Massachusetts Masons To Rededicate Bunker Hill Monument June 16th

Photo: National Parks Service

by Christopher Hodapp

As the 250th anniversary (the Semiquincentennial, in case you were wondering) of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution gets underway this year, Boston-area Freemasons and the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts A.F.&A.M. will take part in a rededication of the monument marking the Battle of Bunker Hill at Charlestown next Monday, June 16th.

From the Charlestown Patriot-Bridge website yesterday:

On Monday, June 16, Charlestown will become the center of national remembrance as the Bunker Hill Monument Association leads a full-day commemoration marking the 200th anniversary of the laying of the Bunker Hill Monument’s cornerstone and the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Titled “Two Centuries of Glory,” the event will blend pageantry, history, and patriotism. The day begins with a ceremonial procession at 9:30 AM from the Charlestown Navy Yard, featuring more than 500 participants — Freemasons in full regalia, veterans, military groups, civic leaders, and historical reenactors — retracing the symbolic path toward the monument.

At 10:00 AM, a traditional Masonic cornerstone-laying ritual will take place at the base of the Bunker Hill Monument, replicating the original 1825 ceremony that drew thousands and helped define the commemorative landscape of early America. Attendees will witness stirring musical tributes form 20 musicians and historical readings, including portrayals of Daniel Webster and the Marquis de Lafayette — key figures in the monument’s founding.

The celebration continues in the evening at 6:00 PM at the Old South Meeting House with “It Has Begun!” — A Grand Monumental Celebration. This culminating event will include authentic spirited toasts each followed by a lively interpretation form the Dee Orchestra and Chorus of the orginal odes and songs that 60,000 people heard in 1825. Lafayette’s 1825 tribute to freedom and liberty, read aloud once more in the very city where American independence first found its voice will be followed by the Marseillaise and the Star Spangled Banner.

Presented by the Bunker Hill Monument Association in collaboration with Boston National Historical Park, The Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, Revolutionary Spaces, the American Friends of Lafayette, and additional partners, the day promises to be a fitting tribute to two centuries of American memory and the enduring legacy of Bunker Hill.

For details about the Grand Lodge's involvement and for contact information, visit the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts event page HERE.

Photo: Steven Markos

Unfortunately, the article doesn't explain just how much the Freemasons in the Boston area really had to do with the battle and with the erection of the monument itself a century ago, in 1825. Dr. Joseph Warren was the Master of St. Andrews Lodge and Provincial Grand Master under the Grand Lodge of Scotland (St. Andrews originally started out as a completely independent, un-chartered lodge of its own, but finally took enough flak over it that they obtained a charter from the GL of Scotland to give itself more legitimacy.) Warren died leading revolutionary troops against the English on Breeds Hill. After the revolution, King Solomon Lodge purchased the land in 1783 and erected a monument to Warren and the other Masons who died there with him during that desperate fight. 

To prepare for the 50th anniversary of the battle, the city of Charlestown decided that a more impressive monument needed to be constructed. In 1823, King Solomon Lodge donated their property to the newly-formed Bunker Hill Monument Association, with the provision that any future monument had to preserve 'some trace of its former existence.' 

Photo: National Parks Service

The Association did just that, and built a replica of the original Masonic monument inside the building adjacent to the present obelisk. Today, visitors can see a beautiful marble sculpture of WB Warren, and his Masonic apron is also on display there.

Photo: Sarah Oliver/flickr

When the official dedication of the cornerstone was done in 1825, it coincided with the visit of Brother Maj. General LaFayette on his nationwide tour. He symbolically laid the cornerstone, and Brother Senator Daniel Webster gave the address to the crowd. In fact, Webster was still alive in 1843 when the monument was finally completed, and he spoke again at that ceremony. At that time, the country was still in the final vestiges of its anti-Masonic period, and the Masons chose not to take an official role at the event.

