GRAND MASTER’S MEXICO CITY TRIP
WINTER
2 SNAPSHOT
The 175th Annual Communication brings a who’s-who of Masonic dignitaries to town.
4 EXECUTIVE MESSAGE
New Grand Master Arthur L. Salazar Jr. on why community is at the heart of Freemasonry.
5 THE MOSAIC
A new affinity lodge brings Masons together outside of the lodge [page 5]; checking in with California’s newest lodge s [page 7] ; meet the Mason with the slickest moves on the hardwood [page 8] ; why the new Trestleboard is a text [page 9] ; Sacramento Masons rally for Afghan refugee students [page 10] ; this Masonic order is in full feather [page 11] ; in Paradise, Table Mountain № 124 begins anew [page 12] ; a pilot project is preserving the records of extinct lodges [page 14] ; tracking California’s lodge deserts [page 15] ; and more.
33 MASONIC ASSISTANCE
A new program at the Masonic Homes of California is helping to train the next generation of nursing students. ON THE COVER ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID BRINLEY
PAUL DI MARINO (FROM LEFT), FRANK COBOS, JEFFREY DANGERMOND, AND RYDELL MALICDEM GATHER FOR A WEEKLY BREAKFAST AT REDLANDS № 300.
PHOTO BY MATHEW SCOTT
Brothers from Another Mother Lodge
THE 175TH ANNUAL COMMUNICATION brought together nearly 1,300 Masons from around California and, this year more than most, around the world. In addition to representatives from 283 of the Grand Lodge of California’s constituent lodges, there were 61 Masonic dignitaries present from other jurisdictions, including the United Grand Lodge of England, considered the “mother lodge” of American Freemasonry. Representing the UGLE were Grand Secretary Adrian Marsh (left) and Pro Grand Master Jonathan Spence. (The Pro Grand Master is an advisor to the Grand Master, the Duke of Kent, and often serves in his place.) Prior to the business sessions, they met with new California Grand Master Arthur L. Salazar Jr., Grand Secretary Allan L. Casalou, and outgoing Grand Master G. Sean Metroka (not pictured). —IAN A. STEWART
PHOTO BY KEVIN MEYNELLE
EXECUTIVE MESSAGE
A COMMUNITY OF JOINERS
In a divided world, Masons have a chance to inspire the community around us.
Why do people join the Masons? That’s one of the most common questions I’m asked by people who want to know more about this fraternity. We know that there are lots of reasons: Some had a father or grandfather who belonged to a lodge. Or a friend who introduced them to a member. Or just curiosity about the ritual and esoteric Masonic knowledge. Or a desire to improve as a husband, father, or partner. Something people don’t necessarily talk much about, but what might be even more important, is the community aspect of our organization. When Masons gather in lodge, we’re coming together as a group of people with common values. We’re demonstrating servant leadership. We’re working with one another across political, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines.
Nowadays, that kind of cooperation is more important than ever— and harder than ever to find. The harmony we see play out in our lodges is precisely the kind of thing we need in order to fight against the polarization and distrust that have become all too common in our world. That makes our lodges important examples that our communities can follow—and it makes our members important leaders in the places they call home.
But that can only happen if we take the lessons we learn inside the lodge and put them into practice outside of it. Today, we have a special opportunity to inspire the world around us through our Masonic principles. After all, Masons are builders. We build character. We build consensus. We build vibrant communities.
So as we look toward the new year, I urge all California Masons to take advantage of this opportunity to show our community what Masonic leadership really looks like.
Thank you. I look forward to an inspiring year to come.
Arthur L. Salazar Jr. Grand Master of Masons in California
EDITORIAL STAFF
Emily Limón Executive Editor
Ian A. Stewart Editorial Director
Pete Ivey Creative Director
Isabelle Guérin Managing Editor
J.R. Sheetz Multimedia Editor
Justin Japitana Assistant Editor
John Dale Online Editor
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE
Arthur L. Salazar Jr. Grand Master
Russell E. Hennings Editor-in-Chief and PM, Saddleback Laguna № 672
Allan L. Casalou Grand Secretary and PM, Acalanes Fellowship № 480
Ian E. Laurelin South Pasadena № 290
Dagoberto Rodriguez PM, South Pasadena № 290
Emanuel A. Rose PM, Humboldt № 79
James L. Tucker PM, Logos № 861
OFFICERS OF THE GRAND LODGE
Grand Master: Arthur L. Salazar Jr., Irvine Valley Lodge № 671
Deputy Grand Master: Garrett S. Chan, California № 1
Senior Grand Warden: Ara Maloyan Santa Monica-Palisades № 307
Junior Grand Warden: Christopher D. Smith Peninsula № 168
Grand Treasurer: Charles P. Cross Metropolitan № 352
Grand Secretary: Allan L. Casalou
Acalanes Fellowship № 480
Grand Lecturer: Matthew S. Vander Horck, Long Beach № 327
CALIFORNIA FREEMASON
ISSUE 01 • VOLUME 74 • WINTER 2024–25
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№ 889
BY
JUSTIN L. STEWART
A Lodge Under the Sun and Stars
IN ORANGE COUNTY, A NEW LODGE IS BRINGING TOGETHER MASONS WITH A LOVE OF THE OUTDOORS. BY IAN A. STEWART
They’d already sailed 26 miles to Catalina Island when they began their hike, a nine-mile ramble climbing more than 1,400 feet above sea level. To make things more difficult, they didn’t quite know what they were looking for. Nor were they using GPS to get there. Instead, Sean Heaton, a threat-intelligence engineer formerly with the Department of Defense, was guiding the group, using grid references on a paper map, to a series of coordinates they hardly understood. ¶ At long last, more than four hours into the grueling trek, they found what they were after: a small fake rock, the type you’d hide a spare key inside, set inconspicuously along a footpath. Inside was a slip of paper, signed by a series of adventurers before them who’d similarly volunteered for this online treasure hunt. Triumphant, ▼
LODGE
the half-dozen members of the group added their collective appellation, which felt entirely appropriate, to the list: The Wayfarer’s Lodge. As an affinity lodge, Wayfarer’s № 889 is committed to bringing Masons together not just outside the lodge, but outside period. Members organize frequent excursions during which they hike, camp, fish, surf, or pursue some other enjoyable strategy for leaving the crowd behind. The brainchild of Craig Reade, Glen West, and Heaton, the group now has 16 members, mostly from Huntington Beach № 380 and Newport Mesa № 241, and received its charter this fall during a reception at O’Neill Regional Park in Orange County. In addition to the outdoor trips, the group envisions putting on outdoor degrees for new members, although they’re still looking for the right location to host them.
Already, Wayfarer’s Lodge has hosted weekend camping and hiking trips on Catalina, in Joshua Tree, and at Malibu Creek State Park. Members have organized motorcycle rides up the coast to Santa Barbara, fishing trips around Orange County, and day hikes in Santiago Canyon, Laguna Canyon, Crystal Cove, and elsewhere. “As opposed to everyone showing up to a meeting and then leaving,
LODGE MEMBERS (FROM LEFT) CRAIG READE, KEN STANFORD, AND BEN QUINTERO TAKE A BREAK FROM A RECENT HIKE. AT RIGHT, READE SURVEYS THE SCENE IN HIS CAMPAIGN HAT, WHICH THE LODGE MASTER WEARS.
“When you spend nights sitting around a campfire talking, we’re all a little bit tighter for that.”
where the fellowship is gone, we’re trying to incorporate these activities into the lodge,” says Reade, the charter master. “The gist is that, being that Freemasonry is a fraternity and you’re meant to be friends, having a
Says Charles Kelly, a past master of Newport Mesa № 241, “Before this group, I hadn’t been camping much since I was a kid. Going out to Joshua Tree, I didn’t know most of those dudes super well, but sitting around the campfire, going on long hikes, I got to know them better in a short period of time than I ever would otherwise.”
common interest like this allows us to spend time together outside the lodge.”
The lodge’s outings are geared more toward the weekend warrior than the elite outdoorsman, although a few of the hikes have been on the challenging side. (A 12.5-miler through Joshua Tree wasn’t your typical walk in the park.) As with a regular Masonic meeting, the real bonding happens afterward. “Being together like this gives us an opportunity to be closer,” says West, a past master of Huntington Beach № 380 and Wayfarer’s first treasurer. “When you spend nights sitting around a campfire talking, we’re all a little bit tighter for that.”
