Re: Membership and participation in Freemasonry to
I am ashamed to say, that my mother lodge does not have a webpage, and has no plans to obtain one. The membership is not convinced of the value of the internet.
Those words seem to have resonated with me, provoking much thought.
First of all, IMHO, if a the membership of a particular lodge wants to avoid any visibility or availability via the Internet, that's fine. They should be free to do so. I can see the possibility that such a group of Masons might, upon careful consideration, decided that they did not want or need such things. I can envision, for instance, a small but thriving T.O. lodge that values "Masonry in men" (winks at Doug) more than the number of men in Masonry. They are small and exclusive, and they like it that way. More power to them, I say.
I rather doubt, however, that such considerations are really the case. More likely, it is a bunch of stodgy old men who don't understand the thing and are thus unaware it's potential, or are even afraid of it. And that, IMO, is inexcusable.
The Internet, or more precisely, the various mediums that are enabled by the Internet, are now and for evermore a part of our community. One of the great things about the technology is that it can broaden that community in so many ways (not just geographically). We (the community in general, and Freemasonry in particular) have only begun to see some of the ways that technology will change things. Some of those changes are obvious - a web presence is, arguably, more important than a phone book listing. Some changes less so - the ability to pay one's dues using PayPal or similar. Some are still unrealized dreams - the extension of an open lodge, via telepresence, to members who could not otherwise attend. Such a thing might add rather substantially to the Tyler's required qualifications, perhaps even a redefinition of the role, but certainly there are no technical boundaries to it. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that it's a replacement for traditional "meatspace" meetings, only that it might be a worthy adjunct for those who, for various reasons, might not be able to attend in person.