LaFayette's grave in Paris (Photo: Parisology)

One final connection to Lafayette was that he took a box of soil from Bunker Hill back home to France, which he had spread over his grave in Paris upon his death. The General wanted to be buried on both French and American ground, and the flags of both nations have flown over his resting place ever since 1834.

Local ABC station WCVB-TV in Boston put together a great feature on the monument and the Masonic involvement HERE.

Read the story of the Monument and the Freemasons on the National Parks Service site HERE.

And to keep with the many activities and events being planned as part of the Semiquincentennial (I'll never get used to THAT one) celebrations over the next two years, visit the America 250 website.

NOTE: In case you're wondering, Massachusetts and Hawaii are the only two U.S. grand lodges that do not number their lodges. Massachusetts did it because of the confusion immediately after the Revolution caused by the formation of multiple competing grand lodge bodies in that state. (By 1784, there were two competing grand lodges, plus two completely independent upstart lodges, PLUS Prince Hall's African Lodge No. 459, which had just been issued its own charter from the Grand Lodge of England/Moderns.) 

Once they finally all settled down, buried the hatchet, and merged into one single Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (except for African Lodge), ego arguments began to fly over whose lodge was oldest, which No. 1s should really be THE No. 1, etc. King Solomon Lodge was the 9th oldest lodge in the state, but that number is not assigned to them or anyone else there.

And Hawaii doesn't number theirs because their first lodges were originally charted without numbers by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and they've followed that practice ever since.

Masonic Quest: Escape from the Masonic Temple!

by Christopher Hodapp

No, I don't mean ducking out to avoid cooking the monthly breakfast. Not that kind of escape. 

I'm always looking for unique ways to bring the community into our Masonic halls and get the public interested in just who and what our fraternity is all about. Sometimes you have to think outside of the usual pattern of pancake breakfasts, chili cook-offs, and other typical events that lodges have been doing for the last 100 years and get more creative. So, here are a couple of ideas:

The Grand Orient de Belgium's Belgium Museum of Freemasonry in Brussels regularly hosts “Escape From The Masonic Temple” in its magnificent, historic temple. 

"A mysterious backpack has been found in the Museum…"The Belgian Museum of Freemasonry invites you to embark on a truly immersive experience: Masonic Quest, a thrilling escape game that takes place throughout the entire museum. Each puzzle you solve will bring you one step closer to uncovering the hidden treasure.

Succeed in your mission, and you’ll be rewarded with a photo alongside the treasure, an exclusive badge, and a certificate of investigation to commemorate your adventure.

Step into Masonic Quest, the captivating escape game at the Belgian Museum of Freemasonry! Dive into a world of intrigue, where mystery, symbols, and riddles intertwine. Follow in the footsteps of a historian who once hid a treasure deep within the museum’s walls.

Work as a team, explore every corner, crack codes, and solve puzzles to discover what’s been concealed.

This is a great idea. It's a fun way to get people into your Masonic building and interest younger people who haven't the first clue about who and what we really are. We have unique spaces that most people never give a second thought to. And everybody everywhere wants to know what's behind closed doors. So, let them in, guide them around, make them feel like explorers, let them see some unique artifacts.

The event also gives them the opportunity to hold guided tours and to open up their beautiful museum.

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Lots of lodges also do haunted tours of their buildings, like this one in San Antonio, Texas.

They managed to get a few minutes on a local TV station to promote the event.

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Then there' a children's  'treasure hunt' this coming weekend at Mount Zion Lodge 135 in Metuchen, New Jersey:

The Freemasons of Metuchen (Mt. Zion Lodge #135),
in conjunction with Wolfe Ossa Law and What's the Scoop are sponsoring a ​Children's Treasure Hunt following the style of "National Treasure", "Indiana Jones", and "Tomb Raider".

This is a chaperoned Treasure Hunt that will challenge children to solve puzzles leading from one location in Metuchen to another. Each clue will bring the children progressively closer to the final treasure!

