It will be the policy of the CALIFORNIA FREEMASON, commencing with the Spring 1997 edition, to publish more articles about the activities of California lodges involved in service to the community and fellow man, recognizing the admonition to every Mason that he should "practice out of the Lodge those great moral duties inculcated it." Also known as Applied Freemasonry.

In the future, California Masons will be made increasingly aware of the public service programs initiated and maintained by Grand Lodge, the Masonic Model Student Assistance program, the hundreds of scholarships granted each year by the California Masonic Foundation to students regardless of race, creed or color, lodge support for public schools, and the continuing tender loving care being provided by the Masonic Homes of California.

Other articles will focus on the contributory services and volunteer actions of individual Masons in cities and towns throughout California, reflecting on the spirit and teachings of Freemasonry.

More and more California lodges are engaging in community service. By so doing the general public is becoming aware of Freemasons concern for the welfare of their neighbors and in improving the community life.

Adopting individual public schools, furnishing computers, books, magazine subscriptions, conducting spelling and essay contests, cleaning up stretches of freeways, today are among lodge enterprises that were unheard of only a few years ago.

The general public is aware of the Shrine because of the enthusiastic support Shiners give to their hospitals for children. The altruistic and beneficent contributions of the Grand Lodge of California, Masonic lodges, and individual Masons, while worthy and heart-warming, gain little public attention. Now is the time for Masonry to make its benevolence known, not by advertising, but by the example of its good works.

This expanded reporting imposes space restraints on articles about Hiram Awards and 50-year-pin presentations which often occupy more than a page of' the magazine. Golden Veteran Awards represent a very small percent of the more than the 3,000 total awards earned each year. Except in instances of exceptional public service and noteworthy achievements, articles about these awards will be curtailed.

The California Freeman must be of interest to all its members. It's challenge is to depict Freemasonry as an active, quality, vital Fraternity, willing, as the adage goes, to practice what it preaches.

Ralph Head Winter 1996