Held continuously around the Washington DC area ever since 1938, Masonic Week (or more officially known as AMD - Allied Masonic Degrees - Week) is an event that brings together numerous small, generally invitational, Masonic organizations for their annual meetings, officer elections, award presentations, and degree conferrals. Yes, those do go on, but there are also lunches, banquets and lectures, and one of the best Masonic marketplaces anywhere. It's a chance to meet brethren from all over the world who converge here, to make new friendships and rediscover old friends you only see annually.
While the AMD is the largest of the groups meeting in February, there's also the Commemorative Order of St. Thomas of Acon, Sovereign Order of Knights Preceptor, Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priests, the Masonic Order of Athelstan, Masonic Order of Pilgrim Preceptors, York Rite Sovereign College, Knight Masons, the Chevaliers Bienfaisant de la Cité Sainte, the Worshipful Society of Free Masons, and the Rough Plaisterers and Bricklayers (the Operatives). Some groups have come and gone over the years — the Masonic Society is now defunct, sadly, and the Rosicrucians have their own annual gathering in Louisville now each November — but there's still loads going on.
Even if you're not part of any of the bodies that meet there officially, there's lots to do, and the organizers will be offering a half-hour Orientation program every morning for newcomers, so you won't feel lost or intimidated by all this. Master Masons can attend meetings and the banquet for the Philalethes Society (the oldest Masonic research organization in America), where there's always a speaker, the Society of Blue Friars (an invitational body of noteworthy Masonic authors that inducts a new friar each year who must give a presentation), the Grand College of Rites (publishers of Collectanea, which publishes and preserves some of the most obscure Masonic-related or derived degree rituals and materials from over the last 300 years). IAnd i you've got the itch to leave Washington with a couple of new degrees under your Masonic apron, there's the Grand Order of the Sword of Bunker Hill (appropriate this year, as it's the 250th anniversary of that famous battle), and it's the 100th year of the Annual Cellar of Ye Antient Order of Corks.
Visit the Masonic Week website HERE for registration and hotel information.
Seasoned attendees note that this is a venue change this year. The Crystal City Double Tree by Hilton is located at 300 Army Navy Drive in Arlington, just south of the Pentagon, on the other side of the interstate, which is still only about a 5 minute Uber drive from Reagan National Airport. I'm not seeing much in the way of walking distance restaurants, but that may be deceiving.
I'll add a shameless plug for one of my books here, only because Masons traveling to Washington find it to be extremely helpful when seeking out Masonic-related sites in Washington. Solomon's Builders has descriptions of the lodge halls and important Masonic-related buildings and sites in the Washington area. It's a little dated now (it was published in the Dan Brown Mania period when the whole publishing world wanted to cash in on the post-Da Vinci Code craze), but the historical and geographical information hasn't really changed.
