Community and Service

"To be a good man and true, is the first lesson taught in Masonry."

"The three great tenets of a Mason's profession are Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth."

"Faith, Hope and Charity  ...  The greatest of these is Charity."

As indicated in a few simple Masonic teachings above, the primary purpose of Freemasonry is to unite good men of a community and make them better.  Community service is one way to outwardly express both compassion and understanding for all mankind by tending to the needs and necessities of others.  Not only do these acts make the giver feel better, but they have a positive affect on those who notice them or receive them, to do unto others when they can as well.

Brothers in Masonic Lodges around the world perform community services through activities taken on by their Lodges and through programs of larger or wider Masonic groups.   In our case, we work together at a District level (North Seattle) and for our Grand Jurisdiction (Grand Lodge of Washington).

Many of the charitable programs we participate in support the youth of our communities, and those in need.

Local Lodge programs
Please visit the web pages of our local District Lodges to learn what we do in and about our local neighborhoods.

District Four programs
District Four's primary charitable focus has been through it's District Four Masonic Scholarship Program - which provides scholarships for graduating students of our local north Seattle high schools.  Please visit our special page on this district scholarship program for details about applying for a scholarship or donating funds to it's growth.

District Four has also banded together at times to gather and deliver holiday food baskets for needy families, donate shoes to third world countries, and donate goods and services to area food banks.

Grand Lodge of Washington programs
The Grand Lodge of Washington has formed a number of Grand Lodge Committees to oversee the work of Freemasonry in this state.

The Public Schools and Outreach Committee supports public education programs throughout the state. They also administer a statewide scholarship program for junior and senior high school students.  Their page provides application forms, links to several other scholarship programs which are available from concordant Masonic bodies, like the Amarath, Job's Daugthers, Eastern Star, Scottish Rite,

The Grand Lodge of Washington Literacy Outreach for Public Schools Committee encourages local Lodges to participate in a program that provides early learning books for elementary level school children.  The schools administer the program, and the children get to keep the books !  In some cases, these books may be the only ones they own, and actually owning them may encourage them to learn to read and enjoy it more.

The Grand Lodge Youth Committee helps local Lodges and Districts establish and/or support Masonic youth organizations.  These groups include:

• DeMolay for young men ages twelve to twenty-one,

• Job's Daughters for young women ages eleven to twenty,

• Rainbow for Girls for young women ages eleven to twenty

Concordant Bodies
There are other adult Masonic organizations that build their membership from the basic "Blue Lodges".  These groups have special philanthropies and charities that they contribute to on a wide geographical area.  You can visit the Concordant Bodies page on our Grand Lodge web site, or visit those that have local web sites here.  They include:

• Order of the Eastern Star for Master Masons and qualified female relatives,

• Order of the Amaranth for Master Masons and qualified female relatives.

• Scottish Rite for Master Masons

• York Rite for MasterMasons

• Shrine of North America for Master Masons who belong to the Scottish Rite or York Rite

Last updated on Oct 21, 2006