The Treasure Hunt will start at the Mt. Zion Lodge on Saturday, June 14th, 2025 9:30 am sharp.
** You MUST pre-register ** (we will fill up, do it now)
​Address: 483 Middlesex Ave. Metuchen, NJ 08840

Speaking in Denver on June 16th

by Christopher Hodapp

I'll be speaking in Denver, Colorado at the Consistory of the Denver Scottish Rite Masonic Center on Monday, June 16th at 6:00PM. Really looking forward to it - the last time I was there for an event was back in 2009.

For more information and tickets, CLICK HERE.

God and the Odd Fellows

by Christopher Hodapp

Over the last few years, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows fraternal organization has been attempting to grow by reaching out to a younger demographic. Some have been embracing their decidedly offbeat name as a welcoming place for men and women who proudly celebrate themselves as being 'odd', an image the organization didn't really have of itself before. Many IOOF lodges have tried to expand with this strategy, but some apparently fear that local lodge officers are doing so by shunning or ignoring some of the most basic precepts of the IOOF that date back since time immemorial. And the national Grand Lodge for the U.S. has just fired a warning shot across the collective bows of those who have been selectively dodging the rules.

The Odd Fellows' 300+ year history parallels Freemasonry in many respects. Formed in London in the 1730s, they are non-sectarian, but require a belief in a non-specific God or Supreme Being. Their name stems from the medieval period of the craft guilds in England, purportedly for craftsmen who didn't belong to a specific guild of their own (or who had no such guild to join). Like the Masons, they expanded worldwide during England's colonial period. They created their own national grand lodge in America in the 1820s, flourished during the Golden Age of Fraternalism, and their popularity briefly exceeded that of Freemasonry in the early pre-Depression 1900s. Part of that popularity had to do with the perceived snobbishness and expense of joining the Masons, and they unfortunately got branded in many minds as the "poor man's Masons." The core organization, the Odd Fellows, is closely allied with the women's' group known as the Rebekah's, which was created originally as a sort of women's auxiliary group, much like the Order of the Eastern Star's association with the Freemasons. Also like the Masons, when white lodges refused membership to black men in the 1800s, the parallel Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was formed by and for blacks in America, much like Prince Hall Freemasonry did.

In town squares all across the U.S., lodge buildings sporting the 'three chain links' of the IOOF were as commonly seen as the square and compasses of the Masons. In many towns, the Masons and the Odd Fellows even shared lodge buildings. Like the Masons, they have three 'degrees' of membership within the lodge: the Lodge, which teaches Friendship; the Encampment, which teaches Love; and the Patriarchs Militant (similar to Masonry's Knights Templar), which teaches Truth. Their symbolic charts look remarkably like the Freemasons, and are often mistaken for being Masonic. They even wear lodge aprons. And their requirements for membership were historically the same as the Masons: men only, of lawful age of consent, of good character, and recommended by other members. In efforts to attract new members in recent years, they lowered the age requirement to just 16, and began admitting women. In many states these days, women commonly serve as grand lodge officers. But one thing that hasn't changed is that they still require all members to declare a belief in Deity, regardless of their personal conceptions or religious affiliation.

And therein lies the source of the current problem. 

More and more younger people in America have shown a dramatic increase in having no religious beliefs at all, at best claiming to be 'spiritual, not religious' (whatever THAT means), and often without any concept of a supreme deity of any kind. (That trend may be receding after more than a decade - see the note at the bottom of this article.) Consequently, some IOOF lodges have been lax about admitting men (and now women) who openly say they have no real belief in deity, or who dodge the question entirely.

Last week, the Grand Secretary of the Odd Fellows issued a sternly worded warning to all IOOF lodges that the core tenets of Odd Fellowship have not changed, and that all members must declare as part of their petitioning process, in writing, that they have a belief in a deity. More than a few local lodges have been glossing over that requirement, or ignoring it altogether. 

