First local master was Abel Dowswell

Celebrating 150 years. Ontario Masons District Chaplain Gordon Roberts provides an inspiring address during the September 2001 dedication of the Renfrew lodge’s new mosaic pavement. Renfrew Weekender

Freemasonry is one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the world, but members of the Renfrew Lodge 122 get to enjoy their own distinctly historical landmark this weekend.

Many of the 64 members, plus visitors and guests, will celebrate their 150th anniversary and such guiding activities as the spirit of helpfulness, brotherly love and strict moral principles that encourage goodwill toward all mankind.

For decades, Freemasonry has been dubbed a secret society, but local members find that ridiculous, if not irritating. The fact it’s closed to women is simply because it’s a fraternity, says executive member Graham Jamieson of the fraternity thought to be about 3,000 years old.

“I’ve met some great people, they’ve made me a better man – just the beliefs, the morals,” says Jamieson.

“At one time, when I first joined the lodge (in 1990 as a 29-year-old) I wouldn’t get up and speak. Now I’m still not comfortable, but I’ve gained that confidence to do it a little bit more.”

An electrician by trade, Jamieson is part of the wide-ranging backgrounds of Masonic lodge members. A case in point is the position of Worshipful  (as in praiseworthy) Master, the head of each year’s executive.

The very first local master 150 years ago was Abel Dowswell, a justice of the peace in Arnprior and Burnstown. Subsequent worshipful masters included Renfrew hotel keeper John Munro Sr. in 1861, clergyman Robert Campbell in 1877, telegraph operator William Usher in 1911, Northcote farmer John Campbell Simpson in 1927 and accountant Harry Hinchley. Elected worshipful master in 1941, he was later widely regarded as the town historian, thus the nickname of Harry ‘The Historian’ Hinchley.

Current Worshipful Master John Baird first joined Freemasonry as a member of the Sioux Lookout in 1999, after being aware of the brotherhood for years.

“What drew me was my grandfather, who was involved with the Masonic lodges in Scotland,” recalls Baird. “We had a portrait photograph of him in his regalia in our house when we were growing up in Newfoundland.”

While in Sioux Lookout, he talked to local masons before joining.

“What attracted me to it was it was totally different from what I was doing day to day,” says Baird, who works in municipal government administration.

“It was a way to get to know people in the area and interact with people I wouldn’t normally interact with on a normal business basis. And just to become a better person and to learn a bit about history and why (Freemasonry) was a major organization around the world.”

Interestingly, it’s against Masonic Lodge rules to actually solicit members, just as it’s not permitted to actively fundraise (from community members) for projects they support locally or abroad.

All projects are funded from the very pockets of lodge members, stresses long-time Renfrew Masonic Lodge member Gord Cross.

Projects include, or have included, the Masonic Child Identification Program, physician recruitment and equipment donations for Renfrew Victoria Hospital, blood donor clinics, and scientific research and development for prostate cancer, hearing loss and autism.

Through membership with Masonic lodge branches in Alberta and Ontario, and through his wide-ranging travels, Renfrew member Jack Ledger says his life has been tremendously enriched.

“I joined masonry 41 years ago and it’s a fraternal organization I’ve absolutely loved all those years,” says Ledger.

“They’re like-minded men with a high standard of morals and they’re lots of fun,” says Ledger, the local District Deputy Grand Master.

When he decided to move back from Alberta to his hometown Renfrew about eight years ago, despite knowing many friends had moved. But he says the lodge became a place of comfort where he found a “new myriad of friends … Visiting lodges and making new friends, and the camaraderie of the organization is absolutely great.”

However, he says not just Renfrew Lodge 122 plays an important role in community support and development. Other service organizations fill the same role, says Ledger, noting they all could use more young and middle-aged members.

A few decades ago, the Renfrew lodge featured about 200 members. Members, now ranging in age from 30s to 90s, number 64.

Declining numbers in the Masons and other service clubs is due, says Ledger, to society’s increasingly “cocooning” ways, and the changing dynamics of parenthood, as fathers take a more active role with their children.

Still, Ledger says Freemasonry membership isn’t overly demanding, with one lodge meeting and one committee meeting per month.

BELIEF IN SUPREME BEING

Members of the lodge all, before becoming members, must express their belief in the existence of a supreme being, whether it’s God or another supreme entity.

“Because we’re a Christian society, the bible is open on our altar,” says Ledger. “But if I was a Muslim, I could ask for the Quran to be open on the altar when I take my obligations to maintain the secrets of the various degrees.”

The secrets have led to the Freemasonry being labeled as a secret society, but the secrets, say members, are restricted to such items as secret modes of recognition, namely signs, handshakes or words for use in the lodge room during meetings.

As Jamieson puts it: “We’d like to get rid of the idea we’re a secret society. Ford doesn’t tell General Motors what they’re doing in their meetings. And you can walk into the Legion (as you can the Masonic lodge), but you can’t walk into their meetings unless you’re a member.”

The secret passwords and life lessons (to benefit mankind) are among the material members must memorize. Other memory work is of Freemasonry history.

“If you like history, there is a lot of history here,” says Jamieson.

Morality is at the foundation of Freemasonry.

“The only thing about good men is we like to make them better,” says Cross, who says masons don’t take a chance with men with criminal records.

“If you have a criminal record don’t apply,” he explains. “It’s not written, but (it’s written) in moral stone.”

Asked why, he surmises: “I have a feeling Masonry doesn’t want to take a chance to have anyone bring disrepute to the name of Freemasonry.

“Freemasonry is not an exclusive club. It will include any man, any good man who wants to improve himself. But the important thing is you have to want to improve yourself.”

The 150th-anniversary celebrations of Renfrew Lodge 122 take place Saturday evening in the old opera house building, next to O’Brien Theatre.

There are about 50,000 Freemasons among Ontario’s 44 districts, and six million members worldwide.