Grand Lodge Of Georgia

ODPS lieutenant elected third-highest ranking Mason in National Grand Lodge

An advocate for the community, David Thompson of Orangeburg believes in two things.

"One is service. It is the most important thing to give back," Thompson said. "To provide service without expecting anything in return offers me the greatest fulfillment."

"The second is being part of a service organization," the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety lieutenant said.

A Mason since 1996, Thompson was elected as National Grand Junior Warden last month, the third-highest ranking official in the National Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons, Prince Hall Origin. It has existed as a national body since 1847.

Prior to his new position, Thompson served as Grand Master, the top position in the South Carolina Palmetto Grand Lodge.

Thompson's role as a leader comes naturally. After a 12-year career in the U.S. Army, he joined the ODPS in 1992, where he is a lieutenant in the patrol division. Currently a 32nd degree Mason, Thompson's passion for being a Mason began much earlier.

"My father, grandfather and uncles were Masons. I've been around Masonry all my life," he said. "In order to be a Mason, you have to know one, and they recommended me.

"What most impressed me early on was a funeral ceremony. One of my father's friends had passed and I attended the funeral service. I was so impressed at how the ceremony was conducted that I really wanted to be a Mason."

Thompson is proud of his tenure as the South Carolina Grand Master, overseeing 60 Master Mason lodges, 64 chapters of the Order of the Eastern Star and nine youth districts.

"I am more of a participatory type leader," Thompson said. "I like to get input from the members and my team although the overall decision making is mine."

Thompson added, "One of the past national Grand Masters, Oscar Mack, resides in Orangeburg. He took me under his wing, and I studied his work and that of past Grand Master Jefferson Tufts. They provided this organization with great leadership. Every time I attained another level of leadership, I wanted to leave some legacy in that level of leadership to individuals under me.

Coffee Buzz » Young Masons Form New Grand Lodge You Won't ...

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) May 18, 2006

Knock on the door of most any Masonic lodge in America, and you won’t find Dan Brown’s noble Grail-seeking men of honor, science and mysticism. If you manage to get anyone to answer that door at all, you will most likely find an old man’s coffee and doughnut club, men who think of themselves as a religious service club.

Unless, that is, you’ve knocked on the door of Modern Freemasonry.

In 2005, Freemasonry rose from the ashes and rubble of intolerance, corruption and mediocrity, and the United Grand Lodge of America was born. After seven years of trying to work within the “traditional” Antient Freemasonry system of individual state Grand Lodges, a group of young Masons in Atlanta wanted to revitalize the Masonic experience in their lodge. They started by forming an informal group to study and discuss the ethics, history and meaning of Freemasonry.

This group quickly became popular with the younger Masons in the area, and soon attracted the attention of officials within the Grand Lodge of Georgia. For reasons still not entirely clear, the Grand Master of Georgia ultimately declared their group “clandestine” (a Masonic word often used in much the same way that the Catholic Church once used the word “heretic”) and ordered the summary “erasure” of these young men from the rolls of their lodges.

Freemasonry, once a force for tremendous good in our country — most of the nation’s founding fathers were Freemasons — had devolved into not much more than a good ol’ boy network peppered with petty squabbles, power struggles, and title-seeking. The social agenda in many lodges consisted of the occasional pot luck dinner and a yearly fried chicken or barbeque charity fund-raiser.

And in spite of their aging membership – the typical Freemason is over 65 years old – and the dramatic drop off in applications from young men seeking to join their lodges, the Grand Master of Georgia tossed out the very kind of energetic, thoughtful, and dedicated young men he and Freemasonry so desperately need.

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