Grand Canyon Lodge #38 Williams AZ.

I bet some of my fellow Masons have been told or heard this stuff before , but the REAL reason I became one is the last part of this statement

OK, so I've been called just about all this stuff before . But THIS is why I became a Mason

Oldest Lodge

The Oldest Masonic Lodge in the World

The oldest Masonic Lodge in the world (with verifiable lodge minutes) is the Lodge of Edinburgh No. 1, Edinburgh, Scotland...sometimes known as Mary's Chapel.

In July, 1949, it observed its 350th anniversary of its establishment. In 2008, (at the time of this writing), Lodge of Edinburgh No. 1 is 409 years old.

Oldest Masonic Lodge Minutes - July 31, 1599: Lodge of Edinburgh No. 1 has records to prove its long time existence as the Oldest Masonic Lodge.

First Operative to Speculative in Scotland - 1600: As early as 1600, The Lodge of Edinburgh began to admit non-operative Freemasons. In June, 1600, the Laird of Auchinleck was made a speculative member, the first authentic record of the making of such a member.

The famous Dr. Desaguliers visited the Lodge of Edinburgh on August 24, 1721. He had served as Grand Master of England and was referred to as "General Master Desaguliers". On the next day, while he was present, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the Treasurer, the Deacon Convener of the Trades and the Clerk to the Dean of the Guild Court were admitted as members.

This date is thought to mark the change over from operative to speculative Freemasonry in Scotland.

Another 1st Degree! Welcome Brother Steven Diefenderfer!

Welcome to this Godly Fraternity brother Jan Nichols . Wonderful 1st degree with much help from Flagstaff Lodge number 7

Sharing again....

A man walks down the street of his hometown and sees the old Masonic lodge closed and falling apart. He had left for the service and said when he returned home he wanted to join the lodge because as a child he was so impressed by the quality of men he met there. He recalled the fish fry’s and barbecues he attended there, the Christmas parties and other events.
He saw an old lady walking down the street and asks her what happened? He recalled how he would see the members gather for meetings, holding events for the community and marching in the parade. Such great men, beacons of the town, men of influence but more importantly, just great men.
The old woman stated, “ My husband used to attend lodge there. For decades he would spend countless hours working to prepare for events and meetings, oh how he loved being around his Brothers. He loved being a Freemason and so looked forward to the fellowship, he loved being surrounded by good men, like minded men who knew they was something bigger than themselves.”
“But what happened? “, asked the man, “Where’d they all go?”
“Well son”, said the old lady, “They died or moved away but it started down this path long before that. The Brothers stopped coming, they stopped working on the lodge, they stopped holding events. When the Brothers stopped attending, the events stopped, the people stopped coming, when the people stopped coming, the fundraisers stopped, when the fundraisers stopped, the Brothers were asked to pitch in to keep their lodge alive. Unfortunately, the Brothers has more important things to do. They would have all kinds of reasons why they couldn’t come give a few hours of their time.
There used to be dozens but eventually there were just a few, my husband called them ‘The faithful few’. Sometimes they barely had enough to hold meetings, they couldn’t do Degree work because they didn’t have enough members present, they couldn’t grow because they couldn’t bring in new men. Sadly as those faithful few aged, they just couldn’t do it all anymore. They tried but after the events stopped, so did their relations with the town folk. The people who had enjoyed the events over the years lost interest in helping out. They drained what little money they had left to try and keep it open but it all dried up. After they closed my husband was miserable, it was the one thing he looked forward to each month and now it was gone.”
The man looked on with tears in his eyes, such a great institution that did so much for its community was gone.
Our Lodges are not just buildings of brick and mortar, they buildings of Brotherly Love. Love held between Brothers of the order and shown to our communities but they can’t survive on love alone. Like any great organization, it is the members who keep it going. Much like the crops of the field will die off without the rains, our Lodges will die off without its members. We all have other things that go on, that is life, but we must make every effort to set aside the time, as little as four hours a month, to attend meetings, do the work and maintain our temple.