SONORA № 887
CHARTERED:
October 27, 2024
MEETS:
Sonora Masonic Lodge
IN THEIR WORDS:
That’s a common refrain within affinity lodges, which bring members together around a shared interest. (California’s first affinity lodge, Ye Olde Cup & Ball № 880, is made up of Masons who practice magic.) Elsewhere in the world, and particularly in Great Britain, affinity lodges are much more common and cater to topics ranging from the esoteric to the everyday (car aficionados, soccer fans, etc.). Closer to home, there are also unofficial and semiofficial Masonic groups like the Widows Sons motorcycle riders, the Black Sheep Scooter Club, the Masonic National Camping Travelers Club, and many others in California and around the country. In each case, members benefit from the double bond of a shared passion. Says West, “We’re bringing all these interests together under one roof.”
That can be a powerful draw: Another charter member of Wayfarer’s Lodge, Mark Phillips, moved to Colorado but still makes a point of flying out to join the group on its camping trips.
Already, Reade has seen the lodge take on a life of its own. While he describes himself as mostly a hiking and camping guy, he says others have started organizing trap-and-skeet sessions and surfing and body-boarding meetups. In the latter case, the group within the group has already come up with a twist on the lodge name: They’re the Wave-Farers.
“In 2023, when Argonaut № 8 and CalaverasKeystone № 78 merged, the Grand Lodge purchased the historic lodge hall in Sonora. The building is now under renovation, ensuring that Freemasonry will remain active in Tuolumne County.”
—MARK McNEE, MASTER
KAPAYAPAAN AT PAGKAKAISA
№ 888
CHARTERED:
October 27, 2024
MEETS:
John D. Spreckles Masonic Center, San Diego
IN THEIR WORDS: “Kapayapaan at Pagkakaisa represents a collaborative endeavor, conceived by like-minded and like-hearted Masonic brethren seeking illumination within Masonry, grounded in principles of peace and harmony.”
—EUGENE ABAD, MASTER
WAYFARER’S № 889
CHARTERED:
October 27, 2024
MEETS: Newport Mesa Masonic Lodge
IN THEIR WORDS:
“We’re members with a common interest in spending time together outside the lodge. Our attachment is in sharing that time together.”
—CRAIG READE, MASTER
CALIFORNIA HISPANIC AND LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH LODGE
THE NEW GUYS
Meet California’s newest lodges.
ROYAL STREET № 890
CHARTERED: October 27, 2024
MEETS: DeMolay Center, Anaheim IN THEIR WORDS:
“Everything for us is about having fun with our families. We’re much more on the social side of the fraternity versus doing craft Masonry. We have quarterly meetings and visits to Disneyland, and our members come in from all around the state.”
—NATHAN WILLIAMS, MASTER
HERMES № 891
CHARTERED: October 27, 2024
MEETS: Long Beach Scottish Rite IN THEIR WORDS:
“Hermes Lodge was named after Hermes Trismegistus, the basis of Hermetic philosophy. We are dedicated to teaching through the principles and symbolism of Freemasonry.”
—MIKE TUGWELL, MASTER
CHARTERED: October 27, 2024
MEETS:
Long Beach Scottish Rite IN THEIR WORDS:
“We aspire to become the source of education for all Masons with an emphasis on Hispanic and Latin American history. We’ll engage in educational seminars throughout California to bring greater interest to our work.”
—GERARDO JIMENEZ, FOUNDING SECRETARY
HIGH 12 U.D.
DISPENSATION: August 8, 2024
MEETS: Benicia Masonic Hall IN THEIR WORDS:
“We meet at the historic Benicia Temple. We chose the name High 12 as it connotes a beautiful and glorious time of the day. That is how we see Masonry—as beautiful and glorious!”
—JAMES RAZON, MASTER
CITLALI U.D.
DISPENSATION: September 18, 2024 MEETS: El Segundo Masonic Center IN THEIR WORDS:
“The word ‘citlali’ means ‘star.’ It derives from the Nahuatl language spoken by Aztecs and Mayans. Our purpose is to spread the values of integrity, unity, and charity, especially in Spanish.”
—MARCO ROMERO, MASTER 7
PHOTO BY SYE WILLIAMS
Harold “Lefty” Williams
California Freemason: You were on the worldfamous Harlem Globetrotters. How did that come to be?
Harold Williams: I played professional basketball for 15 years, during which I traveled to all 50 states and 36 countries. I’d just played in the NBA Summer League in Memphis and was getting ready to head back overseas when a coach from the Globetrotters reached out. He’d seen me clowning around with a basketball during my time with a previous team. He was impressed and gave me a business card. It was red, white, and blue with gold trim and had a picture of a ball being spun on a finger. I felt like I was handed a Willy Wonka ticket.
CFM: You also played for the Washington Generals— the Globetrotters’ rivals.
much to see and understand. Your perspective just grows. As Globetrotters, we also did a lot of charitable work, working with various children’s hospitals and nonprofits. Coming from poverty, basketball was my therapy, and to travel the world to play and make people smile—on top of meeting so many interesting people—I truly appreciate that opportunity. Being a Globetrotter is very similar to being a Mason. You’re an ambassador of goodwill and community, and that’s something you never take off.
“Being a Globetrotter is very similar to being a Mason. You’re an ambassador of goodwill and community.”
CFM: How do you spend your time these days?
When the Trestleboard Is a Text
IN
SACRAMENTO AND ELSEWHERE, MASONS ARE TURNING TO WHATSAPP TO KEEP IN TOUCH.
T HE FIRST MESSAGE is a reminder about the Ben Ali Shrine’s upcoming Monte Carlo Night. Then there’s an invitation to a new speakeasy bar. Someone else is asking for opinions about the appendant bodies. The list goes on: A reminder about a wine-tasting fundraiser at the Shriner’s Hospital. A link to a lodge’s event calendar. A Capital City bonfire party.
HW: Yes, I initially joined the Washington Generals, who always lose to the Globetrotters. They’re really the same organization, just the other side of it. Still, I was so excited by the whole thing. And then in 2007, I was “traded” to the Globetrotters. I got traded the same day Kevin Garnet and Ray Allen were traded to the Boston Celtics. I remember the bigger story on ESPN at the time was about my trade, which I thought was hilarious. It was like that talk show First Take and everyone was talking about this kid who just went from the Generals to the Globetrotters.
CFM: Did you enjoy your time as a Globetrotter?
HW: Yes, very much. Traveling a lot, you meet so many people along the way and learn to be more empathetic and culturally sensitive. There’s so
PHOTO BY MATTHEW REAMER
HW: Besides being the manager of my children, who are working actors, I’m also an executive producer on the show Uninterrupted: The Real Stories of Basketball. Outside of that, my wife and I founded the Dare2Dream Foundation, a nonprofit sports and character-development organization. We’re fortunate to have partnerships with several NBA teams. I grew up poor and had to work hard for everything I earned, so a lot of the work we do is tied to my past. We help children go to school through scholarships and change their environment for the better.
CFM: Would you say that work connects to your experience as a Mason?
HW: Definitely. As Masons, we’re meant to care about being better men—better people—and to make the world better. I just want to be that light for others. Especially with my kids, I talk about having the right values: faith, family, community, treating others the way they want to be treated, and believing in yourself and your dreams. When I first learned about Masonry, my uncle, who was a member, told me, “You know you’re already a Mason, right? You’ve always been a Mason.” At first, I didn’t know what he meant by that. But today I’m proud to say I do my best to embody what a true Mason is about. —Justin Japitana
Masons staying in touch with one another is nothing new. But for the several dozen members of the River City Freemasons group, the method for doing so definitely is. They’re just the latest bunch who’ve turned to WhatsApp to keep the conversation going away from lodge. And crucially, the WhatsApp group casts a wide net, as it’s shared among members from all of Sacramento County’s 12 Masonic lodges.
“It’s easy to not venture outside your own lodge, and our old messaging channels were reinforcing that insularity,” says Blake Green, master of Sacramento № 40.
Instead, Green and others launched the River City Freemasons to break down those barriers. Initially, messages were filled with typical Masonic stuff—schedules for degree ceremonies and so forth. But for the first time, Green and others were getting a peek into what the lodge down the street was up to. “We never realized how many lodges were hosting festive boards and chili cook-offs,” Green says. “Suddenly, our members’ experience of the fraternity grew.”
In the few months since launching, the River City Freemasons group has grown. The chatter is having some IRL impacts, too, bringing new faces to lodge. And, Green says, it’s a great way to keep members engaged, giving them a sense of the larger fraternity they belong to.
