Masons open up to the outside world

Unlike the WI, say, which is a cherished part of national life, the freemasons' community work is ignored, scorned or ridiculed.

Doubts go right to the heart of Government. Before coming to power, New Labour was committed to forcing judges, police and magistrates to declare if they were masons.

That plan snagged on the Human Rights Act, which protects both a person's private life, and his freedom to join an association. And anyway, the Home Affairs Committee's 1997 report concluded that there was nothing "sinister about Freemasonry, properly observed".

Yet still Freemasonry has a bad press. When career criminal Kenneth Noye was jailed for murder two years ago, much was made of the fact that he was a freemason.

Then out came the movie From Hell. Starring Johnny Depp, it created a fictitious link between Britain's most notorious serial killer and the masons. You don't get much worse product placement than that.

Even those who do not consider Freemasonry a threat often think of it as a joke. This Sunday, a national newspaper's ten top tips to being a mason included this: "As you'll be rolling up one leg of your trousers, be sure to wear your novelty glow-in-the-dark socks."

Why do freemasons struggle to command respect? The answer is all too obvious. Their arcane rituals and secrets nurture suspicion and mockery.

In their report, the Home Affairs Committee put it this way: "We believe however that nothing so much undermines public confidence in public institutions as the knowledge that some public servants are members of a secret society, one of whose aims is mutual self-advancement - or a column of mutual support, to use the masonic phrase."

These are allegations that York freemason Ken Lawn is delighted to refute. "We are not a secret society. We are a society that has secrets," he says.

These secrets are fewer than most realise, he says. Masons are encouraged to speak openly about their membership - although some are reluctant to do so, fearing reprisals.

The rules and aims of Freemasonry are available to the public, and masonic halls are listed in the phone book.

However, the traditional modes of recognition, for example the handshake, are kept under wraps. This is, Mr Lawn says, crucial if masons are to prove their credentials to one another.

Which brings us back to the MPs' accusation: that one of freemasonry's aims is "mutual self-advancement".

"You will have a lot of people out there who think it's 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine'. That's total nonsense," Mr Lawn says. "I wouldn't have become a mason if that was the reason."

The truth, he argues, is precisely the opposite. One of the things that can see a mason expelled is "if you are in there for self-gain - if someone's dishing out business cards".

The other, he adds, his customary smile broadening, is adultery with another mason's wife.

Then there is all that money the masons raise for charity. Mr Lawn reels off some of the non-masonic causes that have received grants of £10,000-plus from the freemasons: Scope, MS Research, the National Asthma Campaign, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Diabetes, Citizens' Advice Bureaux... the list goes on.

But few people know about this philanthropy. "We don't badge it," he says. "We don't stand there with photographers; it's not what we do. We don't need that recognition."

Neither do they welcome publicity for their initiation ceremonies, conducted behind closed doors. The rituals and pseudo-religious terminology - worshipful master, senior deacon, inner temple - are a turn-off for many.

"There are key words that tend to give people the wrong impression," Mr Lawn admits. "All masons have a ritual book. The ritual book is basically a play, the temple is more of a stage, and masons are budding thespians. It makes me smile."

The document Freemasonry: An Approach To Life puts it this way: "Freemasonry teaches moral lessons and self-knowledge through participation in a progression of allegorical two-part plays, which are learnt by heart and performed within each lodge."

Not everyone's cup of tea, but Freemasonry does have wide appeal. More than 300,000 people are members of nearly 8,000 lodges in England and Wales.

It seems that freemasons are belatedly realising that the best way to dispel the myths is to stand up and say who they are and what they stand for.

So masonic lodges up and down the country are about to open up their doors for Freemasonry In The Community Week, which begins tomorrow and runs until July 2.

There are a number of lodges in York which meet at three masonic halls: Castlegate House, St Saviourgate House and York House in Duncombe Place.

All three will be open during the week, giving non-masons a rare peep inside the grand inner temple and a chance to see the ceremonial regalia. Masons will be on hand to answer visitors' questions.

They will not be able to tell you how freemasonry began, however. Not because it's a secret, but because no one knows.

Did it develop out of the early trade lodges of the stonemasons who built York Minster and its peers? Or did a group of like-minded people invent Freemasonry to promote religious and political tolerance in the 16th century?

Mr Lawn, 45, a member of Agricola Lodge, named after a former Roman general of York, is an enthusiastic convert to freemasonry. He is a good choice of spokesman. A self-made businessman, he runs Advance Fire Services, in Lawrence Street, York, which was the first winner of the Evening Press Small Business of the Year competition.

His belief in Freemasonry - he has been a member for two years - is authentic and impressive.

"I would never have thought that I would be a mason," he says. "I was the same as others who took the Michael out of them. Now I am proud to be a mason. People mock because they don't understand."

He found he shared the masonic outlook, based not on self-interest but selflessness. "When you talk to masons they are a very genuine breed. They aren't looking for a pat on the back."

Despite this new-found desire for openness, freemasons are not about to let just anyone in. Women cannot be masons. "Officially, it's all guys," says Mr Lawn. "Unofficially there are women masons, but they're not recognised by the Grand Lodge."

You must be over 21, and believe in a supreme being, the Great Architect; if not the Christian God, then another deity. So atheists are out.

Other than that, if you believe in helping others, enjoy ritual bonding and can find someone to introduce you to a lodge, Freemasonry might be just the thing.

Castlegate House, Castlegate is open from 10am-4pm throughout Freemasonry In The Community Week

Updated: 10:53 Tuesday, June 25, 2002