Who are the Masons and Eastern Stars?

Masons or Freemasons are members of a fraternal society which can trace its roots to the middle ages. It traces its modern organization to 1717. Members belong to local groups, called Lodges, which are organized into larger groups called Grand Lodges. In Canada, the United States, Australia and Brazil, each state or province has its own Grand Lodge. In England and Scotland, there is one very large Grand Lodge, with many Provincial Grand Lodges. Although there is much communication, friendship and co-operation between Grand Lodges, they have no control over each other or each others' members.

Masons dedicate themselves to self-improvement, community service and charity and to brotherhood. Members usually must be adult men of good character who believe in a Supreme Being and a Holy Book. Discussions of sectarian religion and partisan politics are forbidden in Lodge. As a result, friendships formed in Masonic Lodges can bridge religious and political differences, a fact which annoys and alarms members of some religions.

The Order of the Eastern Star is an Organization formed by Rob Morris in the United States about 1850, specifically to allow the female relatives of Masons to meet with them in a pseudo-Masonic way. Eastern Star Chapters are led by a woman called the Matron with the assistance of a man who is a Mason called the Patron. In order to join, a man must be a Mason and a woman the wife, mother, sister or daughter of a Mason.