Membership
Qualifications
Freemasons
operate many of the world's greatest charitable organizations. The best known is the
Shriners with their circuses, their colorful parades and their work on behalf of
physically challenged children their 22 Shriners Childrens Hospitals. Less known is that each Shriner must
be a Freemason before being becoming a Shriner.
Once accepted
as an Apprentice Mason of the Craft Lodge, each member works his way up through three
degrees. To earn each degree, a Mason must learn certain lessons and participate in a
ceremony that illustrates them. At the third degree, he reaches Master Mason after which
he may then petition to become a Noble of the Shrine.
Masonic Grand Lodge of Texas
Members of
the Shrine for North America adhere to the principles of Freemasonry brotherly
love, relief and truth. In contrast to the more conservative work of Freemasonry, Shriners
are distinguished by an enjoyment of life in the interest of philanthropy. Their buoyant
philosophy has been described as "pleasure without intemperance, hospitality without
rudeness and jollity without coarseness."