The Three Links Odd Cast Toby Hanson, Ainslie Heilich, Mike Duminiak

Our recent episode on inclusion of the Lord's Prayer in the lodge opening generated some of the greatest volume of feedback from listeners we've ever received. We went through dozens and dozens of listener emails, Facebook posts, Instagram messages, and other communications and read them all and then came up with our responses. This is a long episode but we think it's worth hearing all the way to the end because of the careful, detailed discussion. The Shoutout goes to a new...

The Grand Jurisdiction of Texas is on an upswing. Its membership is growing and getting younger and they are chartering new lodges. Grand Master Charlie Stephenson and Brother William Plotts join us to talk about the chartering of Brazos Valley Lodge #76. They share how the Grand Lodge supported their efforts, how what they learned from the failure of the new lodge in El Paso helped their efforts and how the experience of re-chartering Plano Lodge #114 provided a helpful tem...

Odd Fellowship is non-political and non-sectarian. But why, then, do we recite the Lord's Prayer as part of the opening of the lodge? Ainslie and Toby dig into some of the history around this observance and discuss whether it makes us truly non-sectarian or if that was just a thin veneer applied to the top of Odd Fellowship to make it appeal to more people. Hint: there are no right answers and a lot of different opinions. The Shoutout goes to Nampa Lodge #40 of Idaho f...

Like many lodges, True Fellowship No. 52 in San Jose, CA had seen better days. As members got older, the focus of the lodge became more insular and they were less interested in connecting to the outside community. That all began to change when a new member with an interest in building community joined. Since that time, the lodge has become a dynamo in San Jose and has not only become a thriving place itself, it is beginning to share its success with other lodges in the area....

A remarkable convergence of events led to the revival of Friendship Lodge No. 50 in Northfield, Minnesota. A Mason in Red Wing, Minnesota started an educational program for his Masonic lodge and then reached out to the Odd Fellows to request them give a presentation about Odd Fellowship. Four of the Masons present decided to check out Odd Fellowship. One person turned to Reddit and podcasts (like ours and Modern Goat Rider) to do some research before joining a group. T...

Billy and Tara from Modern Goat Rider joined us for a thorough and in-depth discussion about leadership in the Odd Fellows. The first half of the episode is available on their feed on your favorite podcatcher or directly from their podcast host. In this episode we discuss the leadership at the Grand Lodge and Sovereign Grand Lodge levels and specifically ponder the question of whether we need to have an organizational structure with a stronger central executive and what the possib...