As grounded as Masonry is in in-person gatherings, the chats are proving to be an extremely effective way to expand participation.
“At the end of the day, the biggest takeaway we’ve had from this experiment is this: if you don’t know what is going on in your area at other lodges, you are missing an important part of the Masonic experience,” Green says.
—TONY PIERUCCI
Language of Love
It’s Faizah’s first day of school, and her elder sister Asiya’s first day wearing a hijab. As their classmates mock Asiya for her scarf, the sisters are reminded of their mother’s strength, their family’s bond, and what the hijab stands for. So goes the children’s book The Proudest Blue, by Ibtihaj Mujammad. It’s a simple and touching story. And now it’s one that school officials in West Sacramento, not to mention the Masons of California and their literacy partners, hope will inspire a whole new cohort of schoolchildren.
This September, the California Masonic Foundation announced an expansion of its children’s
LEFT: SCHOOLKIDS AT RIVERBANK K-8
SCHOOL IN WEST SACRAMENTO CHECK
OUT NEW FARSI AND ENGLISH BOOKS.
BELOW: PAST GRAND MASTER
G. SEAN METROKA, DISTRICT
SUPERINTENDENT CHERYL HILDRETH,
RAISING A READER CEO MICHELLE
TORGERSON, AND FOUNDATION
PRESIDENT DOUG ISMAIL ANNOUNCE
THE NEW PROGRAM.
is home to the largest enclave of native Afghans in the country, with an estimated 12,000 people in the capital city and its immediate suburbs. Many arrived as refugees following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Kabul in 2021.
Raising a Reader. Seizing on that opportunity, the California Masonic Foundation and Raising a Reader teamed up with the school district to introduce their family reading program to 50 kindergarten and transitional kindergarten classrooms in the district. Among the books the children are able to take home are 10 new Farsi-translated titles, including The Proudest Blue.
An Order of Fire and Feathers
SHROUDED IN MYSTERY AND SYMBOLISM, THE ORDER OF QUETZALCOATL SERVES A DECIDEDLY PHILANTHROPIC END.
literacy program, through which bags of dual-language Farsi and English books will be provided to students in the Washington Unified School District in West Sacramento. Sacramento County
Despite the city’s large Afghan population, newcomers face enormous challenges upon arriving stateside. It’s estimated that 50 percent of Afghan immigrants in Sacramento live in poverty, compared with just 12 percent of the overall population, and as a group, they have a median household income of around $28,000. Nationally, only 50 percent of Afghans age five and up speak adequate English, lower than other immigrant groups. Just 6 percent speak English as a first language at home, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
The lack of English skills is compounded by a dearth of bilingual books in Farsi and English, says Michelle Torgerson, president and CEO of
In addition to the books, the bags include guides for parents to help test their children’s comprehension. “It’s about helping children fall in love with reading,” Torgerson says.
That’s important in any language: Studies show that fifthgrade reading comprehension is closely tied to high school graduation rates. “We know that reading aloud to a child is the single most important thing a parent can do to instill the importance of reading,” she says.
For the Masons, the project has a personal element. Past Grand Master G. Sean Metroka, who helped lead the initiative, was in the Marines for 32 years, largely as an artillery officer, during which he served in Iraq, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Having worked closely with civilian translators and other support personnel in the Middle East, he was deeply moved by the opportunity to support those who resettled in California.
“This new phase in the Raising a Reader program is an important step in fulfilling the promise of a better life for our immigrants,” Metroka says. “We’re proving by our actions that we are committed to improving literacy for all members of our society, regardless of their origin or native language.” —IAS
THE DIN OF THE 400 or so people gathered in a hotel conference room is pierced, suddenly and dramatically, by the sonic blast of a conch. All at once, the players take their place and a four-act drama begins to unfold, centered on the mythic Aztec figure of Quetzalcoatl.
Thus begins the third ceremonial degree of one of the leastknown branches of Freemasonry.
For all its full-feathered pomp, the Order of Quetzalcoatl exists primarily for altruistic reasons. Established in 1945, the order raises funds to benefit the Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Mexico City. The ritual was developed by Arthur Elian, a former member of the Anezah Shrine in Mexico City, and upon the opening of the hospital, the degree was conferred on many American visitors to the facility. They in turn began conferring the degrees stateside, establishing “teocallis,” or temples, of the order around the country.
The order involves three levels of membership: Initiates (who must be Masons and Shriners and are only accepted by invitation) are referred to as a coate (pronounced co-AH-tay, meaning “tribesman”); they can advance to the degree of artisan and ultimately master artisan. In order to obtain the final degree, they must attend the order’s annual Feast of Fire national convention and make a pilgrimage to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacán.
An
‘Inspired’
Money raised by the order helps underwrite the hospital’s transportation fund. The order also operates the Q Foundation, which helps pay for temporary housing for patients and their families, as well as international travel to the hospital, which specializes in burn injuries and neuromusculoskeletal conditions. The hospital treats patients regardless of their family’s ability to pay.
There are chapters of the group in California and throughout the country, which are organized under a supreme teocalli. Meanwhile, the Shrine is seeing significant growth in Central and South America, with chapters surging in Mexico and Brazil in particular. In fact, the Anezeh Shriners in Mexico City saw membership jump from just 280 in 2017 to nearly 1,200 this year, according to Shriners International. —IAS
Choice
FOR HIS ADMINISTRATION’S EMBLEM, Grand Master Arthur L. Salazar Jr. chose the image of Quetzalcoatl inside a square and compass, along with the golden bear, above the word “Inspire.” Salazar, thought to be the first California grand master of Latino descent, chose the Mesoamerican deity, depicted as a feathered serpent, for its association with Aztec and Maya heritage.
MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF QUETZALCOATL GATHER FOR THEIR ANNUAL MEETING IN PHOENIX. THE COSTUMED FIGURES AT REAR ARE MEMBERS OF THE ARTISAN, OR SECOND, DEGREE TEAM.
Burn Scars
It doesn’t look like much— drab and grey, like the moonscapes where it’s typically found. But for those who know, the burn morel mushroom is a sign of hope and rejuvenation. Requiring intense heat to fruit, it only grows in the aftermath of wildfires and, consequently, is highly sought-after by chefs and foodies. It is evidence of rebirth and the doggedness necessary to carry on.
The burn morels have blossomed in the town of Paradise, which in 2018 saw the Camp Fire decimate nearly everything in its path. Now, the mushrooms are an apt symbol of a community reborn. Because while the Camp Fire had the effect of scouring the
“They knew these buildings would be central to rebuilding the community.”
town, what has risen from the ashes is an undeniable sense of community.
This fall, nearly six years on from the date of the fire—at the time, the most disastrous conflagration in California history—the people of Paradise gathered to celebrate a bit of progress and, in some sense, begin to close that devastating chapter in their lives. With local officials and Masonic dignitaries on hand, Table Mountain № 124, a lodge that has played an outsize role in Paradise’s recovery, was ceremonially rededicated, followed by a special outdoor degree ceremony, welcoming back a membership that had reasonably wondered whether Masonry would survive in this area.
Like nearly everyone in Paradise, members of the lodge faced horrible losses during the fire.
In just a matter of hours, 19,000 buildings burned, forcing 50,000 people to evacuate. In all, the fire claimed 85 lives and caused more than $16 billion in damage. Thankfully,
no members were killed, but almost everyone had property destroyed, and 20 lost their homes. “It was completely devastating,” says treasurer Rich Gingerly Jr. “In the moment, we couldn’t really think about the lodge building. People were concerned about getting out.”
Somehow, the lodge withstood the fire, albeit with significant smoke damage, even as neighboring buildings were burned to the ground. However, “It wasn’t a miracle,” says current lodge master Ehren Hawkins. “It was directly thanks to the work of a group of firefighters, who saw the lodge building and the library across the street and made the decision to save them. They knew these buildings would be central to rebuilding the community.”
Indeed, the lodge has been just that. When members learned shortly after the fire that children were sleeping on the floors of temporary homes, they donated sleeping bags. When the holidays rolled around, they donated toys. The lodge hosted a makeshift prom for the local high school. Members restarted their Public Schools Night celebration.
