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Friday, May 11, 2018

Congratulations To the Grand Lodge of New York

Photo by Gill Calderon

The Grand Lodge of New York F&AM held its annual communication this week and elected and installed their new officers for the year. Congratulations are in order to:
M.:W.: Bill Sardone, Grand Master
R.:W.: Richard Kessler, Deputy Grand Master
R.:W.: Rev. Charles Roberts, Senior Grand Warden,
R.:W.: Oscar Alleyne, Junior Grand Warden
R.:W.: Steven Adam Rubin, Grand Treasurer
R.:W.: Richard Schulz, Grand Secretary
M.:W.: Bill Sardone, the new Grand Master of New York


Nothing special in that, as nearly every jurisdiction meets each year or so to elect officers, to enact legislation, and handle administrivia that needs either approval or evisceration by the assembled members. Except that it WAS special in its own symbolic way. 

Because, you see, the election of my friend and Brother Oscar Alleyne as Junior Grand Warden (right) is the first time a 'man of color' has been elected by the membership to the grand officers' line in New York since the founding of of that grand lodge in 1782.

If you don't know Oscar, you should make the effort. Dr. Alleyne is the senior advisor on public health programs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. He is a specialist in epidemiology, and he travels the country and the world giving lectures and presentations, and one of the side benefits of that is that he gets to visit Masons and lodges wherever he goes in his copious free time. He is also an engaging and outstanding speaker and presenter of Masonic education on a wide variety of topics, along with being an excellent ritualist. Oscar just seems to everywhere you look in this fraternity, and New York couldn't have made a better decision.

So congratulations to Grand Master Sardone and his officers, to Oscar, and to the brethren of New York!

5 comments:

  1. I greatly appreciate ANY picture that shows both men of color and whites gathered in harmony. I wish there was a PH lodge near where I live. I'd love to visit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was a big forward step indeed. Thank you for recognizing this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fantastic! W.B. Alleyne is an honorable man and truly exhibits the traits of Master Mason and IS MOST definitely qualified to serve and represent the Grand Lodge of New York, F&AM. Congratulations, W.B. Alleyne! I'm proud to have asked you to grace Euclid Lodge #136 F&AM with a presentation during the lodge's annual table lodge when I presided in it's East... 2015. Sincerely & Fraternally, W.B. Luis A. Torres, Jr.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats from Washington State! Hope to visit in the next year or so. Behold! ....

    Troy McFarland
    SD
    Daylight #232

    ReplyDelete

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