Choosing each stone, and poising every weight,
Trying the measures of the breadth and height;
Here pulling down, and there erecting new,
Founding a firm state by proportions true.

Andrew Marvell, 1621-1678

I am enormously encouraged to see the correspondence carried on in these columns regarding mentoring. Let us give whatever help we can to these pioneering brethren. Freemasonry has to live up to its promises or continue to see membership declining. Incidentally, some lodges report increasing membership - is anyone making a serious survey of this, to see what we can learn?
    Poor retention is not a new problem; the records in my own mother lodge in the early 1900s show a high proportion of members resigning after less than five years membership. It seems they were all expecting something more, or at least something different. Some of course are lucky, finding a deeper meaning in it all, despite their early unimpressive experience. I was one of those lucky ones. I might not have been. On the evening of my initiation - a wonderful and regenerating experience - the following item on the agenda was the adoption of the lodge accounts, a contrast so brutal and banal I almost wept. Compare this with the practice in another constitution, where they send a newly-made master mason home on his own, no dinner, unfêted, to reflect on what has just taken place. Surely, to deal with these things solemnly is not to detract from the social enjoyment, but rather to enhance it by contrast. An organisation - an order - that was originally concerned with inner structure, development and growth, with the nature of existence, with liberty of conscience and the brotherhood of man, seems to be increasingly compared with Rotary Clubs and other secular organisations. Is it possible that we are in danger of descending into a social club, with the hierarchical advancement of our members as the primary aim ?
    There must be many reasons for poor retention. Let me tell you a poignant little story. There was a brother in our lodge who had been initiated in 1930 but had not attended since 1934 and yet had conscientiously paid his subscription ever since! For me, that’s not retention - only by a thread so to speak. Anyway, I could find nobody in lodge who knew him, and so I thought a visit from us was overdue. At first he was reluctant, but we finally met in his sculptor’s studio. This was in 1992; he was born in 1899, so he was already 93 years old. His name was Alfred ‘Gerry’ Gerrard (see photo above). He had been Professor of Sculpture at the Slade, had been a pal of Henry Moore and Jacob Epstein and worked with them on public sculptures, had flown in both world wars and was, in short, quite a character. He sat there in the middle of his studio, a complete man with the completeness of his sculptures. A fellow-sculptor, David Wynne, recently referred to his own sculptures as his ‘praise of the Creation’, and here sat Gerry Gerrard, surrounded by his own unique praise of the Creation, the product of his mind and muscle, of his intellectual and physical striving.
    We talked for hours, more about sculpture than about Freemasonry. For Freemasonry he appeared to have little interest. I asked him why. He answered: “Freemasons are always doing the same things; when I put my chisel to a new piece of stone, I’m assisting at the birth of something new.” He died this June aged 99 and the sad thing is that the secular world around us knew how to appreciate the spiritual qualities of this remarkable man more than the Freemasons did; every quality daily carried a detailed tribute to him. I’m afraid we failed.
    This spring I had the pleasure of being a guest at the annual festival of the St James Lodge of Instruction in Birmingham (one of the best in the country). The standard of their work showed great accuracy and attention to detail but, most importantly, the brethren understood what they were doing, and treated it with respect. With Gerry’s remarkable words in my mind, I shared with these young brethren the thought that, good though their work was, it was only the carving tool, not the carving itself. The lodge of instruction can certainly hone a bright edge on the tool, but how do we then use it? The correspondence about mentoring can lead on to a good use of the tool, but don’t let it slack off. Here’s a tip; get hold of a copy of Freemasonry - a Journey through Ritual and Symbol by W. Kirk MacNulty (£8.95 from Thames & Hudson, tel. 01252 541602) and present it to the latest initiate in your lodge, then question him on it afterwards, or discuss the questions it raises in open lodge. You may be amazed at the result, for him and for you.