If one pays for an endowed membership does that actually make it so that annual dues are covered permanently? Or does one still pay annual dues (as I understand it Blue Lodge endowments make it so that one no longer has to pay dues, though they are always welcome to benefit the lodge)?
Well, that has become the convenient belief brother.
Truth is, the blue lodge endowment was set up to and meant to perpetuate one's contribution to the lodge after death. In no way was it to relieve a brother of his duty to keep the lodge running.
Take a look at the numbers. They don't add up.
Brothers who no longer earn a yearly income may consider their endowment as a retirement benefit. With this I have no personal pic. But it is absolutely not to relieve a brother from paying yearly dues to his lodge.
Such masonry-on-the-cheap ideas are what keeps lodges in financial trouble. And, quite frankly, leaves the LOAD of lodge finances to those brethren willing to pull extra money from their pockets to keep lodges afloat year after year.
No. Make no mistake. If a brother pays an endowment and forsakes his yearly dues thereafter, he is not pulling his weight.