Mt. Olivet Lodge No. 3 in Parkersburg, WV was ordered by Grand Lodge to prefer charges on a member for his alleged mishandling of the ballot at Frank Haas' GL session and his operation of the Masonic Crusade website. The lodge declined, as the brother in question is no longer a member (he's now a plural member in Minnesota and Ohio). Once this happened a PM of #3 filed charges of unmasonic conduct on PGM Charlie Montgomery (also a member of #3)for 6 counts--2 for each of the three people he expelled while serving as Grand Master. It was voted on and passed the ballot and the trial was set for 6/28/12. On June 11th, the current GM attended and proceeded to pull #3's charter. The end result is no trial and a questionable future for the members of Mt. Olivet lodge.
The saga unfortunately continues...
And I thought our Shrine situation in Michigan was bad.
ReplyDeleteChris S.
Joppa #315
Michigan
My Brother, you stated, "the civil courts found in the Grand Lodge of Virginia's favor".
ReplyDeleteVirginia? or West Virginia?
Please correct so that the Grand Lodge of Virginia is not listed as part of this "issue". Thank you.
Fixed. Sorry about the typo.
ReplyDeleteNot a problem my Brother. I am very proud of my Grand Lodge in Virginia and only wish for clarity here.
ReplyDeleteSeriously?! When will they bury this?
ReplyDeleteChris K.
Vincennes #1
When all the big wigs ego's are satisfied........not till...then...Everett Sayre P.M.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of our Fellowcraft degree charge and applaud all the brothers who are willing to take a principled stand. So does this mean that PGM Montgomery is now without a Lodge???
ReplyDeleteOmar Flores
Grand Rapids No 34 (MI)
What I don't understand is why the lodges in WV put up with this. At some level it seems like they could force a showdown simply by refusing to play the GM's games.
ReplyDeleteI'm not generally one to advocate Masonic revolution, but I wonder how long it will be until lodges in WV start to break away and operate independently. The GL can fulminate all it wants about that, but I'd like to see how it would or could actually stop an independent lodge or group of lodges from meeting. Yeah, visitation recognition blah blah blah. So what? If you don't care about that then what use do you have for a clearly tyrannical, rogue Grand Lodge?
It is my understanding that our brethren in WV are not generally in favor of these moves by the Grand Lodge, but respect the Masonic authority under which they are performed. It pains me that my brethren in my home state do not recognize my regularity as a Mason in Ohio. I actually came to the blog today to see if any news had occurred moving us towards mutual recognition, but apparently it is still the opposite. A pity, really. A travesty.
ReplyDelete- Keith M.