What do you do in lodge?

A frequently asked question that is close to impossible to answer on a website that covers the whole wide world.

What all lodges do is have formal meetings to initiate candidates, pass entered apprentices to the grade of fellow craft and to raise fellows to the degree of master mason. That is about the only general thing I can say about this subject. These initiations, passings and raisings are all alike, but will differ according to the rite a lodge works in.

What some lodges do is that an entered apprentice or fellow craft has to give a lecture (sometimes called “piece of architecture”) to show that they understood the lessons of the degree before they can move on to the next. Other lodges have some sort of hearing, the relatively famous “catechisms”. Some lodges will do this during a formal meeting, other lodges during an informal meeting.

These informal meetings appear to be a bit of a ‘European tradition’. A lodge can have a lecture, a talk or an exchange of opinions about a subject. This can be anything from Masonic history or ritual to social issues.