. Work was scarce. The few who received public assistance were forced to wear a blue or red “P” on their clothes to designate their status – “pauper.” But across this bleak landscape, the Enlightenment was dawning, along with new ideas about philanthropy. A new fraternity was dawning with it. Freemasonry held relief up alongside truth and brotherly love. All brothers, it said – and indeed, all mankind – were bound by a “chain of sincere affection.”
18TH CENTURY
The Grand Lodge of England wasted no time setting up a safety net for brethren. By 1725 it had established a central Fund of Charity for Masons and their families, and began organizing a committee to oversee it. (According to Masonic scholar John M. Hamill in his 1993 Prestonian lecture: “Like many good Masonic committees it met regularly, argued long, presented an unworkable scheme, and was sent back to think again.” The committee was officially formed in 1727.) It was authorized to give five guineas for each relief case it heard, and presented special cases to the grand lodge. Lodges could contribute to the fund, and the position of grand treasurer was created to manage it.
From the beginning, “the Craft gave quietly but generously to many non-Masonic charities…” noted Hamill. In one example from 1733, English lodges took up a collection to help settlers in the American colony of Georgia. In the 1770s and 1780s, at the urging of Emperor Alexander I, Freemason Nicholas Novikov introduced modern programs such as charitable schools and famine relief, and created the Friendly Learned Society, an educational-charitable society that provided aid to those who could demonstrate need. Other prominent Russian Masons later organized the charitable endeavors, committees, and institutions that eventually led to the founding of the Imperial Philanthropic Society in 1816 – the country’s first officially sanctioned charitable society.
19TH CENTURY
In 1788 in East London, the Premier Grand Lodge opened what would become the Royal Masonic Institute for Girls – a school for daughters of “indigent or deceased Free Masons.” Around the same time, the rival Antients Grand Lodge began providing grants for clothing, food, and education for the fraternity’s needy boys, and after the two grand lodges merged, a residential school for boys was opened. These proved to be precursors for Masonic orphanages and homes for widows and elders.
Wherever the fraternity spread, it answered the call of relief. In California, as many settlers’ dreams of gold gave way to poverty and disease, lodges provided food and nursed the sick. During the cholera outbreak of 1850, 300 Masons raised $32,000 and opened a hospital at Sutter’s Fort.
To reduce the pressure on individual lodges, many grand lodges, including the Grand Lodge of California, eventually created regional boards to organize and disseminate relief funds to fraternal family in distress. In 1886, 19 delegates from Canada and the United States met in St. Louis to form the General Masonic Relief Association of the United States and Canada. The new association helped coordinate relief activities of lodges and relief boards throughout the continent, from helping elderly brothers transition into nursing homes to helping grand lodges distribute charitable funds. It also worked to deter fraudulent claims for relief, sending out bulletins with headlines such as “beware of this moocher” and featuring the description and aliases of Masonic impostors at large.
Across the Atlantic, the United Grand Lodge of England had by this time established a fund to provide annuities to elderly brethren, wives, and widows in need, and even opened a brick-and-mortar residence. Many American grand lodges were supporting Masonic colleges and seminaries by then – in 1847, Pennsylvania, New York, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee boasted Masonic schools – but it wasn’t until 1867 that the first U.S. Masonic home for widows and orphans opened, established by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. Other grand lodges followed, and within a few decades, dozens of Masonic homes had opened in the U.S. In 1898 the Grand Lodge of California opened its Masonic Widows and Orphans Home in Decoto (now Union City), thanks to donations by approximately 16,000 California Masons. A decade later, it established a second community, exclusively for Masonic orphans, in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California – today’s Covina Masonic Home.
WORLD WAR I AND AFTER
During World War I, many grand lodges and lodges gave generously to support their nation’s armed forces, including military hospitals. A group of English brothers from Malmesbury Lodge No. 3156 went even further, opening the Freemasons’ War Hospital and Nursing Home in West London in 1917. (Later known as the Royal Masonic Hospital, it earned a sterling reputation and remained open long after the war.)
By 1919, prompted by the War Department’s request to work with just one coordinated Masonic charity, 49 U.S. grand lodges formed the Masonic Service Association to send relief funds for their servicemen. After the war, the organization continued collecting and distributing funds for national Masonic efforts such as disaster relief. By 1938, it had raised and disbursed nearly $1 million for natural disasters in Japan, Florida, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Kentucky, and Austria.
It wasn’t the only Masonic organization answering new calls for relief. In 1922, a tristate committee of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico grand lodges planned a sanatorium for Masons and dependents struck by tuberculosis. In Portland, Oregon in 1920, the Imperial Session of the Shriners unanimously passed a resolution to establish its now renowned hospital for children. That same year in California, faced with a devastating teacher shortage, the Grand Lodge proclaimed the first Masonic Public Schools Week – a precedent that would evolve into a legacy.
