The following conversation took place recently between Bro. Dieter Stephan, a Hamburg businessman and member of the city’s Roland Lodge, and Bro. Christopher McIntosh, a British citizen and member of the Pilgrim Lodge, London, who lives in Hamburg.
    CM: Brother Dieter, what masonic event have you attended during the past year that you found particularly significant?
    DS: Without hesitation I can name the evening when two actors appeared in the roles of Ernst and Falk in the famous masonic dialogue written by the 18th-century dramatist and mason, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. I should perhaps explain that here in Hamburg there is a Lessing Society, founded by a group of masons and non-masons with the aim of studying the works of this great German writer and making them known to a wider public. It is astonishing how his play Nathan the Wise, probably his best-known work, with its theme of inter-faith toleration, is still as relevant as ever in today’s world where people of all nationalities and religions are continually mixing with one another. I find it a pity that we have no equivalent of Lessing today.
    CM: I agree. And one could say the same of many of Lessing’s contemporaries. In the 18th and 19th centuries there were many great masons who were also leading figures in science, the arts and other areas of life. One can think, for example, of the poet Goethe, of Mozart and his masonic opera The Magic Flute, of the great British architect Sir John Soane, of Samuel Hahnemann the pioneer of homoeopathy, of the masons who drew up the Constitution of the United States of America. These were men who lived out their Masonry. They took its principles out into the world and in doing so they created something remarkable. Where are the Goethes and the Mozarts and the John Soanes of today?
    DS: What do you think these brethren would say to us if we could go back in time and ask them: how can we at the dawn of the 21st century breathe back into Masonry something of the spirit that it had in the 18th?
    CM: I believe they would say: start by taking a look at the basic masonic principles that are constantly presented to us at lodge meetings. For example, there is a special emphasis given to the three principles of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. These are not empty words to be recited and then forgotten about but things to be actually applied. Sir John Soane, for example, applied them in his architecture. His buildings have great beauty of proportion and detail. They have the strength of endurance and they were built in a spirit of wisdom in the sense that he was guided by the architectural knowledge of the past as well as by a sense of what human beings really need from their built environment. Think what a difference it would make to our towns and cities if even just a handful of architects began to apply those principles seriously. But they can equally well be applied in any walk of life. I could also mention other masonic principles such as honesty, charity and tolerance. There is no lack of a powerful message in Masonry. The trouble is that it doesn’t fire most of the brethren of today in the same way that it fired those of the 18th century to go out and change the world for the better.
    DS: If we want to change that situation it will be important to convey Masonry in the right way to the potential masons of the future, those who will shape its course in the 21st century. Here I think we need to develop new information strategies, more effective ways of using the media so as to reach a wider audience and get the message across more clearly.
    CM: I take it you mean through newspapers, magazines, radio and television?
    DS: Yes, but I also mean the Internet. Many Grand Lodges already have their home pages on the Internet, as does this magazine and many other masonic organisations and groups. But the potentialities of the Internet for Masonry have only just begun to be developed. For example, I can imagine holding virtual-reality information meetings for non-masons, rather like the ones that my lodge, Roland, organises periodically in Hamburg, except that through the Internet they could be accessible to anybody anywhere in the world with a modem and the right computer. I can also imagine regular lodge meetings in virtual reality. This could be of great benefit to masons who are sick or living in remote places. It would give a whole new meaning to the concept of visiting. One could visit any lodge in the world without leaving one’s room. Of course access would have to be restricted by password, but otherwise there would be no limit to the number of people who could attend.
    CM: Could there be a tension between the rather traditional world of Freemasonry and the highly future-oriented world of information technology?
    DS: Perhaps, but I would see that as an interesting challenge for Masonry - how to get the best of both worlds, how to benefit from technological development and at the same time retain the essence and integrity of its traditions.
    CM: A challenge indeed. If Masonry can rise to it then perhaps the 21st century will be as glorious in its history as the 18th was. And perhaps there are some future Lessings who will be inspired to join it.