MOREE Freemasons’ Lodge Courallie at the weekend hosted United Grand Lodge of NSW and ACT Grand Master, Les Hicks, a special guest at the annual Masonic Debutante Ball on Saturday night.
Mr Hicks, and other Masonic dignitaries from across New South Wales, joined Worshipful Master of Lodge Courallie, Doug Hill, and nearly 200 guests at Moree Services Club to witness 10 young ladies make their debut.
Mr Hicks, originally from Baradine near Coonabarabran, now resides at Tweed Heads.
He recently completed his term as grand master, and the Moree debutante ball was his last official engagement.
“Each grand master does a three-year term and grand masters come from all over New South Wales,” Mr Hicks said.
“Years ago, they used to be Sydney-centric, but nowadays we’ve opened up and we’ve got jurisdiction-wide voting.
“I’m one of the first grand masters to come from the country – there’s been a couple – and my particular lodge is probably the furthest distance from Grand Lodge in Sydney.
“It’s only modern transport and technology that’s enabled us to now open everything right up,” he said.
Mr Hicks spoke openly with Moree Online News. He wanted to demystify the belief Freemasonry is a “secret society”.
“Freemasonry has been a victim of its own conduct over the last 50 or so years because we don’t tell people what we do,” Mr Hicks said.
“It’s got the reputation of being a secret society, but we just go about our business. We hold raffles and we give money away.”
The recent Grand Master’s relief fund raised more than half-a-million dollars for flood victims in the Lismore and Sydney areas.
Throughout the jurisdiction, huge amounts of money is also donated through Masonic Care.
“This is our grand charity, and there are millions of dollars donated every year – and it all comes from the ground floor,” Mr Hicks said.
“We’re pretty proud of what we do for our local communities and one of the good things about our structure is the decisions are made from the ground up, not from the top down.
“Anything we decide to do, give, or work on, is made by the brethren on the floor of the lodge.
“We do all of this and we don’t seek recognition. We just get out there and help the community,” he said.
Mr Hicks said he wants the wider community to be better-informed about the charitable work undertaken by Freemasons, at times behind the scenes and unheralded.
“For me, I’d like people to know we do that, and we are coming out of our shell a little bit, but sometimes we’re a victim of our own privacy,” he said.
“What Freemasonry offers is a system of morality that teaches us to be good men and to be kind to others, and we practice what we preach.
“It teaches us to have a good family life – family always comes first, work second and Freemasonry third.
“We have good men, and we want to make them better men. That’s our mission and our prime focus is on community,” he said.
“Yes, there are secrets, but everyone has secrets. We’ve all got secrets, and the secrets in Freemasonry come from back in the days when masons were building temples and such.
“For them, for one person to know whether another person was a different leader or was senior (in rank), they had different handshakes because they didn’t communicate like we do,” Mr Hicks said.
“We’ve just adopted those as our way; it’s part of tradition, that’s all it is. There’s really no big secrets in Freemasonry.
“If people knew the benefits and how we conducted ourselves, and what we’ve done inside the lodge and outside the lodge, I think a lot of wives would be very keen for their husbands to become Masons,” he smiled.
Mr Hicks said the last three years leading the Masonic organisation in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory had been an incredible journey.
“It’s meant a lot to me. I’ve met some wonderful people and immersed myself in the Masonic community, both city and county,” he said.
“From a leadership perspective, I needed to make our operations leaner, and tighter and stronger.
“I also wanted to introduce technology – that’s been big for me. We were falling behind in technology.
“Each grand master achieves something during their term, or tries to, and technology was important for me. The new system we have is probably the most important thing we’ve done in the last 50 years,” he said.
When Mr Hicks isn’t Grand Master, he’s still a grand master.
“I run a chain of martial arts schools around Australia and I’m the grand master of Shim Jang Taekwondo Academy. It’s a Taekwondo organisation based on the Gold Coast but all over Australia, so I’m still a grand master,” he grinned.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Grand Master Khris Albano, a migration lawyer from Sydney, will be officially appointed for the next three years at a ceremony at the Sydney Town Hall this week.
“There will be more than 2000 people in attendance,” Mr Hicks said.
“Khris is of Filipino origin and this is the first time for Masons to have another culture representing the top job.
“We’re an inclusive organisation and Khris is a first-class individual. He’ll lead thousands of Masons in New South Wales, and lead them very well,” Mr Hicks said.