The lodge did all this while struggling itself. Almost overnight, 50 percent of its membership
had moved away. Those who stayed met at Chico-Leland Stanford № 111, as the Paradise lodge wouldn’t be inhabitable for another year. Newcomers stepped into leadership positions, and several out-of-towners elected to pay lodge dues to Paradise just to keep its membership rolls up. Hawkins, who lives in Chico, was one of several Masons from nearby who became integral to the lodge’s recovery. “It was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up,” he says. Feeling a need to help his neighbors, he approached Table Mountain during the pandemic. Now master, he had the honor of rededicating the lodge. Gingerly, who was only a Fellow Craft at the time of the fire, put off being raised as a Master Mason for a year in order to hold his degree back in Paradise. “People saw me get emotional a couple of times,” he says of the rededication, “but it wasn’t from sadness. It was from feeling joyful to see the lodge full again.”
With the lodge now reopened and rededicated, attention is turning to member recruitment. Already, 12 new Masons have joined up—a testament, Hawkins says, to the standing the lodge has in the community. “To see those pedestals get filled with local men has been incredible,” Gingerly says. Of course, there’s still work to be done. Up next is a day of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, to help rebuild a home lost in the fire. “We’ll continue to be here for the community of Paradise and our members,” Hawkins says. —Tony Pierucci
JOE EVANS, MANAGER OF THE GRAND LODGE ARCHIVES AT THE HENRY WILSON COIL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM OF FREEMASONRY, IS OVERSEEING AN EFFORT TO COLLECT RECORDS FROM CALIFORNIA’S EXTINCT LODGES.
Proof of Life
A NEW PILOT PROGRAM AIMS TO ARCHIVE THE RECORDS OF CALIFORNIA’S EXTINCT LODGES.
Walter Haas, Aaron Fleishhacker, and Philip Lilienthal were among the most influential Jewish figures of early San Francisco, builders of its post-Gold Rush fortune. All three were also members of Fidelity № 120, a lodge comprised primarily of Bavarian-born, Jewish businessmen—one of the most important and historic lodges in California.
“It’s all about preserving the history of these lodges.”
Of course, Fidelity Lodge is long gone, having consolidated into Crockett № 139 in 1998. Today, its history is part of the smorgasbord that makes up the current San Francisco № 120, itself the descendent of an incredible nine lodges that, over the years, merged, consolidated, or died out.
Now, the Grand Lodge of California is on a mission to ensure the history of Fidelity—and other long-since-consolidated lodges like it—lives on.
The Lodge Records Survey pilot program is an effort to collect, inventory, and preserve the records of the Bay Area’s extinct lodges. Over the coming
FRATERNITY
California’s Lodge Deserts
PLOTTING CALIFORNIA’S MASONIC EXPANSION.
AROUND THE WORLD, in countries with a significant Masonic tradition, there’s a basic arithmetic to starting a new lodge. In general, a single lodge can support a population of about 75,000 people. That idea is top of mind now, with a flood of new prospects approaching California lodges. Here, the Grand Lodge’s New Lodge Development team gives us a sneak preview of the areas they’re targeting for growth. —IAS
1. RANCHO CUCAMONGA
POPULATION: 176,000
year, the program will expand to all of California. In the case of lodge consolidations, things like tiler’s records, membership reports, and other correspondence often end up in a dusty attic or, oftentimes, a secretary’s garage. By centralizing those records at the Grand Lodge’s archives, they can be inventoried and made available to researchers interested in California and fraternal history.
In the Bay Area alone, today’s 30 extant lodges represent more than 120 consolidated groups from the past. Columbia-Brotherhood № 370, for instance, is made up of an incredible 16 lodges— including several of historic importance, like Balder № 393, which formed in 1908 as the state’s first Swedish lodge, and which used to meet at the Swedish-American Hall on Market Street.
Joseph Evans, manager of the archives, points out that there have been nearly 900 Masonic lodges in California history, yet only about 330 are still in existence. The vast majority of those 500-plus extinguished lodges’ records are held by the lodges they consolidated into.
“It’s important to maintain these records for historical purposes,” Evans says. “It’s all about preserving the history of these lodges—and it’s a huge dataset for anyone doing research on Freemasonry.”
Lodges interested in learning more can contact Evans at jevans@freemason.org. IAS
6. WALNUT CREEK
POPULATION: 68,969
NEAREST LODGE: ACALANESFELLOWSHIP № 480 (5.3 MILES)
In the time since the former Alamo № 122 stopped meeting at Locust Street and Mt. Diablo in 1998, Walnut Creek has transformed from one of the quintessentially sleepy suburbs of the East Bay into a dynamic shopping,
NEAREST LODGE: UPLANDMT. BALDY № 419 (3.7 MILES)
San Bernardino County has a dozen Masonic lodges, but none in Rancho Cucamonga, one of the fastestgrowing metros in Southern California, making it the third-biggest city in the state without a Masonic lodge.
2. SAN CLEMENTE
POPULATION: 63,000
NEAREST LODGE: VERITAS № 855 (6.6 MILES)
The southernmost city in Orange County has been without a lodge since San Clemente № 671 consolidated with Irvine № 841 in 1997.
3. LOS ANGELES
POPULATION: 3.82 MILLION CURRENT LODGES: SEVERAL
A simple numbers game: In Los Angeles, there’s a Masonic lodge for every 477,000 residents. Even though the county already has 74 lodges, statistics suggest it could handle twice that number.
4.
POPULATION: NEAREST LODGE: GROVE № 293 (3.7 MILES)
The second-biggest city in Orange County is the largest town in the state without a Masonic lodge, ever since Silver Cord № 505 merged with Garden Grove № 586 (now № 351) in 1990.
5.
dining, and entertainment center, making it an ideal spot for a Masonic comeback.
POPULATION: NEAREST LODGE:
There have been no shortage of Masonic lodges in Berkeley over the years, including Durant № 268, which existed for a century from 1883 until consolidating into Oakland-Rockridge № 188 in 1985 (now Oakland № 61). With the annual International Conference on Freemasonry now held biennially in town, there has been interest in forming a lodge just west of campus.
7. LOS MOLINOS
POPULATION: 1,649
NEAREST LODGE: VESPER № 84 (16 MILES)
There’s already a Masonic hall in the small, rural town of Los Molinos, currently owned by Vesper № 84 in Red Bluff. Plans are now afoot to develop a new Spanish-speaking lodge there to serve the 48 percent of residents of Hispanic descent.
A SENSE OF BELONGING
Groups like the Masons offer a way to strengthen community, combat loneliness, fight polarization, maybe even save democracy. And it’s all happening at your local pancake breakfast.
BY TONY GILBERT
The earthy aroma of percolating coffee permeates the dining hall. Eggs crowd the griddle, sizzling as they fry. A warming tray is stacked with buttery pancakes. Friends, guests, and their families sit together at long tables, chatting against a background of clanking dishes and a metal whisk stirring up a new batch of batter. It’s a very just-help-yourself kind of gathering, says Joseph Gutierrez, the lodge master of Lemon Grove № 736 and the main organizing force behind this year’s pancake breakfast fundraiser. Held annually for half a century just outside San Diego, the event raises money for several college scholarships the lodge hands out each year. ➽
ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID BRINLEY
With several regular members of the lodge in attendance, plus assorted neighbors and friend, “This breakfast is the biggest [membership] boost we have as a lodge,” Gutierrez explains.
A little over 100 miles north, a similar scene is unfolding at Redlands № 300, in a suburb east of San Bernardino. There the local lodge hosts weekly Saturday breakfasts for prospects and members. Rick Johnson, the current lodge tiler, says he first got involved with Freemasonry through just such a breakfast meeting. From there he found himself cracking eggs in the hall’s kitchen and, before long, lending his hand at stated meeting dinners, an annual BBQ lunch, and events for the Masonic youth groups. A decade later, he’s still the man behind the grill and griddle.
Though each is taking place at a Masonic hall, these breakfast gettogethers could be happening anywhere, in any town—and they do, at church picnics and VFW halls and roadside diners. In fact, it’s the utter familiarity of such gatherings that makes them so welcoming. Beneath their ordinariness, however—or perhaps because of it—these kinds of gatherings are facilitating something extraordinary.
IT’S NOT ABOUT COFFEE AND EGGS
Of course, any Mason can tell you that a lodge breakfast isn’t about the food, just like family Sunday dinner isn’t about the meatloaf and a father-son fishing trip isn’t about catching fish.
Johnson remembers bringing his father, also a Mason, to his lodge and being blown away by the reception the elder Johnson got there. “Every brother dropped what they were doing and came over to hang out with him,” he recalls.
In that moment, Johnson was offered a view into one aspect of Freemasonry’s appeal. It’s what makes groups like the Masons an
important, and potentially transformative, part not only of their own members’ lives, but also of their communities—and, some say, of the overall health of our democracy. In short: They give members an opportunity to connect to one another in a way that is otherwise vanishing from American life.
