Thread by @Telegraph

In 2017 Oxford graduate and part-time consultant physician David Staples was appointed as the organisation’s first ever chief executive officer.

In the years since, he has set about bringing Freemasonry into the modern era

🧵👇

telegraph.co.uk/news/0/millenn…

Most people’s idea of the Freemasons is that it is a closely guarded old boys’ network of:

📌 Secret handshakes
📌 Long robes
📌 Chanting
📌 Antiquated ceremonies

Staples is appealing to the young by:

📌 Inviting transgender members to join
📌 Opening up the organisation to scrutiny
📌 Advertising in newspapers
📌 Writing to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to say Masons are stigmatised and face discrimination

🚫 His mission is personal.

When Staples was announced as CEO, he says he was asked to step down from the board of a charity because of his Masonic connections:

"If I was black or Irish or gay or any protected characteristics they wouldn’t have been able to do that"

⭐ The £150,000 refurbishment

According to its accounts, UGLE holds £75 million in fixed assets, including a London property portfolio worth £58 million, which comprises a decent chunk of the Covent Garden street upon which stands its art deco headquarters, Freemasons’ Hall

📸 The UGLE has completed a £150,000 refurbishment, with a café and bar opening this summer. It is hoped to become part of the London tourist map, trebling the 225,000 people who visit annually. A new shop has also opened in the building and it now boasts an Instagram account

⭐ Why the change?

Staples admits it is a move born out of necessity.

📉 In recent decades Masonic membership has been in steady decline.

Current membership stands at around 193,000. It has been estimated that figure has declined by about 150,000 in the past 20 years

⭐ New blood

📈 There has been a notable rise in young members. Talks are ongoing to establish an exclusively under-35 lodge for London-based millennials, focusing on the environment and mental health.

🎓 Its university lodges have 3,400 student members, and are expanding

⭐ Modernising an old school institution

⚖️ The modern version of Freemasonry vision is ethnically diverse, split across genders and tolerant of all: one markedly different to its reputation as the preserve of middle-aged men busy lining each other’s pockets with business deals

The existential problem facing the Freemasons is presented starkly in the membership demographics.
Nearly 50% of members are aged between 61 and 80.

There are twice as many aged 80 or over as there are between 31 and 40.

Just 1.93% of members are between 18 and 30

Older members say the organisation has gone woke.

Staples says: "We are at our core the antithesis of woke. We have a very proud history of respecting people for being people and not worrying about how much money they have, the colour of their skin, or what religion they are"

⭐ Old guard vs millennial newcomers

At 31, Mitch Bryan, an operations manager for a grocery company, is one of the millennial Freemasons and has encountered hostility from older members:

"They sit back and might do a bit of tutting and stuff but tradition has to change"

⭐ The millennial draw

Bryan says he was attracted to the organisation's:

📌 Charitable endeavours - every lodge meeting will raise about £400
📌 Ideal of self-improvement and wider meaning
📌 Myth and mystery that resonates among a generation raised on Harry Potter

⭐ A new age

📌 18 months ago the Masonic core values of ‘brotherly love, relief and truth’ were updated to ‘integrity, respect, friendship and charity’

📌 Last year, the Grand Lodge of Scotland allowed vegan Masons to wear vinyl aprons rather than the traditional lambskin

⭐ Mixed reaction

📌 Alan Borsbey, owner of Scottish Masonic outfitter VSL Regalia: "It is in the rituals about having a lambskin apron"

📌 Cliff Halsall, master of Wales' Mold Lodge: "Something had to happen because we were clearly not appealing to the younger generation"

⭐ Royal connection

📌 In 183 years the Freemasons have boasted 23 members of the Royal family

📌 King George VI was a Mason. Prince Philip was a member for 68 years

📌 The Duke of Kent is the longest-serving grand master in UGLE history, having taken up the position in 1967

⭐ Who can join?

In order to join the UGLE, you are expected to:

📌 Have a religious belief (it does not matter which one)
📌 Be of good character
📌 Be aged 18 or over
📌 Be proposed by two members
📌 Be male

⭐ Branching out

📌 There are two female-only grand lodges in the UK, which have 5,000 global members. They follow the same rituals, but are separate to the UGLE.

📌 The International Order of Freemasonry for Men and Women, which operates in 60 countries, allows mixed meetings

⭐ The future

Staples says the response to his modernising agenda has been overwhelmingly positive:

"When you are a shadowy organisation that people don’t know terribly much about, it is easy to see ghosts and invent stories"

Do you think the Freemasons have gone woke?