Masonic Week 2025: Ric Berman Named As Newest Blue Friar, and Philalethes Names Four New Fellows

Friar No. 113 Ric Berman

by Christopher Hodapp

At quite literally the very last minute on Thursday, I flew to Washington D.C. to catch a couple of events at Masonic Week: the Consistory of the Society of Blue Friars, and the Friday night banquet for the Philalethes Society.

The Society of Blue Friars was founded in 1932 for the express purpose of recognizing outstanding Masonic authors throughout the world. Traditionally, the Society convenes each year during Masonic Week in the Washington, D.C. vicinity to induct a new Friar, and its gatherings are open to the public, unless the presenter specifies otherwise. 

Authors like Arthur E. Waite, Harold V.B. Voorhis, Dwight L. Smith, Brent Morris, Allen Roberts, Thomas Jackson, Yasha Beresiner, Alain Bernheim, Robert G. Davis, Alton Roundtree, Mark Tabbert, Shawn Eyer, Michael R. Poll, Robert D. B. Cooper, Josef Wäges, Piers Vaughan and Adam Kendall are just a few prior Blue Friar honorees. In a rare moment of weakness, they even let a Dummy in. (After all - their prior Abbott is an Idiot, so I was in good company.) I was very sorry to have missed last year's Masonic Week festivities, when my friend John Bizzack was named as Friar No. 112.

This year's newest Blue Friar is the extremely prolific Richard ('Ric') Berman, author of numerous historical works about both English and American Freemasonry. Ric concentrates his studies and writings on 18th and 19th century Freemasonry in both the British Isles and America, and if you've never read any of his books, he always brings unique insights as to the social forces going on around the changes in the fraternity at key moments in history.

Some of Friar Berman's books include Schism - the Battle That Forged Freemasonry; Inventing the Future - the 1723 Constitutions; Loyalists & Malcontents - Freemasonry & Revolution in South Carolina and Georgia; and The Grand Lodge of England & Colonial America - America’s Grand Masters, to name just a few.

Ric Berman addresses the Society of Blue Friars 

(Photo: Billy Hamilton)

When a Friar is named each year, he is expected to present a paper at the Consistory, and Ric spoke on the political and religious background in England in the years leading up to the formation of the Premiere Grand Lodge of England. There had been a great influx of Huguenots (French Anglicans) fleeing severe persecution from France into London just prior to the founding of grand lodge Freemasonry in 1717, and they had been welcomed into the English lodges with open arms. If things had gone just slightly differently, we Masons would have had to learn how to spell John Theophilus Desaguliers instead of James Anderson when referring to the Constitutions. Thank your stars our rituals aren't in French.

Ric holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Doctorate in History from the University of Exeter. His post-doctoral research was carried out at the University of Oxford's Modern European History Research Centre and as a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the author of numerous journal articles and books, and has presented keynote papers globally. A Freemason for more than forty years and twice a Prestonian Lecturer, Ric holds Grand Rank in the United Grand Lodge of England and is a Past Master of three English Lodges, including Quatuor Coronati Lodge # 2076, the premier lodge of Masonic research. He is also an American Freemason, a member and honorary member of lodges in California, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Washington D.C., and a Fellow of the Philalethes Society.

The Philalethes Society is the oldest and most prestigious Masonic research organization in North America. The society was founded on October 1, 1928, by a group of Masonic authors led by Boston Globe reporter and utopianist Cyrus Field Willard, and this year marked their 97th annual assembly.

On Friday night, the Philalethes Society banquet featured guest speaker Billy Hamilton from Texas. On top of his many achievements, Billy is the driving force behind the annual Texas MasonicCon in Fort Worth.

Billy Hamilton (Photo: Adam Kendall)

Billy spoke on what he called 'The Victorian Innovators,' a group of influential English and Scottish Masons who had a deep interest in the more esoteric aspects of Freemasonry, including obscure rituals and more philosophically-centered organizations that are sometimes referred to as "fringe Masonry." Kenneth Mackenzie, Francis George Irwin, John Yarker, and William Wynn Wescott (of Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn fame) made up an influential correspondence circle in the late 1800s that helped to resurrect or outright create many of the very organizations that meet each year at Masonic Week. They worked on many groups now accepted by mainstream Masonry today, such as SRIA, the Red Branch of Eri, and the Red Cross of Constantine, along with those now considered clandestine, including the Primitive Rite and Sat B’Hai. In the 1930s, J. Ray Schute and a group of enthusiastic North Carolina Masons (who called themselves "The Innovators") scoured Europe for these rare and unusual Masonic-related groups, and brought them to America, including the Allied Masonic Degrees. Had it not been for the work of their Victorian predecessors, Masonic Week likely would not exist today.

Dr. Heather Calloway had an Award of Merit bestowed on her as Executive Director of Collections and head of the Center for Fraternal Studies at Indiana University. The work she has done for the fraternity of Freemasonry and for so many others has been incredible over the years, and her award is well deserved.

In addition, four new Fellows of the Philalethes Society were named at the banquet. The number of living Fellows is restricted to just 40, and the original list in the early days of the Society included Rudyard Kipling, Harry L. Haywood, Robert I. Clegg, Henry F. Evans, Louis Block, J. Hugo Tatsch, Cyrus Field Willard, Harold V. B. Voorhis, Oswald Wirth, Charles S. Plumb, J.S.M. Ward, and Charles C. Hunt. So, as you can imagine, it's a great honor to be included in this august group. If you see a Masonic author who places the initials FPS after their name, it stands for Fellow of the Philalethes Society.

The four new Fellows of the Society named this year are: C.R. 'Chuck' Dunning of Texas; Martin Faulks of England; Pierce A. Vaughan of New Jersey, and yours truly, who became Fellow No. 239. (Chuck and Martin were unable to attend in person.) 

PSOC President Adam Kendall (left) and new Fellow Pierce Vaughan

Myself and my longtime friend PSOC President Adam Kendall.
Yes, I'm that short.

It is truly a great honor and privilege for this Dummy to be in the company of so many scholars, authors and historians whom I have admired for so long, and I extend my deepest gratitude to President Adam Kendall, Secretary Terry Tilton, Editor Shawn Eyer, and the Fellows of the Society who have generously included me in their ranks.