One of the people banging that drum the loudest is Robert Putnam, author of the 2000 book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which helped popularize the concept of social capital. In it, Putnam, a Harvard sociologist, linked the sharp decline in membership with voluntary associations and social clubs like the Masons, not to mention churches, parent-teacher associations, and, yes, even bowling leagues, to the rise of political polarization and social distrust. Radical as it may sound, Putnam and others argue, the simple act of joining something like a Masonic lodge is an antidote to the kind of malaise that has gripped our country.
That makes Freemasonry and other organizations potentially powerful drivers of social and civic engagement—if enough people are willing to join.
To Masons like Johnson, that idea checks out. “Brothers share common experiences in the degree work, which establishes an instant bond,” he says. That echoes the 18th-century fraternal maxim about Masonry bringing about “true Friendship among Persons that must else have remain’d at a perpetual Distance.” In Putnam’s sociological terms, it could be described as a prime example of members building “social capital”—creating relationships outside their own racial, political, or socioeconomic circles. By building more of that kind of social capital, he argues, members of a community grow closer, promoting trust in one another and the institutions they belong to, and are more willing to participate in a shared civic life. In so doing, they strengthen the very democracy that powers our country.
Sound highfalutin? Not to the people who’ve sat around the table at those kinds of gatherings.
Frank Cobos Jr., the lodge master of Redlands № 300, invokes the beehive, the Masonic symbol of industry and teamwork, in describing the way his lodge
cooperates. “Whatever things may deter us from wanting to be on the team, we set those aside and try to work together,” he says. “If we work together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.”
In an era when it’s never been easier to get most of what you need from the comfort of home, the lodge offers members an opportunity to experience social bonding in person. Indeed, nearly a quarter of older adults in the U.S. are considered socially isolated, according to the National Institutes of Health, while more than a third over 45 report feeling persistently lonely. Both are linked to increased health issues. Research shows that loneliness increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent, dementia by 50 percent, depression by 77 percent, premature mortality by 29 percent, and diabetes by 49 percent. On balance, the effect of social isolation on one’s health is equivalent to the effects of smoking a pack of cigarettes per day.
“If we work together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.”
For many years, that made social groups a central aspect of American life—something Alexis de Tocqueville noted as far back as the 1830s. Over a century later, Arthur Schlesinger suggested in his 1944 article “Biography of a Nation of Joiners” that the “associative impulse” of Americans to rally around civic groups and social clubs carried a deeper significance. Schlesinger went so far as to say such clubs were responsible for “transmitting existing social values” through society.
So in addition to saving democracy, attendance at lodge can also help extend your life.
“UNIVERSITIES OF DEMOCRACY”
In the age of the social safety net, we might take for granted that in the past, group bonding carried an increased chance for survival. In fact, 19th-century Americans relied on mutual benefit societies like the Masons to provide for them in times of distress or sickness. In addition to offering a built-in network of friends and contacts and vouching for one’s trustworthiness, fraternal groups also held funeral services and cared for widows and orphans. In that era, sociability wasn’t optional; it was practically required.
“Considering the central importance of the voluntary organization in American history there is no doubt it has provided the people with their greatest school of self-government. Rubbing minds as well as elbows, they have been trained from youth to take common counsel, choose leaders, harmonize differences, and obey the expressed will of the majority. In mastering the associative way, they have mastered the democratic way.”
Cobos has seen these factors at play in his own lodge, where members from very different backgrounds get a crash course in working together. “Our lodge is supposed to provide a safe space, so to speak, where men can work on becoming the best version of themselves,” he says. “A past master described it this way: We should make our lodges ‘universities of democracy.’ It should be a nurturing environment. And together we can build a better place.”
As grandiose as that ambition might sound for one local lodge, Schlesinger would likely have agreed with the sentiment.
RIGHT: Rich Johnson hands Mike Saucedo a hot plate at the Redlands Nº 300 weekly breakfast. BOTTOM LEFT: Lodge members John Linehan (center) and Bill Johnson (left) meet with current and prospective members.
PHOTOS
MATHEW SCOTT
Lodges build a sense of community among their members, while the lodge itself has a role to play within the community at large. John Linehan, another member of Redlands № 300, points out that the lodge includes members of all political stripes, many of whom disagree vehemently over various issues. But by and large, everyone agrees on the importance of helping out at a local school or food pantry. “Masonry has changed my point of view” in that respect, he says. At Lemon Grove, a similar emphasis on volunteerism plays that dual role of bringing members together while improving the community in small but meaningful ways. Gutierrez points to the lodge’s adoption of a flagpole downtown, which members maintain and help landscape the area around throughout the year, as one such example. The lodge also works closely with the school district and hosts lodge outreach efforts to connect with elderly members and their widows.
CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS, CHANGING NEEDS
If organizations like the Masons are uniquely well positioned to offer the kind of personal connections and social capital that people and communities require to stave off isolation and build civic trust, why has membership continued to decline? (Rotary: Down 20 percent over the past two decades. Junior Chamber: Down 64 percent. Odd Fellows: Down more than 50 percent since 1990. And so on.)
Michael Brand has an idea about that: Where in the past service clubs typically were organized around a common place (say, Sacramento № 40), today people increasingly organize themselves around ideas (the tech community, Swifties, Raider Nation). Brand, a longtime Rotarian and a branding expert who works with many volunteer-driven nonprofits, cites the well-known writer Seth Godin in observing that digital life has reorganized people according to their “tribes”—groups founded on shared passions or values—rather than their neighborhoods. For service groups to thrive today, he says, they need to align themselves with members’ interests while remaining centered on the organization’s shared values. “That’s the jewel we have to pass on to the next generation. It’s up to them to create a club that works for them and gives them what they need,” he says.
Indeed, California Masonry has already begun to refashion itself along these lines. While preserving the Masonic ritual and the core elements of the fraternal tradition, many lodges have deemphasized the lengthy and often business-oriented stated meeting, with a growing number gathering quarterly instead of monthly; additionally, many Masons now join a second lodge arranged around purely social endeavors, such as affinity lodges for outdoorsmen and magic enthusiasts. That’s an important point, says Alexander Towey, a member of Vista № 687 and a lecturer of U.S. history at Cal State San Marcos, who has written about the changing demographics of Freemasonry in California. Towey points out that as the swell of “paper members”—largely unengaged Masons primarily interested in the fraternity for its social and reputational benefits—crested in the 1960s and ’70s, the character of Masonic lodges began to shift, as well. As their rosters dwindled, lodges
focused on “quality over quantity,” emphasizing philosophic and esoteric learning. In recent years, there’s been an effort to marry those interests—making a lodge a place of casual social bonding, but also bringing together like-minded enthusiasts. In that way, the lodge of tomorrow can be an enormously powerful setting.
JOINING
THE CLUB
“One of the greatest things about Masonry is the relationships,” says Michael David, a past master of Home № 721 in Van Nuys. The numbers tend to bear him out: In 2020, nearly 75 percent of Masons surveyed cited brotherhood as the most important benefit of their membership.
But for some, simply approaching a lodge is a challenge. At David’s lodge, a stated meeting dinner can sometimes draw 130 attendees. For a stranger walking into a room like that—on top of feeling intimidated by whatever questions or preconceived notions they have about Freemasonry—it’s easy to feel unseen.
Reversing that has been the goal of David’s club within a club, the Rough Ashlars. Conceived in March 2023, the Rough Ashlars comprise Masonic prospects and those waiting on a lodge to act on their application. Prior to becoming an Entered Apprentice, the prospects get a sneak peek at the camaraderie the
fraternity provides. And the existing Masons “get a reminder of what the fraternity is all about.”
Edgar Barragan was among the first cohort of Rough Ashlars. He’d become familiar with Freemasonry when he volunteered at the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Pasadena. There, he became friendly with several members of the lodge and before long began meeting with other prospects during the closed lodge business sessions and keeping in touch via a text messaging thread. “I really felt right away that the guys were great,” he says. “Once guys see that, they get hooked.”
That, of course, returns us to the lodge breakfast. Call it the secret degree of Freemasonry: The time spent together outside the lodge room is just as consequential as the ritual, memorization, and lectures that happen within it. After all, Masons only go through the degrees once, usually within a year or two. But for most, membership is a lifetime affair. The social bonding, the community service, and the mentoring of the next generation—they’re what’s left after one’s degrees are complete.
