Under what rule can a brother be cessated

A brother may cease to be a member of a private lodge or suffer suspension of his Masonic rights either through specific constitutional provisions governing unpaid dues or as a disciplinary penalty following a formal trial.

Automatic cessation of membership in a lodge occurs under Rule 148 upon the expiration of two years of unpaid subscriptions, as an article on the United Grand Lodge of England's website explains. Earlier English regulations enacted in 1902 set this threshold at three years of arrears 1. A lodge may also exclude a brother for non-payment prior to the two-year limit subject to its by-laws and the procedure set out in Rule 181, as an article on the United Grand Lodge of England's website notes.

For disciplinary offenses, suspension places a Mason's rights and privileges in abeyance without severing his underlying connection to the fraternity 21. Such suspension may be imposed only after due notification and trial, requiring a two-thirds vote of the lodge 1. It may be definite, expiring automatically at the end of a fixed term, or indefinite, requiring a special two-thirds vote of the lodge to effect restoration 21. Albert G. Mackey argued that suspension for non-payment of dues should logically suspend a brother's rights only within his own lodge rather than his general standing in the Order, though American jurisdictions frequently applied general suspension for arrears 12.

While individual lodges hold the power to exclude or suspend members, the power of expulsion from the Order as a whole is reserved exclusively to Grand Lodge 12, a principle maintained under Rule 4 as an article on the United Grand Lodge of England's website records. Under Rule 181, a Grand Master—or a Metropolitan, Provincial, or District Grand Master within his jurisdiction—may order the reinstatement of an excluded brother and possesses the authority to suspend any lodge that refuses to obey that order, the United Grand Lodge of England states.