Laconia Masonic Lodge hosting open house on Saturday

To the editor,

Saturday, Oct. 20 will bring a statewide open house for all Masonic Lodges in New Hampshire. As Master of the Laconia Lodge, I invite all to come tour and visit our Lodge, located at 63 Court Street, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Below is a condensed version of a paper delivered by Wayne T. Adams at the Convocation of the Maine Masonic College in Bangor on July 16, 2000 and published in "The Northern Light" Masonic magazine in August 2011:

"Looking back over more than three centuries of Freemasonry, I have come to the conclusion that Masonry's periods of greatest expansion have occurred when two things happen: first, when Masonry speaks to the individual needs and aspirations of a large number of men; Second, when Masonry speaks to the collective needs and aspirations of society as a whole. How does Masonry speak? It speaks by doing three things: affirming

values, building relationships and strengthening communities.

There are two broad categories of values taught in Masonry. There are the components of an individual belief system: a personal philosophy which we hope to live by and pass on. Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth; the theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity; and what we call the cardinal virtues: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice. Each one of us is a work in progress, ever striving for a quality which we can never quite

attain, ever struggling against the temptation to backslide, and ever confident that improvement is an aim worthy of our lifelong effort.

The second category of Masonic values are the civic virtues of equality, freedom and toleration. These values spring from the Enlightenment thinking of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Those Masons were radical thinkers in their own time. Indeed, they were thought subversive by the political and ecclesiastical establishment of the time. They were so subversive that they took cover in an organization that professed to be nothing more than the continuation and veneration of the work ethic of the ancient and honorable guilds of stonemasons.

We reflect on these tasks – so firmly enjoined on us – and realize that they served as the founding principles not only of this fraternity but of our nation as well. It is important to remember that the United States was the first nation founded on a set of principles.

I believe there is a general aspiration in America to temper the extremist rhetoric and to see how we can bring people together to build the kind of country we want to have. Further, I believe that any movement or organization which espouses those goals is going to be attractive to people.

Our personal belief system, our lodges and our nation are always a work in progress. We have an opportunity to be a part of that work — affirming values, building relationships and strengthening communities at a time when our country never needed those things more urgently.

Duane H. Stanton

Mt. Lebanon Lodge #32

Laconia