That’s what stays with John Linehan, anyway. “I simply would not be the Mason I am today without the camaraderie and fellowship found in the kitchen at the lodge on those Saturday mornings.”
WHY WE JOINED
WHAT NEW PROSPECTS TOLD US ABOUT APPROACHING THE MASONS.
EACH PROSPECT’S REASON for approaching the Masons is different, unique to their background, circumstances, and moment in time. And yet in the aggregate, their answers start to look familiar. When prospects submit an inquiry to the Grand Lodge of California, they’re asked why they’ve reached out. A pseudo-scientific parsing of that data reveals a few common themes. IAS
THE MOST COMMON RESPONSES
INVOLVED:
PHOTO BY MATHEW SCOTT
“I would like to join this select brotherhood to enhance my intellectual knowledge, vision, and leadership in a sustainable and trustable environment.”
Brotherhood Community
SAMPLE RESPONSES:
Self improvement Knowledge Curiosity
“Tired of feeling like I’m moving alone in the world despite having a family [and] girlfriend and a daughter. I feel like I have no friends as I proceed to get older and want the opportunity to join an organization that promotes brotherhood.”
“Having relocated to the U.S. from Europe in 2023, I wish to engage with a community of like-minded individuals who value the principles of morality, personal growth, and brotherhood.”
“I would like to belong to a group in which I can enhance my knowledge and abilities.”
“I want to be a part of the bigger picture and better myself along with others around me. I found a Freemason’s Bible and was told I could have it. There are some things that strike my curiosity.”
“Fraternity and brotherhood. As a former U.S. servicemember, I have been looking for an organization that has a mission to improve the well-being of others through being in service of others.”
“I find that every time Freemasons are talked about, there is a common thread of knowledge and community. These are things that I find intriguing about the organization.”
“I always drove past the local lodge as a child and was interested in what it was. One day, I asked my mother about it and she told me it was a group of men that were best friends from all around the world. She also told me I had family that was a part of it. Now that I’m an adult, my curiosity drove me to seek more information.”
“Would like to be part of a community that helps others and to become a better person.”
“Give back to my community in a structured way, learn from others, make friends, self-improvement.”
“Outside of my grandfather being a Freemason, I have always wanted to be a part of a [group] that promotes networking, intellectual discussion, growth, and self-improvement. Having just moved to Los Angeles, I would like to put myself in a position where I can be a positive addition to my new community… It would be an honor to be part of such a unique and respected society.”
MAKES A POWERFUL CASE FOR CONNECTION.
Over the three decades from the 1970s to the turn of the century, there was a 50 percent decline in the number of Americans who assumed a leadership position in a local organization. There was a 35 percent drop in church attendance and a 40 percent slide in the number of Americans who went to even one public meeting. Membership in the national PTA dropped from 12 million to 5 million. For the Masons of California, membership has fallen from a high of over 244,000 in 1965 to about 40,000 today. By virtually any measure, Americans over the past halfcentury have stopped joining clubs. The result of that mass drop-out has been catastrophic, according to Robert Putnam, the Harvard sociologist who popularized the concept of social capital in his 2000 book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. As Americans stopped making connections to their neighbors, he argues, we became increasingly isolated and polarized.
Today that trend appears to have reached crisis proportions—and a new generation is looking for answers. For filmmakers Pete and Rebecca Davis, that led them back to Putnam’s Bowling Alone and the hiding-in-plain-sight importance of social clubs. The result is Join or Die, a new documentary that traces Putnam’s work over half a century and makes a powerful case for the value of social and civic clubs. “To tackle today’s challenges, we need millions of Americans to become joiners,” Pete Davis explains in the film.
Here, co-director Rebecca Davis explains what drew her to rural lodge rooms, church picnics, and other meetups, and how she became an evangelist for membership of all stripes. —Ian A. Stewart
CALIFORNIA FREEMASON : You co-produced this film with your brother, Pete. What attracted you to this idea of the role of social capital in civic life?
REBECCA DAVIS: We first approached Robert Putnam in 2017, as he was about to retire from teaching. That seemed like a moment he might be able to look back on his career and potentially do a documentary for the 20th anniversary of Bowling Alone . My brother was a student of Robert’s, so he had a personal connection. I was working as a TV journalist for NBC News, covering things like school shootings, the opioid epidemic, veterans coming back and feeling kind of at a loss for community. For me, I got to a place where I felt I couldn’t keep covering these symptoms. I needed to zoom out and try to find some solution-based story idea I could work on.
Join or Die is a pretty grabby title. In the film, you link social clubs with the very future of our democracy. Did you feel this was a real existential threat?
Our title has been a little controversial to some people, but yes, the stakes are that high—even for joining a bowling league or, as people have pointed out, maybe today it would be a pickleball league. It’s no small thing to have a space where you can have fun, meet people, and improve your mental health. That’s what drew us to Bob’s work. It’s about lifting up the bowling club and the church bake sale, which are important not only for our personal health and well-being, but also for that secondary meaning behind our title, the health of our democracy. It’s in those spaces that we learn to practice ways to be shared co-creators in the world that we’re building. And a lot of what’s happening today, especially online, is anti-that.
Bowling Alone is nearly 25 years old. As much as the idea of social capital has entered the mainstream, it feels like we’re moving in the wrong direction, with higher rates of loneliness and social isolation. Why do you think this trend has been exacerbated?
Bowling Alone came out in 2000, right about the time Facebook was launching. So one question at that time, as this new technology was coming on the scene, was whether it could be a place to look for a solution to these trends. But there is no silver bullet. Facebook did not solve our community crisis. These days, a lot of people say it’s the smartphones that are to blame, and that this is a new phenomenon. Something we were drawn to in Bob’s work is that it draws a much longer trend line, measuring social capital back to the 1960s and even earlier, to the turn of the last century and the Progressive Era, when many of these clubs were founded. So we were interested in revisiting that work for a new generation, at a time when it feels more relevant than ever.
You’ve hosted several screenings of the film for community groups. What kinds of people have shown interest in this work? We’ve done about 300 community screenings since we premiered the film in 2023. The majority of those were for groups of 25 or less. The surprising thing has been just how many people are hungry for this idea right now. We had one small-town mayor in California reach out because he wanted to use the film for wildfire preparedness, with the thought that neighbors who are closer and more in touch are easier to mobilize in the event of a big fire. Then of course there are the usual suspects, the federated societies—the Rotary, the Elks, the Masons, the Odd Fellows. But there were also newer clubs and parents’ groups. In Austin, Texas, we hosted a queer skate club. The California Planners’ Association spoke with us about how we can design our cities to be more communal. And we screened it in Congress.
Not all the groups you profile in your film are classic civic groups like the Masons. What made you choose these subjects? It’s hard to sum up what a community looks like. We zeroed in on six community groups, including a mutual-aid group in Los Angeles as well as the Gig Workers’ Alliance in Chicago for rideshare workers. We had spreadsheets of like 300 groups we were looking
at. But the takeaway from the ones we felt were doing this right was that they were all really rooted in place as the connecting factor bringing people together. So often, we see things through a lens of left/right, and for a lot of people that’s become their main identifier. If we want to fight this moment of hyper-polarization, we need to have multiple layers of identity for people to latch onto. We met a lodge of Odd Fellows, and they don’t talk about politics in their meetings. A lot of them said they don’t even know the political identity of the people they’re meeting up with, but they know they’re passionate about the place they live in and want to make it better. They understand the shared goals they’re working on.
An interesting distinction that Putnam makes is between “bonding social capital” and “bridging social capital,” where bonding is between people who are alike and bridging is between people who are different. The film doesn’t dwell on this distinction. I’m curious if you have thoughts about that. The reality is that we need both in our democracy. In some of these groups, there’s bridging happening beneath the surface. In a bowling league, it looks like it’s just for fun, but there’s an incredible amount of bridging capital happening
TOP: The film profiles a lodge of Odd Fellows in Waxahachie, Texas. BELOW: Bowling leagues suffered a massive drop-off in popularity, even though as a sport, bowling remains popular.
between members of different economic groups, for instance between surgeons and carpenters. Bob is careful not to say that bonding capital is bad and bridging capital is good. We need both. Studies find that those with more bonding capital are also more likely to bridge. Our goal was, with people who aren’t members of anything, we want them to take that first step. These can be places where we learn the skills to build bridging capital. You go to a meeting, you learn to introduce yourself, strike up a conversation—that might sound basic, but those are skills we need to be working on more. That’s how our social bridging is going to happen more easily. It’s what we need if we’re going to have a functioning democracy.
