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Can we?

David612

Registered User
As well as deciding what is and isn't vital. The way Masonry becomes all things to the regularly attending members is to supply them what they consider vital, but that isn't vital to other regularly attending members.



The term "festive board" refers to a meal that is not in a tiled meeting. As such it's optional to some but not to all. I've been to meetings that didn't include a meal. I've visited lodges that didn't have meals. They aren't the successful lodges. I've also been to lodges that had never heard the term "festive board" but had meals anyways. There are members who attend the meal then leave.

But remember the other parts of this thread when discussing the dining room. Grand lodge Masonry was founded at Table Lodge. In a dining room. At a tiled meeting. For well over a century degrees were conducted around the dining room tables. You may not have experienced a tiled meal, but that's an impoverishment of your jurisdiction and of your experiences. Thinking that Table Lodge is not vital, when it was our founding event, is like thinking your lodge is the only lodge in the world.
Our meals here are never tiled, as a result the structure is;
-light snacks and drinks
-meeting
-dinner
That said I would need to read up on the ritual for our table lodges however having brothers chit chating and eating through through degrees and other work dosent sound ideal.
 

pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
I think people are a bit liberal on the use of “vital”.
The unique attributes of freemasonry are not found at the festive board, don’t get me wrong, I love seeing my brothers and sharing a meal but the vital part of freemasonry happens in the lodge room, not the dining room.
I love to tell the story of the time I decided to learn to juggle. I studied books on juggling technique, and this learning was vital. Then I spent time practicing tossing things in the air and catching them, and this learning was vital. In this thread I feel like I reading a debate over whether the reading or the practicing is more vital.
 

David612

Registered User
I love to tell the story of the time I decided to learn to juggle. I studied books on juggling technique, and this learning was vital. Then I spent time practicing tossing things in the air and catching them, and this learning was vital. In this thread I feel like I reading a debate over whether the reading or the practicing is more vital.
Point taken but my idea of vitality in this context is the work that makes freemasonry unique, socialising and charitity work may be a vital part of some brothers experience but what makes Freemasonry unique?
 
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