What is Odd Fellowship?

You'll see a few symbols on our building and in our gallery: three interlocked chain links (the FLT chain), the letters F, L, and T arranged in a triangle, and sometimes an all-seeing eye or a heart-in-hand.

They're not arcana. The three chain links stand for Friendship, Love, and Truth — the pillars above. The chain is interconnected because the three aren't separable. The heart-in-hand means charity, done personally. The all-seeing eye is a pre-1800 symbol for conscience.

They're old. They mean what they've always meant. They aren't a secret.

The Rebekahs are the sister branch of the Odd Fellows — a degree of the Order that was chartered in 1851 to include women. In lodges where both branches are active, Rebekahs and Odd Fellows often meet jointly or run events together.

Rebekah Lodge #425 meets right here in our building on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month.

We are one of roughly 10,000 subordinate lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. We report to the Grand Lodge of Kansas. The Grand Lodge reports to the Sovereign Grand Lodge in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

That structure sounds formal. In practice, it means that when we sponsor a student for the Pilgrimage for Youth, it's part of a national program. When we raise money for arthritis research, it's pooled with what every other lodge raises. A small lodge in a small town adds up to something larger than itself.