MASONIC RITUAL
Changeover or Close to another Degree?
MASONIC RITUAL EXPLAINED BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CUSTODIANS OF THE WORK
Can we open on the First Degree and use the Changeover to move to the Second Degree?
In the Grand Lodge of New York,
No, the Changeover cannot be so used.
Although the ability to open a communication of a Lodge on any of the three Degrees of Masonry greatly reduces the need to work in more than one Degree on any given evening, some foreseeable cases remain in which this would be desired. For example, a Lodge might like to examine an Entered Apprentice’s proficiency in open Lodge and confer the Fellowcraft Degree upon him at the same communication. In the Grand Lodge of New York, we have two ways of moving from one Degree to another: the Changeover and the procedural Ritual to Close to a Lodge of a Different Degree.
The Changeover achieves this by dispensing with labor in the Third Degree in order to temporarily impose the symbolic rules of a lower Degree in a Master Mason Lodge without opening a Lodge of that Degree. Since the Master Mason Lodge is still open and its labor merely set aside for a time, that labor must be resumed and the Master Mason Lodge must be closed. This is why the Lodge must return to the Third Degree after work and labor in a lower Degree has concluded. The Masonic rationale for “waiving all signs and ceremonies”—which refers to a lengthier procedure no longer in use that incorporated signs and ceremonies drawn from the Rituals of Opening for the lower Degrees—is that the Third Degree inherently embraces the lower Degrees and the signs of those Degrees were displayed during the Master Mason opening.
With the possibility of opening the communication of a Lodge on any of the three Degrees of Masonry, however, the Changeover’s rationale is no longer always valid. If a Lodge opens on the First Degree and desires to move to the Second Degree, we must observe that none of the signs of Fellowcraft will have been displayed, nor are the ceremonies of a Fellowcraft Lodge embraced by the First Degree. Moreover, it’s inconvenient to have to resume labor in the original Degree at the end of the meeting. The solution was to revive the historical New York Masonic practice of closing from one Degree to another Degree.
The procedural Ritual to Close to a Lodge of a Different Degree, which is found in the 2019 printing of the Ritual Book, waives the closing ceremonies for the current Degree and most but not all of the opening ceremonies for the target Degree. The portion of the opening ceremonies that is not waved consists of the catechism dialogue and display of signs, after which the Great Lights are adjusted as necessary and the Tiler informed. This not only ensures that the signs and ceremonies of the target Degree have been performed, but eliminates the requirement to return to the original Degree. Closing to a Lodge of Another Degree takes about 70 seconds longer than the Changeover, and both the Master and Senior Warden should be conversant in the catechisms for the Rituals of Opening in all three Degrees.
Response provided by RW Samuel Lloyd Kinsey
Chairman, Custodians of the Work, Grand Lodge of New York