The document outlines the initiation fee requirements for new Masons, mandating payment of the prescribed fee to the Lodge before initiation. No Lodge may waive or defer this fee. Additionally, candidates may be required to pay registration fees to the Grand Lodge and any applicable jurisdictions, with total costs disclosed prior to initiation. Rule 170 allows for the initiation of serving Brethren without a fee, provided a dispensation is obtained from the appropriate Grand Master. Such initiations must be reported to the Grand Secretary, and serving Brethren can later join a Lodge as regular members by paying the standard initiation fee. They may also contribute to the Masonic Charitable Foundation while serving. However, Tylers not initiated as serving Brethren cannot pay these dues, nor can Lodges cover such payments for them unless they are subscribing members.
December 4th, 2025
February 10th, 2026
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When a person is made a Mason (except as provided in the following Rule) he shall on or before the day of his initiation pay to the Lodge the initiation fee prescribed in the by-laws. No Lodge shall forgo or defer the payment of this sum or any part thereof. A Lodge may enact in its by-laws that, in addition to the initiation fee, the candidate shall pay to the Lodge such registration fees as are payable to Grand Lodge and, if applicable, Metropolitan, Provincial or District Grand Lodge, together with any tax thereon, and the candidate shall before becoming a member be informed of the total amount due. Rule 170: (a) A person may be initiated as a serving Brother without any fee by the Lodge in which he is to serve or by any Lodge for the service of the Grand Lodge or a Metropolitan, Provincial or District Grand Lodge, subject to a dispensation first being obtained from the Grand Master or the Metropolitan, Provincial or District Grand Master. Initiation and status of serving Brethren (b) Every such initiation and the circumstances thereof shall be specially notified to the Grand Secretary in the return made to him and the serving Brother shall be registered free of expense, but shall be obliged to pay for a special Grand Lodge Certificate the fee prescribed. A Brother initiated as a serving Brother can become a member of a Lodge only by being elected thereto as a joining member and paying thereto the same fee as an initiate therein, but from and after such election and payment he shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges to which he would have been entitled if he had been initiated in a Lodge otherwise than as a serving Brother. Upon the first registration of a serving Brother as a joining member of a Lodge the appropriate fee for the registration of an initiate shall be paid by such Lodge, and the Brother shall be entitled to return the special Grand Lodge Certificate originally issued to him, in exchange for a Grand Lodge Certificate of the same date as his original Certificate. (c) A serving Brother may himself pay through the Lodge in which he was initiated such sums as would, if he were a member thereof, be payable in respect of him to the Masonic Charitable Foundation pursuant to Rule 271, but such payments shall only be received while the Brother is actually serving the Lodge in question and has not joined the same or any other Lodge under the foregoing provisions of this Rule. (d) A Tyler not initiated as a serving Brother is not qualified himself to pay the dues referred to in the preceding paragraph, neither may any Lodge pay such dues for him unless he is a subscribing member thereof.