What is Freemasonry ? Who Are Freemasons?
Freemasonry is the World’s Oldest and Largest Fraternal Organization. Freemasonry, or Masonry has a written history of well over 600 years and traces it’s origins to the Stonemasons Guilds who built the great Catherdals of Europe in the middle ages. In today’s society where moral values are severly tested, Freemasonry seeks to provide Men of good character a opportunity for fellowship and the promotion of integrity and good Citizenship. Freemasory welcomes all Men to join regardless of race, color, creed or Church affiliation. Members must profess a belief in God and Freemasonry and the Lodge urges it’s members to be faithful in the practice of their own religious beliefs. Freemasonry is Charitable at it’s heart and in the United States, it’s members contribute on average over $1Million per day, year after year, to Charitable causes, most of which are not Masonically related.
Masons are dedicated to becoming better Men and try to live in accordance with high moral principals and as good citizens. Freemasonry teaches and practices the ideals of kindness, honesty, decency, courtesy, fairness and understanding and concern. It upholds the belief that we are all part of a Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of God.
Men of every walk of live belong to Masonic Lodges. They may be highly visable as Shriners in costume and Fez, or as Lodge members wearing aprons in civic processions or Masonic funerals, or at special Masonic ceremonies such as the laying of cornerstones. For example, George Washington presided at the cornerstone laying at the U.S. Capitol building in 1793.
The Masonic Fraternity in the United States includes 3 million members in 14,000 Lodges, of which Lodge of the Ancient Landmarks Lodge No. 358 is one. There are approximately 4 million Masons and more than 100 Grand Lodges throughout the world, truly a worldwide Fraternity!
George Washington and 13 other Presidents of the United States, as well as 18 Vice Presidents and 35 Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, have been Masons. Washington took his first Presidential oath of office on a Bible borrowed from a Masonic Lodge in New York City and the oath was administered by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, another Mason, and at the time, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York.
Here is a sampling of other famous Masons in various walks of life, then and now:
Buzz Aldrin, Gene Autry, Beethovan, Earnest Borgnine, Irving Berlin, Simon Bolivar, Omar Bradley, Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin, Garibaldi, John Glenn, John Hancock, Christopher J. Hough, John Paul Jones, Rudyard Kipling, Lafayette, Mozart, Douglas MacArthur, Norman Vincent Peale, John J. Pershing, Paul Revere, Will Rogers, David Sarnoff, Red Skelton, Thomas Watson and John Wayne.
If you wish any further information regarding membership in a Masonic Lodge, please contact the Master or Secretary of Ancient Landmarks Lodge No. 358 here. Thank you for your interest in Ancient Landmarks Lodge No. 358.