THE ETHICS OF IMPARTIALITY

The body of masonic material is always questioned, ensuring masonry is relevent and impartial. This is the state of mind ubiquitous with the Gentle Craft. The zeitgeist has been and continues to challege status quo, recognize humanist values as a stage of fullfillment. Achievement is based on ability and diligence. When the mind focuses on two or three tasks, it cannot concentrate without priority. Masonry accepting life is a series of choices, puts out a premise of a universal goal, still a choice. Over the years we have built a brotherhood within a brotherhood. Serious minded brethren have prospered from examination of values setting them apart from the expedience of convention.  Within our Brotherhood, allowances are made for decisions. Based on principled thinking, doubting the risk of popular groupthink  puts us at jeopardy. Symptoms of this are everpresent.  We were not born with an influential body of scholars. We did not have the benefit of foundational Grand Lodges with old cultures and layers of history.  Upper Canada made masonry successful by modifying expectations, extending the reach across millions of square kilometers.  In the 20th century when we judge our performance as a brotherhood, we need to be kindly where we morphed into an ersatz service club. We know building a Grand Lodge Temple with an inspiring architecture and atmosphere of learning has been waiting for a moment when such inspiration triggers impatience. The delays in our work are not about money. Some will doubt the need. For them motivation is slack. Some, engineers and artificers will have less interest in that question, eager to  get on with the build to assist the draftman with skills to build.  Others focus on 'how'. But without ideas, without singular focus on the goal the brotherhood deals with distractions and self imposed barriers.