OES Removed Masonic Family Relationship For Women Last November

by Christopher Hodapp

THIS STORY IS SLIGHTLY EDITED FOR CLARITY FROM ITS ORIGINAL VERSION FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2025, 12:33AM

As reported here on Monday, the  Order of the Eastern Star has been evicted from all Masonic buildings in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of West Virginia. In the wake of that decision, I was sent the following letter that had issued back on January 2nd of this year by the OES General Grand Chapter. 

I am posting this as a clarification of what started the imbroglio in West Virginia that led to Grand Master David Pyle's eviction directive to the OES. In his directive, he had claimed the OES had dropped the prerequisite of Masonic membership. That is obviously not correct, as scores of readers who are both Masons and Eastern Stars rushed to point out. (Click the images to enlarge them.)

The letter went out in January from Most Worthy Grand Matron Billie Bradfield and Most Worthy Grand Patron Michael Berry. It informed all OES chapters that their rules had been changed by the voting membership back in November 2024 regarding petitioning candidates, and removing the Masonic relationship requirement FOR WOMEN ONLY. 

Since its founding in the 1850s by Kentucky Past Grand Master Rob Morris, the OES required a female petitioner to be the wife, daughter or grand daughter of a Master Mason. The new rule passed last November has dropped that familial relationship with a Freemason. Instead of being related to a Mason, the new rule requires a female petitioner to present a letter of recommendation from a Master Mason and an existing OES Sister. But men wishing to join the OES must still be Master Masons in good standing. 

That detail was left out of GM Pyle's directive. 

Perhaps he wasn't aware of it.

The General Grand Chapter's letter goes on to clarify that state grand chapters do not have the authority to alter this new change in candidate criteria. They cannot choose to keep the former 'women must be related to Masons' requirement instead of the new one, even if their own members strenuously object. So the choice was made by the national body, not the West Virginia Chapter, which now has been given the order of the boot by the grand master.

According to Pyle's directive the GL of West Virginia's code forbids non-Masonic groups from using Masonic halls in that state. But if the OES still requires its men to be Freemasons (and women can't be recognized as Masons there anyway), nothing substantive has changed. To be brutally honest about it, the OES should have dropped the Masonic family requirement for women decades ago when membership declines showed no chance of recovery. Nevertheless, Grand Master Pyle has chosen to declare the OES a non-Masonic organization in West Virginia, even though the rule change hasn't really made it any less a Masonic group than it was before.

There is one other wrinkle to this West Virginia story that I hesitate to bring up because of the potential fecal cyclone it raises, and because I have absolutely NO proof that the issue even crossed the mind of Grand Master Pyle. I will only mention it because many commentators have suggested privately that it may be the REAL reason for the OES' eviction from West Virginia lodges. 

Prince Hall Eastern Star.

At the Myrtle Beach Triennial of the OES last November, another change to their regulations was adopted by a majority vote of their members. The national General Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star passed a resolution to recognize their counterparts in the Prince Hall Order of the Eastern Star. I do not know the details of that recognition, whether it is only in states where the Masonic grand lodges have recognized their Prince Hall grand lodges, or nationwide, whether it includes inter-visitation, or any other aspects of this decision. I only know that West Virginia is one of the last remaining four states in the U.S. that recognition of Prince Hall Masons does not exist. 

Masons who have been around for a few years may remember the mess that erupted in 2007 when West Virginia Grand Master Frank Haas attempted to speak with and subsequently recognize the Prince Hall Masons in his state. Haas was expelled from the fraternity for his trouble, and the whole mess got dragged into the civil courts and the national press.

Almost 20 years ago, I was informed that the Grand Lodge of West Virginia was the only mainstream U.S. Grand Lodge that did not participate in the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, the Masonic Service Association, or the North American Conference of Grand Masters. It did not recognize its Prince Hall counterpart, nor did it consider the Scottish Rite, York Rite, or Eastern Star to be appendant Masonic organizations. And it did not support the Masonic youth groups of DeMolay, Rainbow or Job's Daughters in any way. WVa Masons were still required to join the closest geographical lodge to their residence, could not be plural members, and if they moved out of state, they had to formally relinquish their WVa membership if they wished to join a lodge in their new home state. I don't know if ANY of that has changed after almost two decades. But this most recent action of hurling the OES out into the snow would certainly be in keeping with that general history of near-total isolation from the larger Masonic community.