THE CLUB SCENE
FREEMASONRY MAY BE the oldest fraternal order in the world, but it isn’t the only one. Here, insiders give us a peek into the latest membership trends in a range of other social and service organizations. —IAS
ROTARY
INTERNATIONAL
269,743 U.S. MEMBERS
7,154 U.S. CLUBS
INTERNATIONAL GROWTH
“Rotary currently has more than 1.2 million members who belong to over 45,000 clubs in almost every country in the world. Over the past 10 years, membership has been relatively stable, with some loss in the U.S. compensated by growth in other areas of the world.”
NEW TYPES OF CLUBS
“Within the past few years, we’ve introduced new ways to make Rotary membership and participation more accessible, including e-clubs that meet exclusively online, passport clubs that encourage members to visit other clubs, and corporate clubs for those working at the same company. Our members have also started cause-based clubs that offer ways to channel a shared passion. Meanwhile, Rotary’s 100-plus ‘fellowships’ provide people with a shared profession, hobby, or identity a
way to connect with friends around the world while strengthening their skills and being part of a caring global community. Rotary’s 25 ‘action groups’ also offer a way to connect globally with experts to address many of today’s important issues. Anyone, not just Rotary members, can be part of our Action Groups.”
—MICHAEL VANDAM, ROTARY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA RELATIONS
KIWANIS INTERNATIONAL
178,030 ADULT MEMBERS
7,158 ADULT CLUBS
MEMBERSHIP TRENDS
“As with most volunteer organizations, membership has been declining for some time. Our membership high for Kiwanis was 324,542 in 1992. Today, we have clubs in more than 80 countries, so while some areas see an aging membership, many are getting younger and more service oriented.”
SERVICE FIRST
“Decades ago, membership was seen as a networking
opportunity. Now, it’s more about service and the mission. But members ultimately stay because of their experience within their own club. Time and time again, our members tell us they value the service component of what we do. A close second is the relationships and bonds built through membership.”
—BEN HENDRICKS, CHIEF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
CALIFORNIA ODD FELLOWS
4,641 MEMBERS IN CA 111 LODGES
MEMBERSHIP FLAT
“Our members are aging, and we’re getting very few younger folks in. Our median age now is probably 70 or 75. But membership is holding steady—we have just under 5,000 members in the state. We get between 2,000 and 3,000 people joining every year, but the attrition rate is about the same. The year before last, we gained 207 people. Last year, we had a net loss of 23. Today, we have 111 lodges. Back in the 1920s, there were 500 Odd Fellows lodges in California!”
FOCUS ON FELLOWSHIP
“The lodges that are prospering are the ones that are having big dinners and events like that. In Davis, which is one of our biggest lodges in the state, with 380 members, they’re much more into the social
aspect—they have tennis clubs and different kinds of clubs and committees. Unfortunately, in certain ways, the [philanthropic] tenets of our organization seem to be waning.”
—BARRY
NATIVE SONS OF THE GOLDEN WEST
~5,000 MEMBERS
67 PARLORS (CHAPTERS)
OPENING UP MEMBERSHIP
“Like so many others, we have an aging membership. In 2020, we were at 7,000 members, and that went down to 5,317 this April. So at our annual meetings, we changed our membership requirements for the first time to open up to any California resident who’s a U.S. citizen and believes in our mission statement, rather than having to be born in California.”
HISTORY, FRIENDSHIP, CHARITY
“People join for a mixture of reasons. A lot of people want to join because they have an interest in California history and want to be part of a group that does historical research. But we also have a lot of people who just want to meet new people. Others come in because of our charities—we support three hospitals that do cleft palate surgery.”
—STEVE MCLEAN, GRAND PRESIDENT
BELONGING TO THE
BEYOND
THE MASONIC FUNERAL RITE UNITES MASONS AND THEIR LOVED ONES IN A SHARED COMMUNITY. BY DREA ROEMER
The room is quiet, and the master speaks: “Our brother has reached the end of his earthly toils. The brittle thread which bound him to Earth has been severed and the liberated spirit has winged its flight to the unknown world.”
These are some of the first words of a Masonic funeral service, a rite that for centuries has brought Masons together to honor the life of their fellow brothers. George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Thurgood Marshall: Each of them heard those words and, when their own time came, had them spoken on their behalf. To those who’ve witnessed it, the funeral rite is among the most moving experiences a Mason can have—reinforcing a bond that transcends time and space, in this life and whatever comes next.
But it’s also so much more than that. As everyone who’s ever been to a funeral of any kind knows, the service is for the living. And in the case of a Masonic funeral, it’s as much for those outside the fraternity
as for those within it. “We use words [in the service] that really help others understand our larger view of spirituality and connection with the beyond,” says Dan Moran, a longtime Mason with Santa Barbara № 192 who has performed the funeral rite several times. “The service does a beautiful job of encapsulating that.”
Indeed, for as much as a Masonic funeral is a reminder of the deceased’s connection to his brothers, it’s also a rare glimpse into a part of their life that, for many family members, remained hidden from them. As such, a Masonic funeral service can pack an emotional wallop. It’s not uncommon, Moran says, for family members to be overcome at the sight of so many strangers who nonetheless felt compelled to pay their respects to a fellow brother.
That was certainly true for Moran. When his father, who was also a Mason, passed away, Moran gained a better appreciation for the significant role the lodge played in his life. “It was moving, and it strengthened my own connection to Freemasonry,” he says. “It also helped me reknit together an understanding of my dad.”
“LET US WHO SURVIVE HIM be yet more strongly cemented by the ties of brotherly love, that during the brief space allotted to us here, we may wisely and usefully employ our time, and, in the mutual exchange of kind and friendly acts, promote the welfare and happiness of each other.”
For all its emotional heft, the Masonic funeral ceremony is relatively brief—about seven minutes long—and typically incorporated into a larger religious or secular service. Yet its symbolism is universal. The Masons file in two by two, wearing dark suits and white aprons. A white lambskin apron, an evergreen plant, and the sacred roll are placed on the casket or lectern. The funeral master—an official Masonic position requiring a certificate from a district inspector—begins the oratory.
The service invokes several Masonic symbols and
motifs, including the sprig of acacia, representing the immortality of the soul and the infinite bond between members. For many people, particularly family members and friends of the departed who are not Masons, it represents their first exposure to the symbolic teachings of the fraternity. Matt Vander Horck, the Grand Lecturer and a member of Long Beach № 327, who has led several such services, explains it this way: “Maybe they’ve seen a picture of their relative in an apron and it’s kind of strange to them. But then we explain what it means, and they see that the apron is placed on his casket or that he’s buried with it.” His face lights up. “Now there’s a deeper understanding of the significance of that strange piece of clothing
“SEEING THEN, MY BRETHREN , that life is so uncertain, and that all material pursuits are vain, let us no longer postpone the all-important concern of preparing for eternity; but let us embrace the present moment, while time and opportunity are offered.”
At its core, the Masonic funeral is a symbol of belonging, of brotherly love, and of service to others. Masons support one another through thick and thin, and that includes taking care of each other’s loved ones during life’s most difficult times. It is the right of every member to have a Masonic funeral service when he passes, and it is the responsibility of his lodge’s master to help arrange it. The master assists the family in helping deliver the service they envision at a time when grief can be overwhelming. As a result, the family knows that they, too, belong to the larger Masonic family.
“Most of the Masons in my dad’s service didn’t know him,” Moran says, “but it didn’t matter. They were there to be supportive, and they understand that he belonged to a community of Masons in Long Beach whether he attended lodge often or not.”
That’s a powerful sight, for those in the fraternity and those outside it. It’s also something Moran says he hopes more Masons make a point of participating in. “We have all these younger, new members, which is awesome,” he says. “Do they realize how beautiful the service is, and that they’re likely going to get this service themselves one day?”
that Grandpa wore.” Suddenly, their understanding of the lodge as the source of a deep-felt connection to others, is awakened.
“I’ve actually had people come up to me after I’ve delivered the service to say, ‘I want to join Freemasonry because of what I’ve heard today,’” Moran says.
More than that, the Masonic funeral can provide loved ones with a profound sense of solace. “This shows that there’s hope—that this is not the end—which resonates for anyone who believes in some kind of afterlife,” Vander Horck says. Even to the secular, the words acknowledge universal truths: Life is fleeting, we all pass on, and we must live our lives in alignment with our deepest principles.
