Seeking advice about GLoTX (dual) affiliation

Gentlemen & Texas Brethren: wonder if I could enlist some thoughts or advice from y'all?

I've introduced myself here on other threads as a Texan abroad and a newly-raised Master Mason in the UGLE. Joining up was one of the best moves I've made in years – I'd been mulling it for 4 or 5 years before I finally swore my oaths – and I'm proud to be part of a lodge with really worthy men, an excellent ethos around ritual, and a lot of laughs around it all. As I expect most of y'all will understand, though, you don't ever stop being from Texas, no matter how long you're gone (and it's been a couple of decades for me). So I'm always attentive to ways I can keep my connections live. (You kind of have to work at it from this far away!)

Which leads to my point: namely, that, now I'm "fully fledged" as a Mason, I'd love to find a connection that gets me into the GLoTX loop and, to whatever small extent I can be from this distance, involved. It seems a good way of being a Texan abroad, if it's possible. My Texas Masonic roots run deep: my grandfather and great-grandfather were life-long members of Grandview Lodge No. 266, and it was actually when my mother gave me my grandpa's masonic ring – originally a wedding present to him from my grandma – that I started thinking about joining up myself.

It seems to me that the most obvious route to dual affiliation would be to petition Tranquility Lodge No. 2000, as that's designed to be a dispersed lodge to begin with (much like UGLE's Internet Lodge No. 9659 or Ireland's Lodge Ireland No. 2000), and the application process simply requires you to prove you're a Master Mason in good standing with a Lodge & GL in amity with the GLoTX. That said, the charter states explicitly that membership there does not vouch for good standing for the purpose of visiting any other Texas lodges.

So ... with all that info in mind ... I'm just wondering what some of you guys on the ground might think? Is it a good way to go, or are there any better that you'd know about but I wouldn't? Unfortunately, though I try to spend time in Texas every summer or two, I don't tend to be there at enough length to get easily known by the lodges in my ancestral towns or my university town (Waco), and I don't really know the residency rules for petitioning there, anyway. I suppose I could just use some more familiarity with Texas masonry.

I suppose this is all probably more about the emotional pull than it is about practicalities ... but, like I said, a Texan is always a Texan, so for whatever reason it's important to me. Therefore, I'm asking.

S&F,
Will

 

Since you asked, noting I’m not a TX mason, why join a lodge you don’t attend? Is it just to say you are a member there? Well, technically, yes you are. But really? Nah. You don’t really know about the jurisdiction. You aren’t butt in chair (to be elegant), let alone engaged in ritual and governance.

As to the jurisprudential issue, I defer to Texas brethren.

 

Well ... I did state pretty straight-up that there's probably as much emotion in the query than there is a realistic chance of being in Texas for a meeting every month. But I've been away from home in a foreign land for the lion's share of my adult life; and in those circumstances sometimes you just want to have a few things around you where the ambient noise has your own accent ... even if it is at a distance. I think I'd want to suggest that's a slightly more nuanced pull than "just to say [I'm] a member there". Naturally, it all depends on what you do or don't make of your opportunities, though.

That said, I suppose that some of the reasons I'd want to be in a lodge that I don't [always] attend are similar to the reasons that have caused the IL 9659 to become a goodly success amongst its many members across the world, including those who may never have the chance to get to a bricks and mortar meeting in Manchester. (By comparison, my chances of being in Waco for one of Tranquility's three or four meetings a year are actually pretty high.)

My hope is that, in the coming years, I'll be in a position to be in Texas more often than I have in the past, so I'm looking to carve out some connections. I'm also wanting to join up some personal past and present by learning something about the flavour and rituals* of freemasonry that made my grandfather such a believer; even years after his death, there's richness still to be added to that relationship. (Indeed, I've noticed that there are guys on these boards who are members of his Lodge.) And, in the fulness of time I do indeed wish to be in a position to visit Texas lodges freely as and when I can ... "butt in chair", as you say. I think none of that is particularly unreasonable.

* I'm a ritual guy by nature and, in fact, by trade. I eat up liturgy and ritual for breakfast.

 

Well, I did paint that rather broadly, and as a displaced Okie, I do understand the desire to maintain connections with one ‘s own native land.

 

your profile and sig seem to suggest you’ve made the transatlantic rounds, yourself. i’d be interested to hear about it at some point.