Examples of innovative, compassionate relief appear in the early records of lodges and grand lodges worldwide. In California’s Annual Communication report from 1906, Harry J. Lask, secretary of the San Francisco Board of Relief, wrote of the fraternity’s response to the earthquake that had ripped through San Francisco that spring. “One touch of nature made the whole world kin,” Lask wrote. “As disastrous and sorrowful was the calamity, it had its good effect of making all as one family, and binding the tie of brotherly love and fraternity stronger.”
“GIVE, GIVE, I PRAY YOU!
Thomas Starr King – preacher, abolitionist, scholar, Freemason – was known as “the orator who saved the nation” for his role in persuading California to side with the North in the Civil War. He was also responsible for a massive war relief program.
Starr King led the Pacific branch of the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), the forerunner of the American Red Cross. The commission distributed food, clothing, and medicine to sick and wounded Union soldiers, relying on contributions from the American public. By 1862, after a series of Union defeats, it was nearly bankrupt. Then Starr King began fundraising in the Golden State, traveling at his own expense from cities to mining towns to farming counties. At a San Francisco rally, he pled: “Give, give, I pray you… Shall it be said that rich and generous California was the only state whose blood did not bound in unison and sympathy with her loyal sisters? Shall history say that electric California was alone laggard?”
In the end, California contributed $1.25 million to the USSC – more money than any other state. Starr King was chiefly responsible.
Upon his death in 1864, at the age of just 39, the Boston Evening Transcript wrote that Starr King had “toiled like an angel of mercy” for those called to the battlefield. “His words of earnest entreaty coined hundreds of thousands of golden dollars for the treasury of beneficence. Thus striving, he has died as much a hero as he would had he fallen leading an army to victory.”
Photo Credit: The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London (Charity Engraving) and Masonic Service Association of North America(First Meeting Photography)
Permission to reprint original articles in CALIFORNIA FREEMASON is granted to all recognized Masonic publications with credit to the author, photographer, and this publication. Contact the editor at editor@freemason.org.
300 Years of Freemasonry
This year marks the 300th anniversary of our great fraternity! Join California Freemason in exploring the history of Freemasonry – from today’s brotherhood to what might be possible in the future as society continues to evolve.
Feature Story: Morals and Machines
Every day, emerging technologies pose new ethical questions for our society. As technology advances, the stakes will only rise — and the near future may bring the greatest moral challenges in generations. It is up to each of us to seek the guidance we need to make informed decisions. Masonry can show us how.
Executive Message: Opportunities Yet to Come
Junior Grand Warden John E. Trauner shares his vision for the ideal future of our fraternity.
Masonic Education: Tomorrow’s Masonic Workshops
Junior Grand Warden John E. Trauner shares his vision for the ideal future of our fraternity.
The Future is Bright
How will Freemasonry continue to impact society in the years to come? The Masonic community weighs in.
Five for the Future
As California Masons change the world, these five young members are at the forefront, inspired by brotherhood and the lessons of the craft.
A Future with Fraternity
Brothers at Acacia Creek, a nonprofit retirement community modeled after Masonic values, share why including Freemasonry in the next chapter of their lives is cause for celebration.
Voices of Masonic Youth
How does the next generation envision our fraternal future? Our first-ever short fiction contest encouraged young readers to share their creative perspective.
What We Might Achieve
Health care and the future go hand in hand. At the Masonic Homes, new technologies and services are reaching more fraternal family members than ever before.
A Festive Board Marks a Milestone
Grand Master John R. Heisner ventured to London to honor 300 years of Freemasonry with Masons from the United Kingdom and California.
WEB EXTRA: This is the third and final issue of the California Freemason’s special commemorative series celebrating the 300th anniversary of Freemasonry. When viewed in tandem, the collage-style artwork – inspired by Leonard Gabanon’s iconic “Assemblée de francs-maçons pour la réception des Apprentis” – present the fraternity’s evolution from its past into the future.
Read the previous issue: Explore the second chapter in the history of Freemasonry – from World War II to today’s brotherhood.
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Have magazine feedback you’d like to share? Email your comments to editor@freemason.org.
IN THE MID- TO LATE- 20TH CENTURY, OUR COUNTRY’S MASONS LED THE WAY FOR LASTING CHANGE
Following World War II, the final century of the second millennium heralded new technologies, communications platforms, and cross-cultural awareness. It was also a time of landmark political and social events, including rebuilding countries decimated by the war, a national movement for African-American civil rights, and the rise and fall of the Cold War. These are some of the American Masons who made an indelible imprint upon this period of time – and whose influence continues to resonate within our lives today.