According to the letter, initiates have been told to ignore the requirement (or it's not mentioned it at all), lodges have been failing to display the Holy Bible on altars during meetings, the role of Chaplain has gone unfilled, and required prayers have been ignored or eliminated from their degree ceremonies. (Like the Masons in most jurisdictions these days, multiple books deemed sacred by an Odd Fellows lodge's members may be on the altar at the same time, although the Christian Bible must be there, regardless. )

Apparently, the situation has become widespread enough that the Grand Secretary's office is demanding that the entire letter be read at their next regular meeting, and that the order must be mailed directly to every lodge member within 30 days. (Click images below to enlarge.)

There have been calls within Freemasonry for more than two centuries to eliminate our fraternity's requirement of a declaration of faith, as the Continental Masons of the Grand Orient de France did in 1877 – and there's no denying that the Grand Orient has long been the largest (and continuously growing) Masonic jurisdiction in that country. But as has been the case there, the elimination of such a vital landmark of the fraternity was followed by the loss of others, such as overt political involvement and the eventual admission of women into their lodges. And it must be remembered that France has had a contentious and tumultuous history regarding religion ever since their revolution in 1789, and even before. French society is not directly analogous to American society when it comes to widespread attitudes regarding religion and secularism. We can't simply transplant their brand of Masonry to our own without dramatically changing the core of what has made American Freemasonry so successful in the past.

Despite all of the many changes to their fundamental membership requirements over the last few years, Odd Fellowship in America continues to dwindle. In my own hometown of Indianapolis, with well over 1 million people in the metropolitan area (plus burgeoning populations in other nearby communities) there is a single lodge hall location on the city's far west side that remains open, and it's part of their statewide Grand Lodge office building. If their newsletter numbers are to be trusted, the tiny number of new members taken in nationwide last year are shocking. 

It doesn't appear that their many changes have borne fruit.

So is there a cautionary example for Freemasonry to avoid this sort of change, or to embrace it as we watch our own numbers continue to decrease (albeit at a far, FAR slower rate than the IOOF's)? 

• Should we remain true to our most basic foundations, or make alterations to appeal to men (and maybe women) who give us the go-by now? 
• If such changes were to eventually be made, how can we honestly believe that Masonic membership would suddenly become desirable to our critics? 
• Would the detractors of our own fraternity rush out to join a local Masonic lodge if we permitted women to join, dropped our faith requirement, and openly took on partisan political stands of one viewpoint or another? 
• Or would they simply shrug and say, "Well, it's about time you dinosaurs crawled into the 21st century, but I'm really not much of a joiner..." ?

It’s worth keeping an eye on what transpires with the Odd Fellows in the next few years as they grapple with these very challenges.

*NOTE: People with no definable religious beliefs have, in recent years, been referred to by researchers as the "nones." In Pew Research Center’s 2023 polling, 28% of U.S. adults were religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or simply “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion. That was lower than surveys done in 2022 and 2021, and identical to the statistics in 2020 and 2019. After more than a decade of dramatic growth in "nones" (from just 16% in 2007), religious leaders are cautiously optimistic that faith may be making a slow comeback in this country.

Pew describes the "nones" this way:

• Most “nones” believe in God or another higher power. But very few go to religious services regularly.
• Most say religion does some harm, but many also think it does some good. They are not uniformly anti-religious.
• Most “nones” reject the idea that science can explain everything. But they express more positive views of science than religiously affiliated Americans do.

Attempting to woo less than a third of the adult population in this country by removing the declaration of faith requirement may be a dwindling goal for the Odd Fellows. For an all-male fraternity like the Masons, that number shrinks to just about 15% of adults as a raw statistic, and that doesn't take into account the vast numbers of "I'm-not-a-joiner" folks who wouldn't give any such club a second glance. 

Call me a a bitter old curmudgeon who smells like fetid four day-old Brussels sprouts if you like, but altering your organization that dramatically to chase such a small number of possibly potential members seems like a fool's errand to this insouciant whelp...