The 1st Masonic Con New York – 'Freemasonry in the 21st Century': January 17-18, 2025

by Christopher Hodapp

The very first Masonic Con New York is coming to the magnificent New York Masonic Hall on the weekend of January 17, 2025. Built around the theme Freemasonry in the 21st Century: Self and Society, this premiere Masonic Con will showcase experts discussing the urgency of Masonic teachings and the importance of Brotherhood in our lives and communities. If you are familiar with the U.S. Surgeon General’s recent study on the epidemic of male loneliness in American society, or with any of the various news reports on this problem, you may wish to hear from these speakers and glean ideas for preparing for Freemasonry’s future.

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The weekend will begin the evening of Friday, January 17 with the legendary Mariners Lodge 67 Maritime Festive Board and Beefsteak Banquet inside the Masonic Hall's spacious Grand Lodge Room at 6 p.m. If you have yet to experience it, prepare to be amazed by the camaraderie of Masonic feasting and singing in harmony.

A Mariner's Lodge Festive Board & Beefsteak Banquet

On Saturday the 18th, the speakers program, open to the public, will begin at 9 a.m. Keynote speaker Maj. Gen. William Green, Jr., the U.S. Army’s Chief of Chaplains, will speak to America’s loneliness epidemic and man’s need for fraternal connections in life.

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Additional featured Speakers:

• Dr. Heather Calloway, Executive Director of Indiana University’s Center for Fraternal Collections and Research, will discuss the cultural relevance of fraternal orders in America.
• Bro. Chuck Dunning, of Texas, the nationally renowned author and educator on the subject of meditation and mindfulness techniques, will impart ways Masons and our lodges may profit from these practices.
• Bro. Bull Garlington, of Illinois, is famous for his journalistic essays on how he overcame loneliness in adulthood by discovering Freemasonry.
• Bro. Michael LaRocco, Executive Director of our Livingston Library, will share his expertise in the craft of self-actualization.
• Bro. Jim Loporto will close the speakers program with his dramatic presentation “The Elephant in the Room.” This will be open only to regular Freemasons—and we especially encourage Apprentices, Fellows, and new Master Masons to experience it.

 

There will also be tours of Masonic Hall and the Livingston Library, Masonic vendors, and plenty of networking opportunities.

Masonic Con will close with a special cocktail reception, where attendees can mingle with the guest speakers and Grand Lodge leadership while also supporting New York’s Brotherhood Fund 1781 Society.

For more information, to purchase tickets, sign up for vendors' tables or make hotel reservations, visit https://masonicconnewyork.com/

(H/T Thanks to Grand Secretary Richard Schultz for passing this along)

 

Slate: 'What if the Solution to Men’s Loneliness Is… Freemasonry?'

Illustration by Logan Guo for Slate

by Christopher Hodapp

There's been no dearth of reports over the last few years about what many sociologists and psychologists are calling an 'epidemic of loneliness' among men under 40 or so. Several emails this weekend alerted me to an article on Slate – 'What if the Solution to Men’s Loneliness Is … Freemasonry? What makes a guy decide to join a really old fraternal order in 2024', by Allegra Rosenberg. It's a refreshingly evenhanded exploration by a non-Mason of what Freemasonry has to offer to men in today's society. 

Instead of talking to a grand master, or one or two of us regulars in the go-to lineup of high-visibility usual suspects who often get interviewed for these kinds of stories, Rosenberg put out an appeal for responses in the very active Reddit r/freemasonry community. She was especially interested in hearing from men under 40, and this article is the result. 

Apart from flubbing the date of the English grand lodge's founding as 1710 instead of 1717, I daresay that this would be a decent article for grand lodges to link to in their social media as information from a dispassionate third party as to why young men would be interested in our fraternity. If your membership committee is hunting contemporary motivations for joining, give this a read.

It features responses from many brethren as to their personal reasons for joining the fraternity, and one thing glaringly missing from previous generations is mention of dad, grandad or other relative who had been a Mason. This may be the first cohort of men since 1717 that is seeking out a lodge independent of a family tradition. Nor will you find a single reference to George Washington, or any other famous Freemasons. 

Whether you regard that as sad or not, it's the reality we have to deal with today.