DUKE ELLINGTON (1899-1974)
Jazz Composer and Band Leader
Prince Hall
NORMAN VINCENT PEAL (1898-1993)
Minster, Author of “The Power of Positive Thinking”
Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of New York
CECIL B. DEMILLE (1881-1959)
Film Actor, Director, and Producer
Prince of Orange Lodge No. 16, New York
JOHN GLENN (1921-2016)
U.S. Senator and the First Man to Orbit the Earth
Concord Lodge No. 688, Ohio
ALEX HALEY (1921-1992)
Journalist, Author of “Roots”
Prince Hall
IRVING BERLIN (1888-1989)
Composer and Songwriter
Munn Lodge No. 190, New York
THURGOOD MARSHALL (1908-1993)
First African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Prince Hall
EARL WARREN (1891-1974)
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, California Governor
Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California
REV. JESSE JACKSON (1941-)
U.S. Senator, Civil Rights Leader
Prince Hall
BUZZ ALDRIN (1930-)
Astronaut, Second Man to Walk on the Moon.
Montclair Lodge No. 144, New Jersey
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR (1880-1964)
Famed U.S. Military General
Manila Lodge No. 1, Philippines
AUDIE MURPHY (1925-1971)
Actor, Most Decorated Soldier of World War II
Heritage Lodge No. 764, California
JOHN WAYNE (1907-1979)
Actor, Congressional Gold Medal Recipient
Marion McDaniel Lodge No. 56, Arizona
GERALD FORD (1913-2006)
38th U.S. President
Malta Lodge No. 465, Michigan
We come to Masonry for one reason: To make a difference. We make a difference in our own lives, as we strive to become better men. We make a difference in our brothers’ lives, by vowing to be there. And, we make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable members of our community through our shared support of impactful causes. A new video created by the California Masonic Foundation offers an inspiring perspective of our Masonic quest to live a meaningful life.
300 Years of Freemasonry
This year marks the 300th anniversary of our great fraternity! Join California Freemason in exploring the next chapter in the history of Freemasonry – from World War II to today’s brotherhood.
Executive Message: The Future Is in Our Foundation
Grand Master John R. Heisner explains how Masonry today has been inspired by past members’ experiences.
Masonic Education: Freemasonry’s Workshops Evolve
As early blue lodges strengthened ties with their grand lodges, Masonic and social benefits began to flourish. Past Grand Master John L. Cooper III explains why.
Symbols and Answers
Past Grand Master R. Stephen Doan sums up one of his favorite Masonic lectures, recounts the moment his Masonic legacy hit home, and shares his reasons for giving back.
American Masons Who Shaped the World
Read about American Masons who made an indelible imprint upon society as thought leaders, artists, and activists during the 20th century.
Democracy Brings Freemasonry to Light
Masonry spread with the rise of democracy throughout the world. View a map illustrating the details.
A Global Experience
Learn how California Masons are thinking beyond borders, whether finding inspiration in readapting early Masonic rituals, or by building new networks worldwide.
Blazing New Pathways
David Okamoto views the future of Freemasonry through the lens of technology: bright and filled with possibility. Discover what inspires him.
Blueprint for Success
From statewide support for Masonic properties to lodges operating outside the lodge “box,” Masonic real estate requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Young at Heart
At Acacia Creek, life is filled with meaningful activities, lasting friendships, chances to grow, and – most of all – fun!
Home Where My Brothers Are
Learn how new shared housing in Covina will offer Masonic Outreach Services clients a home in a comfortable environment, amidst a supportive community of peers.
WEB EXTRA: The California Masonic Memorial Temple was dedicated at the 109th Annual Communication in 1958. See historic photos of its construction on the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. View photos.
Read the previous issue: Explore the first chapter in our fraternal history – from 1717 to 1940.
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Have magazine feedback you’d like to share? Email your comments to editor@freemason.org.
Grand Master Heisner has declared July 2017 to be Support Our Veterans Month in California. Read his proclamation now.
This important recognition of service members in our Masonic family and greater community is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate veterans’ contributions with your lodge. Here are some ideas.
Support Our Veterans Month is a perfect time to partner with Masonic youth in your community. Set an example of giving back and help youth reach their service hours!
Share this story with your lodge! All freemason.org articles may be repurposed by any Masonic publication with credit to the Grand Lodge of California and the author. Print this article and post it at lodge; include it in your Trestleboard or website; email it to members; or use the buttons at the top of this page to share it on Facebook or Twitter.
Toast to Freemasonry during an unforgettable evening at the 300th Anniversary Gala and Banquet on Saturday, October 14. Held at the 110-year old Fairmont Hotel – a sparkling jewel atop Nob Hill – the evening will reflect the enduring sophistication and revelry of San Francisco’s golden era.
Mix and mingle during cocktail hour before enjoying a delicious seated dinner, with awards and recognitions throughout the night. Marking the culmination of a weekend steeped in tradition, as well as centuries of shared dedication to Freemasonry, the 300th Anniversary Gala and Banquet will be a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the bonds of brotherhood – and a night you’ll never forget.
