Corinthian Lodge No. 230 Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons held its annual Past Masters night at the Rocky Mount Masonic Center.

After a meal and fellowship the lodge was opened by Past Master, Dr. Donald Street, who gave a talk about past masters.

There were Past Masters in attendance from the years 1963 to 2011.

Collective, the Past Masters represented nearly 1,100 years of Masonic service.

Corinthian Lodge was chartered by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina on Dec. 5, 1865, and has been meeting regularly since.

The history of Freemasonry is somewhat open to debate, but modern Masonry began in England in 1717. Masonry arrived in North Carolina with the chartering of Saint John’s Lodge in Wilmington in 1775.

Freemasonry is found throughout the world and in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Each state has a Grand Lodge that has jurisdiction over each lodge in that state.

The Grand Lodge of North Carolina has 375 lodges with a membership of 47,000.

There is at least one Masonic Lodge in every county in North Carolina.

Freemasonry is the oldest fraternity in the world.

Its mission is to raise the moral, social, intellectual and spiritual conscience of society. It aims to accomplish this by teaching the ancient tenets of brotherly love, relief and truth.

These tenets are expressed outwardly by service to God, family, country and self.

Men who seek to join the Masons must do so of their own free will.

Mason are prevented from asking others to join the fraternity, but all one has to do is ask a Mason about joining and this will start the process.

To learn more about Freemasonry go to ncmason.net/corinthian230 or grandlodge-nc.org.