Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00631)

On Tue, 24 Dec 1996, John Straughn wrote:
>
> Not having any "lodge" experience, I have to ask:  Do the founders of these
> lodges put a probation period on their OWN lodge?  That doesn't seem very
> intelligent to me.  I must deduce that they don't for now.
	No, they don't - *Headquarters in Wheaton* imposes the probation -
and no ... that doesn't seem very intelligent, or justified.

> If that is the case, then it seems that the implications you recieved were
> misconceived.  From mkr's particular words, I think he was arguing against the
> fact that, in the past, there was no elite group who decided who could and who
> couldn't found a lodge and what you could or could not teach within it.  I'll
> stop here, for I have absolutely NO idea about what a lodge is supposed to
> accomplish.  I always thought that it was simply a place which provided
> resources and companions for developing Theosophists.  The more that I read
> about them, however, the more they seem to be churches.
	Actually, a lot of them are just what you say - a place with
resources and companions - on the whole there is considerable diversity in
TS Lodges - and it tended to attract somewhat independent, eclectic
people. It is the Archbishop and Bishops at Headquarters that increasingly
seem to believe they need churches ...
								-JRC