One-Day classes, What do YOU think?

[wjdevans]

We may live in such a society, but I can tell you from first hand experience that most of those knocking on our doors today are definitely not looking for instant gratification when it comes to Freemasonry. They are looking for something quite apart from that; something with deep meaning and value.

As an EA, I now that I am starving for the full experience. I am working hard to memorize the required work, but also disect each piece to gain as much from each nugget as I can.

My lodge is a small lodge where the majority are very old and don't know the work well. We do have a few brothers who are the backbone of our lodge and know the work immensely, but they are challenged with very busy work and travel schedules.

Our lodge has not had an EA in many years, and now finds itself with four EA's currently with a high potential for two more in the next couple of months.

There is some pressure on us EA's to hurry the work as several members of the lodge are concerned that we may lose interest in Masonry if we don't progress quickly. I don't agree with this. I refuse to let anyone dilute my journey and experience!

 

[Beathard]

Good for you! Enjoy every bit of your journey. Looks like you have more understanding than most already.

 

[davidterrell80]

I voted NO... but, I have to observe that I spent Navy time in Hawaii, where in the last 10+ years, the GL started one-day-all-the-way programs... run by the GL... held twice a year. I saw about the same percentage of new masons become active, continuing members as I would expect going the long way.

I prefer the traditional because of the emotional bond created between me and the men who worked in my degrees; not because of any inherent superiority in the system.

A Mason is made at heart before the degrees are ever conferred... they cannot make a mason out of someone who is not.

David

 

[Beathard]

Good post.

 

[choppersteve03]

i am for one day classes, it leaves more time for the man to do more esoteric work. after all it is about making roufgh ashlars perfect,right?

 

[davidterrell80]

Bro. Tom267, Thank you for commenting. When I was a member of the GL of Texas Membership Committee, I introduced the concept you describe, the EA and FC as lodge members with limited voting privileges and conducting business in the 1st degree. The GL of Texas operated in this manner until the American Civil War.

Adopting this manner of working would remove the pressure to push candidates to the 3rd degree and allow them to grow at a pace suited to their natures.

Tradition, especially those in living memory, are difficult to challenge.

 

[JJones]

i am for one day classes, it leaves more time for the man to do more esoteric work. after all it is about making roufgh ashlars perfect,right?

Men will have all of their lives to focus on esoteric work after their degrees and a lot of the lessons we are taught derive directly from the memory work and associated degrees.

I've been getting very interested and involved in York Rite recently and it occurred to me that I knew nothing about any of the lessons that were supposed to be taught to me...in fact I realized I couldn't recall anything about the degrees either! This was because our ceremonies were conducted at an all day festival and all I had to do was sit and watch.

Were the York Rite degrees and less impressive than my EA, FC, or MM degrees? Not at all. I remember my first three degrees vividly because I was actively involved and the memory work associated caused me to repetitively remember and reflect on my experiences. I'm just not convinced you get this same kind of connection if you're just pushed through your degrees like some kind of conveyor belt.

 

[chadwalker67]

Never

 

[Bro_Vick]

In my opinion New Mexico has the right idea for One Day Classes. The GLoNM has it once a year and the candidate has to be voted on by his mother lodge to receive the degrees in a one day class. Most of the lodges are responsible enough and use the one day classes sparingly for life altering events (deployments, death of a close relative, loss of a job) vice just trying to put men through to keep their numbers up.

I believe this is the best and most responsible use of one-day classes and allows men to be made.

 

[Michael Hatley]

There was a visiting graduate from another state to our lodge of one of these programs. He didn't even know the grip and the word. I mean....

Personally, the sitting with a brother and learning the work over time is what it is all about. You form a bond, and that bond is Masonry.

Only by due attention to their use do the compasses teach us. Immediate gratification, to me, not only skips the lesson on keeping our passions within due bounds but in fact tears it down. It is a lesson in patience and teamwork, in my opinion.

Also doing it the old way is what connects us with the eldest of us, and with our forefathers.

 

[Txmason]

@Michael Hartley

I certainly agree with you! I treasured my path from EA to FC and to MM. Each part was just for me. I would never recommend a one day all the way class at all. For example when I became a Shriner last week, I felt rushed and hurried but I much prefer the blue lodge because it focuses the individual.

 

[cog41]

No.

One should take their time and learn. Study and ponder the lectures, and decide how to interpret and apply them to their life.

I don't see how a person can decipher, filter that much information in sucha short time and even begin to make it applicable to their life.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[khilles]

Wow thats crazy lol. So much info

 

[Timothy Fleischer]

It's an unnecessary 12 hour marathon.

Coach... respectfully, I think you have it wrong there.
The one day class is not a marathon, it's a 20-yard sprint.
Learning and giving ALL of the questions and answers in each degree, that's the marathon.
I remember mine, even though it was mroe than 15 years. I met with my mentor every week and he taught me the work. Then in my exams, he asked one question and that was it!
His lessons have stuck with me far more than any other so-called "Aid to memory."

 

[CajunTinMan]

In general I am against it but, I do believe there is a time and place for it. One reason is when you have a young man who has been voted in but is being sent off to war.
"General James Harold Doolittle has a most unique history regarding his Masonic membership due to his army connections in World War I. Acting under a special dispensation from the Grand Lodge of California, Hollenbeck Lodge No. 319, F. & A.M., of Los Angeles, elected him to receive the three degrees of Masonry on August 8, 1918. The candidate was at the time in Louisiana with the air force and had received orders to go overseas immediately. In consequence, the Grand Lodge of Louisiana issued a special dispensation allowing him to be initiated, passed, and raised during one meeting in Lake Charles Lodge No. 165, F.&A.M. on August 16, 1918. On October 19, 1945, General Doolittle received the 33rd degree at the House of the Temple in Washington with, among others, President Harry S. Truman, General Henry Harley Arnold, and James Cash Penney."

 

[Brother JC]

Not only do I dislike one-day classes, I dislike getting a man through the Degrees as quickly as possible. Once upon a time (and to this day is some jurisdictions) you had to wait a year between Degrees, and show competency in your studies before moving to the next step.

 

[otherstar]

I am against one day classes. I didn't like the fact that Texas changed the interval between degrees to two weeks (it was 30 days when I went through the degrees in 1997).

 

[Bro_Vick]

I am against one day classes. I didn't like the fact that Texas changed the interval between degrees to two weeks (it was 30 days when I went through the degrees in 1997).

Even that can be waived, special dispensation has allowed men to be raised much quicker. With memory work intact of course.

S&F,
-Bro Vick

 

[streeter]

hello,

i joined the fraternity in england about 30 years ago....
the complete process took 18 months...
very fine i thought - and - the best decision i ever made...[apart from marrrying my wife!!]

robert streeter.

 

[brother josh]

One lunar month it's been that way for a long time why would u want to change tgat tradition


My Freemasonry HD