 

I do not see an issue with you joining a Texas lodge other than if you do return to Texas, where would you live? Texas is a large state as you know and you wouldn't want to join a lodge in Lubbock and move to Laredo so to speak. We would consider you for a plural membership but would have to confirm with GLoT that its okay to do so.

 

My family seat is Johnson County (Cleburne and Grandview in particular), and I spent my early adult years (university and a few years beyond) in Waco. I've saved up a little money in hopes of getting a small property to retire to, eventually, and to come home to in the mean time. Probably in Cleburne or Waco.

I get the impression that the GLoTX does allow for dual affiliation ... although obviously others will know the protocol far better than I and, in any case, as you suggest, these things do (and should) have to be done the right way with all GLs concerned.

 

The only issue is residency. @Bill Lins would probably know. I would affiliate someplace I would plan to live later. You could always transfer membership later.

If I could find my law book, I will look it up later.

 

Thanks Brother, I knew you would know.

 

Brethren, let me thank you all for putting your heads and thoughts together on a discussion that, I recognise, is a little out of the ordinary. I think in the fulness of time I will indeed try to make contact with Grandview Lodge and hopefully make a visit next time I'm home ... perhaps this summer if things work out as I'd wish. Whatever might or might not develop in slow-time, I suspect it's worth digging up a little of our mutually shared history ... who knows; maybe someone's still left that's been in long enough to remember my grandpa. If there are any Grandview brethren reading this, by the way, please feel free to PM me.

Meanwhile, I think petitioning Tranquility Lodge still seems a good first step in reaching out to Texas freemasonry from afar. In addition to its dispersed nature and straightforward joining requirements, my science-geek teenage son reckons it would totally rock to join a lodge whose territory is, technically, on the moon! (In fairness, I don't actually disagree with him; he gets his geekery from me.)

Anyway, y'all have done a good deed for a Texan far from home by entertaining this discussion, and I'm much obliged. If there's anything more to say, please continue, and, if not, I'm thankful for your generosity of spirit. The masonic brotherhood is a good thing.

 

Just put together my petition pack for Tranquility. Again, thanks guys.

 

wonder if you could quote Art. 392 (or other relevant), Bro. Lins? I’ve looked online but can’t find it.

I recently came across (oddly by sheer coincidence whilst googling something else!), a pdf of the Texas petition for affiliation by cgs, and it did ask about residency. i’m just a bit confused by the seeming contradiction.

 

That's very helpful, Bro. Lins; many thanks indeed. As it happens, I'll be home in a few weeks' time (which increasingly looks like it'll become a regular event) and plan on getting round to some lodges and hope to get to know some brethren.

For the record: I'm told on y'all's end that for a simple visit, I don't need to contact GLoTx beforehand, but just turn up to lodge with my GL certificate and clearance certificate; but I'd always heard from the UGLE that I should be in contact with the local GL before visiting. For the avoidance of doubt, could you kindly advise which course of action is most advisable?

 

They’ve been warned!

 

As time has gone by, how was your visit?

 

Sorry, just catching back up to these boards! I had a great time. This was my first chance to visit any lodges out of my home jurisdiction since I've been raised – last year I was an EA during my annual pilgrimage home – so it was really lovely to see the differences and the similarities. I paid a call to Waco 92, with whom I've been in touch via internet for some months, and they were great. Even hooked back up with a guy I'd studied theology with many years ago at Baylor: by sheer chance, he was the guest speaker that night!

Anyway, long story short, I've been in touch with Waco 92 since then, and also hooked up with a few of the guys on social media. Their lodge culture is a good fit for me and, I hope, vice versa. I've now written them a letter to say that with their blessing I aim to petition, and could commit to coming rarely but regularly, and if they feel like they want to get to know me better before I petition, please hook up with me on various social media. (They've got a very lively social media presence as a lodge, so they're easy to connect with from afar.) I'm told that my letter was well received, so I think a petition there will be in the offing. As I intend to retire to Waco in the fulness of time, it makes sense to build relationships there.

On a separate note, I got my Tranquility 2000 membership card the week after I got home; unfortunately, I wasn't in Waco in time to attend their stated meeting on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. (What a shame.) And I also ran into a mason in Huntsville, Alabama (originally from New Jersey) whilst on my travels; he spotted a t-shirt I was wearing and struck up a lovely conversation at the Space Center museum.

All in all, very productive and enjoyable. Thanks for asking.