Freemasonry is a social and charitable organisation that brings together adult men of good character to provide a brotherly community based on integrity, friendship, respect, and service.

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You can find more at the United Grand Lodge of England's website.

Our lodge meets for one evening a month for eight months of the year (October to May), where we perform one of four historical ceremonies in a dedicated room in the hall, and then have a formal dinner together. In total, the meeting and dinner lasts between three and four hours, from after 6:00pm to about 10:00pm.

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The ceremonies involve different parts for each of the members of the lodge, including memorising words and actions that you deliver as you walk around the room. The ceremonies tell a story, which you will go through in order at first, and they also relate to the functions and responsibilities of each of the officers in the lodge. They also contain reminders of our moral obligations and duties as members of society.

Dinner is usually a three-course meal, which is followed by formal toasts and speeches. West Glamorgan Lodge used to be a “dry lodge”, with no alcohol allowed, but from 2016 we started toasting with wine and beer!

West Glamorgan Lodge is one of sixteen Masonic Lodges meeting at the Swansea Masonic Hall. Each lodge is a separate group that has between around ten and a hundred members, and they each meet regularly at the hall on different nights of the month. Outside of regular meetings, there are also fundraising events for charity and social events, as well as usual club activities like board meetings and practices.

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With few exceptions, you will remain a member of one lodge, although we regularly visit other lodges either as individuals, or as a whole lodge, and some members of our lodge are honorary members of others or vice versa. That’s why we’re careful to make sure you’d be a good fit for our lodge.

Costs vary, depending on what you want to do, and how involved you are. One off costs include a registration fee, and the cost of specific clothes and equipment for the ceremonies (your “regalia”). You will also need a dinner suit (what Americans call a tuxedo) or plain black suit to wear when you’re attending a formal ceremony.

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On top of this, there is an annual registration fee to cover administration costs and hall hire, and the expectation that you will regularly commit to organised charity giving through the lodge – although the specific amounts you give to charity will depend on what you can realistically afford.

Finally, at each meeting you will pay for your dinner and drinks, as well as giving a small amount of cash for alms – and usually a raffle at dinner, too.

No, Freemasonry is not a religion. Nor is it a substitute for religion. 

Freemasonry is one of the world’s oldest social and charitable organisations, with its origins rooted in the traditions of the medieval stonemasons who built our cathedrals and castles. As society itself was considerably more religious in the past, and these earlier masons often worked on religious buildings, religious elements are core to the language, images, and metaphors used in Freemasonry. For this reason, it is necessary for you to already have a belief in a supreme being in order to become a Freemason – precisely because Freemasonry is not itself, and cannot be a substitute for, a religion.

No. Although our Lodge only consists of men, women are welcome and encouraged to join Freemasonry through either The Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons (HFAF.org) or The Order of Women Freemasons (OWF.org.uk).

Each lodge is ultimately responsible for its own affairs. We raise money, elect officers, and take actions based on votes of our members.

West Glamorgan Lodge are members of The Provincial Grand Lodge of South Wales (www.southwalesmason.com), and through them, The United Grand Lodge of England (www.ugle.org.uk). These organisations provide opportunities, support, guidance, and oversight to ensure that we are acting within the rules we have all agreed to, called the constitutions.

You’d be right - there are actually several. But you won’t find out what they are until you’ve proven that you can be trusted!