A Collaborative Forum for Freemasonry Research, sponsored by the Toronto Society for Masonic Research.

Forum members need not be TSMR members nor Freemasons, just good-natured, serious researchers, who participate in a spirit of inquiry and helpfulness, and whose contributions are offered in a dispassionate, respectful, impersonal, factual, and topical manner.

(The TSMR seeks a critical, unbiased understanding of the past and present, to inform the future, for the benefit of all. The TSMR Motto is "Audi Vide Dice" (Listen, Observe, Speak). The TSMR Theme for 2011 is Governance.)


To potential participants:

Collaborative -- (not argumentative, devotional, or recreational).
Freemasonry -- is the subject.
Research -- (not education or self-expression).
Forum -- serious, fully participatory dialogue.

Questions potential researchers might ask themselves:

1. What are the most significant texts in Freemasonry?
2. Am I aware of meaning-inverting alterations to essential texts?
3. Have I found contradictions between principle and practice?
4. Should assurances in the ritual (before promises) be factual?
5. What are the greatest impediments to the success of Freemasonry?
6. What is the basis of my view on innovation? Have I questioned it?
7. Have I given much thought to matters of Masonic Governance?
8. Have I thought and written critically and factually about Freemasonry?

Dialogue: Continuing conversations focused on participatory understanding. (Not monologue, argument, debate, or chit-chat).

Collaboration: Working together. Like a barn-raising, a wilderness canoe trip, or a mountain-climbing venture. Everyone contributes.

Education: The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction. There are teachers, pupils, and prescribed facts and conclusions.

Research: The systematic inquiry into and study of materials and sources in order to discover facts, gain insight, and reach understanding.


Applicants, please write your response to the above.