Grand Lodge of DC shuts down over membership and dues conflict

Washington, DC -- Tensions among competing factions within the Grand Lodge of DC came to a head over the weekend when, in trying to force a vote on instituting regularly scheduled One Day Classes, another group vowed to hold up the vote until the Grand Lodge approved a dues increase. Having reached a stalemate, the Grand Master was compelled to force a Grand Lodge shutdown.

The seemingly empty Grand Lodge building during
the recent shutdown

"It's sad, very sad, that some of our esteemed members can not think past their own agenda, said RWB Henry Lee Gibson, spokesperson for the Grand Lodge. "We've been fighting for months to start a regular series of One Day Classes to accommodate the number of people who want to join our great fraternity, but some of our members would seem to want to keep people out."

WB Carl Shoemaker, head of the Committee on Retention, disagreed. "We can't really accommodate more Masons here without building up our aging lodges," he said. "Before we can even think about bringing in the number of members that the Grand Lodge thinks is enough, we need to improve our resources, and that means a major dues increase."
The resulting shutdown has not had as much of an impact on the Craft as either faction would have thought.

The Past Bastard asked a number of Washington Freemasons their opinions, which most agreed to give anonymously.

"What do you mean, 'a shutdown'?" asked one confused member. Another added "How could you tell?"

"Oh, our lodge is all for it," a past master told us. "Anything that keeps those purple apron guys from visiting is great. It allows us to do our work without them looking over our shoulder.