Become a Member
Our Membership Process
Freemasonry is relevant and needed in a world desperate for organizations dedicated to serving humanity and local communities, honorable living, tolerance, moderation, self-reliance, equality, and liberty. Your involvement starts with contacting Roanoke lodge and submitting a petition for memebership.
If you would like you can contact Roanoke lodge and set up a time to meet with some of our brothers at the lodge hall.
You can make direct contact with the lodge by e-mail at the link below.
jcartwright@roanoke195.com
Next you need to complete a membership petition. An initiation fee, $100.00, accompanies the petition. Within approximately 30 days someone from the lodge will contact you for an interview. Your wife, friend, or parent is encouraged to attend this interview. The lodge at its next meeting will vote on your petition.
Your references will be contacted and asked to answer some general questions. This process is just so we can get a better understanding of the candidate and insure they meet our original requirements.
If your petition is approved you are on your way to becoming an Indiana Freemason.
Basic Membership Requirements
- Be a man at least 18 years of age
- Be of good moral character
- A Belief in God
- Ask to join
- Resident of Indiana (Minimum 6 months)
The Work of Initiation
The lodge will perform three degrees (initiation ceremonies) for your education and enjoyment. These ceremonies are very dignified and inspirational. At no time will horseplay or indignities enter into the program. These degrees are very solemn and Masons take the task of making Masons very seriously. After becoming a Master Mason (the third degree of the lodge) you may seek membership in the many other Masonic related groups these are often referred to as appendant bodies.
This process of going through the degrees can be done traditionally in the lodge with smaller groups that include other candidates entering your lodge just like you. This process would start with the Entered Apprentice degree and then move to the Fellow Craft degree and conclude with the Master Mason degree. This traditional process could take 2-4 months. This process is very rewarding and will help you get to know the brothers at the lodge.
In the last several years they have begun another process called the One Day Class. This process was developed to help compensate for the very busy schedules of modern life. In this situation the Entered Apprentice Degree, Fellow Craft Degree and Master Mason Degree are all taught in one day. You will be watching the process as an exemplar is used to represent all in the room rather than in the traditional format where you are a participant in your own degrees.
Whichever path you choose to becoming a Master Mason when it is complete you will be a Master Mason and can proudly consider yourself a member of the world’s oldest fraternal organization.