Excited About a Renewed Interest In Masonry

Tonight was our SEM degree at Adoniram Council in Miamisburg. As I have for the past 28 years, I played the part of Nebuchadnezzar. While it is always fun to get to work with this group of exceptional ritualists and extremely talented Masons, again this evening there was the same renewed interest in Masonry that I'm seeing in my travels all over the state of Ohio. I've started hearing more in all the bodies about working together to get things accomplish. I'm hearing a more positive spirit among the members and it seems to be resonating among all groups, not just the Royal Arch Chapters. When inquiring further on most of the Inspections I've been to when the attendance seems down (in any of the bodies) I'm hearing from multiple persons throughout the District, we couldn't make it as we were busy doing our own work. And I'm starting to see many more younger members joining. My biggest hope is that with the renewed interest and enthusiasm that seems to be building, those in the leadership roles realize the new members probably have a little different ideas than the older generation Masons. I also hope that they are willing to work with them to incorporate their desires so we can transform Masonry, using our core values, to something which attracts new members and persons living in today's society.

When people resist change in Masonry it reminds me of the Swiss and making of watches. The Swiss were well known as the elite makers of watches in the world and up until WWII for hundreds of years had held 90% or more of the market. Then came the invent of electronic based watches and they said it is junk and no one will buy them and ignored their customer base and their market share dropped. Then came the invent of analog, digital and lighted displays and they continue to say the same and their market share dropped. It wasn't until they finally realized the real value of the watch, the core of it, to tell time accurately, and finally started to adapt to the changes society demanded while still keeping the core of a watch (telling time accurately) that they were able to stabilize the market share. Once they stabilized the industry and started to attract customers back they were able to again prove to them why they had the best product on the market.