beyond opening and closing a meeting with a prayer that is about it as far as religion goes. might have a prayer for a distressed brother occasionally but that would be rare and all of this is generic as to not offend any brothers faith.

as for the commitment,

there is a LOT of memory work associated with the first 2 degrees. it takes time to learn and depending on your state may only be able to be done working directly with an instructor. many states do not allow written work. beyond that your time is up to you. We will tell you that your order of responsibility is to GOD, FAMILY, CAREER, MASONRY. while we should always care about our lodge and brothers, YOUR well being MUST come first.

if you travel a lot that may make learning difficult. That said you generally have a year to learn the work. past that some paper work will need to be done to allow you to proceed, <re-investigation etc> not a big deal and i have seen it done MANY times. i know one man that went 7yrs as an entered apprentice before he decided to learn the work. it happens.

Masonry has been a good thing for me. I have met some of the best men i have ever known here. While yes we have our fair share of idiots like any other organization, they tend to be much fewer than other places as we tend to weed them out a bit better.

before putting in that petition you need to have a clear reason for WHY you want to be a mason. Don;t be afraid to ask questions about things that concern you. Anyone here or at your local lodge should be happy to answer them. The only things that can;t really be discussed are specifics on the work, obligation and signs of recognition, anything else is pretty much free to discuss.

We do a Grand Master's class once a year where all three degrees are presented in one day.  I think there is an alternate proficiency that goes with it too.  There are pros and cons to this option.

i am really not a fan of those type of degrees. i think it really cheats the candidate of the experience of learning about masonry... jmho

I did say there were pros and cons.