Brondesbury Chapter

IT'S YOUR ARENA
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Casper Lawson, Deputy Metropolitan Grand Master writes…

I am delighted to write this foreword to Arena as a new Deputy Metropolitan Grand Master. After six years as Metropolitan Grand Registrar, I am now honoured to be taking a role helping the Metropolitan Grand Master lead London Masonry.

For many years I was a lawyer at a big City firm, based in several countries round the globe. The thing I most enjoyed was building teams of talented people from very different cultures and backgrounds. I loved it, but it was a life that left me little time for anything outside work. Since retiring 11 years ago, I deliberately have stuck entirely to unpaid voluntary roles, finding areas where I can help others less fortunate, mostly teaching.

We live in extraordinary times. In the space of one generation, we have seen major societal change, driven I believe by three technologies, all of which have served to bring us both wonderful and harmful effects.

First, the internet changed everything by enabling instant connection between people and institutions everywhere in the world at zero marginal cost. Secondly, just 20 years ago, in January 2007, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, putting apps in our pockets. Thirdly we find ourselves entering a world of AI which looks set to alter society even more than the first two technologies, supercharging both the scale and pace of change.

Where does Masonry fit into this? A look back at an earlier era of change is instructive. Two new technologies in our past also changed society forever, and also with both good and bad effects.

First the printing press democratised knowledge. Radical political and religious ideas spread amongst the masses in Europe, in their own languages. Power devolved from a privileged few to the democratic many.

Woodblock printing also enabled cartoons, which could be understood by all. They were used for humour, but also to demonise other groups, whether religious or political. Technology thus deepened divisions. Brutal religious and political wars raged in Europe.

The second big technological change, the steam engine, enabled the Industrial Revolution and supercharged societal changes, as people moved en masse, from country farms to city factories, as well as across borders such as from Ireland to England to build the canal system. Political and religious tensions, already high, were further increased.

It was in this environment that Masonry was forged over 300 years ago and then grew, as a reaction against a world of mistrust and division, of fear of ‘the other’, which is always so easy to whip up into hate of that other. The radical idea of Masonry was to bring together good people of different faiths, ideas and backgrounds, and then find and celebrate what unites us rather than what divides us. It was an antidote to fear, to division and to hate.

Turning to today’s developments in technology, and in turn changes in society, mobile phones are amazing devices which bring many benefits, from keeping us in touch with our loved ones to acting as essential medical devices. But it is also true that some of the most popular apps are designed to hold our maximum engagement.

The algorithms and now increasingly AI in many of these apps has found that a highly effective way to hold our attention is to promote division and stoke up fear and even hate of ‘the other’. It’s sad but true that these apps succeed in their task best by bringing out the worst in humanity, preying on our weakest traits.

Masonry is the opposite. Many times as a visitor, I have walked into a Lodge room as a stranger knowing no-one; and my experience has always been that I find a warm welcome, that we start from an assumption of trust and respect, regardless of whether we come from similar or very different backgrounds; that we share an instant connection, as if we are old friends who just happen not to have met before.

Masonry by its original design promotes trust and respect amongst people of different faiths, beliefs and backgrounds. I know of no other organisation that can achieve this so well. We put away our phones for the evening and we focus only on human connection: first a meeting where we achieve a common goal by working together, and then a convivial dinner where we can relax and enjoy each other’s company, focusing only on what unites us. This is a recipe for human connection that has worked well for over 300 years.

Masonry represents the best thing about these new technologies, as it is all about human connection; and it is an antidote to the most harmful aspects of new technologies, as it makes us put away the addictive device for a while, and actively combats division and mistrust by uniting us regardless of creed, political beliefs or upbringing.

May I turn now from how we engage with each other (very well, judging by how much we enjoy our meetings) to how we engage with the outside world (historically not much, and though we have become much more open there is still a way to go).

As Masons we have always been good at digging deep into our own pockets to fund worthy charitable causes, such as providing anchor funding for the LAA’s Air Ambulances and purchasing the two 64-metre turntable ladders for the LFB. We know many Masons also give their time willingly to the community, from helping an elderly neighbour to volunteering in a more formal way.

We should be proud of this, but most of the time we don’t know about it. The Third Pillar initiative is designed to increase visible Community Engagement. While we know that we are a force for good in society, the rest of the world won’t know this fact unless we demonstrate and communicate it.

We are trying to increase our visible Community Engagement in two ways. First, we are encouraging Lodges, Chapters and individual Masons to be involved in and to help their communities, by donating time and assistance as well as money; always only as far as time and resources permit. And secondly, we are working on a way to allow Masons to record, on an entirely voluntary basis, when they have spent time volunteering.

In this way we can build up a better picture of how much we are doing for our communities. This will take some time to create but we should be thinking now about how we and our own units can engage more in our communities.

Please think about how you can do this, whether it’s helping a less able neighbour or answering the call when asked to rattle a tin (by which I mean QR reader) for the RBL.

A final thought. AI will supercharge change, and change everything. The current pace of change is like the printing press (which changed communication) and the Industrial Revolution (which changed work structures) occurring simultaneously. How will this affect society? I don’t have the answers but I am willing to bet that there will be good and bad effects, and that Masonry will provide an increasingly needed home for those who want to spend a few hours resisting the face-to-screen world, to put the devices away, to spend time with old and new friends doing what we have done for hundreds of years: enjoying the company of others with no expectation of material reward, just the satisfaction of a job well done and the warmth of human connection.

I wish you all well for the start of the Masonic season.

This article is part of Arena Magazine Issue 61 – Summer 2026.
Arena Magazine is the official online magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.

Read more articles in Arena Issue 61 here.

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