Moran says that thought takes him back to when he first joined a lodge, at age 23. Now, three decades later, he has experienced the Masonic funeral service as a member, as a son, and as an officiant. What a shame it would be to only experience the rite from the other side of the veil. Knowing how much those experiences have meant to him, Moran says he’s heartened by the thought that someday “those words will be said for my survivors, for my family, as they have been for generations of brothers before me.”
As the funeral master speaks, without hat, gloves, or the jewels of his station, he reassures all present that their loved one remains a brother of “that blissful lodge which no time can close.… There, my brethren, may Almighty God in His infinite mercy, grant that we may meet again, to part no more.”
A Masonic funeral service circa 1916 in Taunton, Mass. Very little has changed about the funeral rite in the century-plus since.
THE CHICKEN OR THE FISH? How about the fois gras en gelée? Or perhaps the grass plover on toast? For years, Masonic banquets have brought members together for elaborate, over-the-top culinary gatherings. Here, Joe Evans, manager of the Henry W. Coil Museum and Library of Freemasonry (and a trained expert on the anthropology of food), walks us through a few menus from Masonic feasts of yesteryear and explains what they say about a fraternity at its gastric peak. —IAS
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR TRIENNIAL
PHILADELPHIA, 1889
“This is an example of what they’d call in the 19th century Russian service That’s where you’d have these elaborate place settings, where people get intimidated by the number of forks. Footmen walk around with platters of food, rather than plate it for you. This was an expensive meal. The Knights Templar were often people of wealth—captains of industry. This gives you a little taste of that.”
LA PARFAITE UNION Nº 17 OFFICERS INSTALLATION BANQUET
FAIRMONT HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, 1941
“The Grand Lodge has had a long relationship with the Fairmont Hotel . It’s not a coincidence we still have our annual banquet there. As for this menu, remember,
SHRINERS’ THEATER PARTY BANQUET
TECHAU TAVERN, SAN FRANCISCO, 1900
“This is unusual for a lot of reasons. The Shriners were really about mimicking the Orient, which was so mysterious and exotic. So the program is in the shape of a fez, and the menu is nuts. We’d consider it sort of Egyptian meets Greek. In the corner,
EL DORADO Nº 26 MASONIC BALL
EL DORADO HOTEL, 1853
“This is 1853, so just a few years after the Gold Rush began. (And just after the Grand Lodge of California was formed.) That they would have all this stuff available is crazy. You can see at the top, the cost is $10 per ticket—that’s about $400 today bottom, it looks like champagne and calvados are $150. That’d
Nº 1 was a very wealthy and influential lodge. There were roughly 600 members in 1910. You can see, you’re getting French cuisine , which was desired for these kinds of formal events. And you can see the program of speakers and performers on the right.”
A Certified Success
A PILOT PROGRAM IS HELPING WORKERS AT THE MASONIC HOMES GAIN ADVANCED CERTIFICATION, TUITION-FREE. BY DREA ROEMER
NURSING STUDENTS AT THE MASONIC HOMES OF CALIFORNIA FROM THE FALL 2024 COHORT. MANY TRAINEES HAVE GONE ON TO TAKE JOBS WITH THE MASONIC HOMES AND OTHER LOCAL SENIOR HOMES.
COURTESY OF CYNTHIA CRUZ
Michelle Augustin always enjoyed helping people. So when it came time to forge a new career in the United States, after working for 15 years as a dentist in the Philippines, she knew she wanted a job where she’d be able to connect with others.
That ultimately led her to the Masonic Homes of California, where she began as a senior caregiver, helping residents with daily tasks and providing emotional support and companionship for the seniors there. “It’s fulfilling for me to serve residents,” she says, “and I make sure to never leave unfinished work.”
This year there was more work than ever.
That’s because Augustin was among a cohort of trainees participating in the Masonic Homes Academy, a program that’s helping current and prospective employees gain advanced certifications in senior care. Through the academy—a partnership between the Masonic Homes and Unitek Training Healthcare, a nursing assistant training program with several Bay Area locations—Augustin was able to complete her coursework, along with six weeks of in-person applied-skills classes on Saturdays and a six-week supervised internship, all while continuing to work as a caretaker. Tuition was paid for by the Masonic Homes.
MASONIC ASSISTANCE
After passing a final written exam and a clinical skills evaluation, Augustin was officially a certified nursing assistant, and immediately hired into that role at the Masonic Homes—a promotion that came with a pay raise. “More than anything, it gave me more confidence,” Augustin says of the certification.
“More than anything, it gave me more confidence.”
“As a CNA, I do many of the same things I did as a caregiver, but now I have even more knowledge.” She’s also helping close a worsening gap. In California and across the nation, health care facilities are facing a critical shortage of licensed staff,
particularly registered nurses (who are responsible for guiding a patient’s overall care), licensed vocational nurses, and certified nursing assistants— a trend that was exacerbated by the pandemic. According to the American Health Care Association, 72 percent of nursing homes have lower workforce levels than they did pre-pandemic, and 89 percent are actively hiring RNs. Already short an estimated 130,000 workers nationally, senior homes are also required to increase staffing levels as a result of new rules imposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In light of numbers like those, the Masonic Homes Academy is a rare win-win. Augustin is one of 60 graduates of the program who have gone on to accept roles either at the Masonic Homes or
welcome to THE
welcome to THE CORNERSTONE SOCIETY
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• Transitions
communities. Masons who make a bequest demonstrate leadership and generosity, establishing a legacy that will be felt for generations.
“THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY”
The Cornerstone Society drives our fraternity’s impact on our
Masons know that a
with other care facilities in the area. In addition to having their tuition covered, students can receive financial assistance for ancillary costs through the Gateway-In Project, a nonprofit that helps with childcare, computer, and textbook expenses.
Chris Gershtein, the vice president of clinical services at the Masonic Homes (and a registered nurse) calls the program a “total success,” adding, “Part of the beauty of this partnership is that it enabled people already working for the Masonic Homes, whether in administrative or janitorial positions, to get the training necessary to become CNAs.” In addition to training those existing, in-house workers, the program also helped the Masonic Homes recruit new trainees from outside its walls.
The results are stark: Prior to launching the program, the Masonic Homes in Union City had 20 openings for CNA roles. Now there are only a few, and Gershtein is confident those will be filled quickly.
In fact, the program’s sterling record may ultimately be its undoing. After finishing this year’s cohort of 60 trainees, it’s not clear whether the academy will be extended. “It’s a victim of its own success,” Gershtein says with a laugh.
As for Augustin, while she’s excited about her role as a CNA, she’s already looking down the road, eyeing certification as a restorative nursing assistant, which involves expertise in therapeutic rehabilitation. “No matter what, I’m excited to go to work every day,” she says. “I love taking care of the residents.”
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2024–25 Grand Lodge Officers
Arthur Harold Weiss Grand Master
Jeffery Michael Wilkins Deputy Grand Master
Randall Louis Brill Senior Grand Warden
G. Sean Metroka Junior Grand Warden
Arthur Lupe Salazar, Jr. Grand Treasurer
Allan Lesley Casalou Grand Secretary
Ricky Lee Lawler Grand Lecturer
Mark James McNee Grand Chaplain
Gary Richard Quintrell Asst Grand Lecturer Div I
David Mickel Edwards Asst Grand Lec turer Div II
Antonio G. Cimarra, Jr. Asst Grand Lecturer
Jairo Jesus Gomez, Jr. Asst Grand Lecturer
Robert Glenn Beeson, III Asst Grand Lecturer
Charles P. Cross Asst Grand Lecturer Div VI
Elvan Dale Moen Asst Grand Lecturer Div VII
Victor Michael Ropac, Jr. Asst Grand Lecturer Div VIII
Michael David Thibodeaux Grand Orator
John Hays Crago, III Asst Grand Lecturer Div IX
Jordan Tyler Yelinek Assistant Grand Secretary
Mark Edson Pressey Grand Marshal
Paul Boghes Bazerkanian Grand Standard Bearer
Alberto Luke Casanova, Jr. Grand Sword Bearer
Frank Rickey Young Grand Bible Bearer
Mark Alexander Nielsen Senior Grand Deacon
David Andrew Forsyth Junior Grand Deacon
Micheal Anthony Padilla Senior Grand Steward
Thomas Lester Pryor, Jr. Junior Grand Steward
Andrew Leroy Rieland Grand Pursuivant
Stephen Richard Miller Grand Organist
Vinz Olivar Tolentino Grand Tiler
Jonathan Shane Davis Assistant Grand Organist
Scotty Joe Christian Assistant Grand Tiler
