OES National Grand Chapter Issues Explanation of Rule Change

by Christopher Hodapp

The national Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star has released an explanatory letter regarding the recent change to the OES constitution which removed the former Masonic family connection for female petitioners.  

As reported HERE, MW David Ray Pyle, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of West Virginia issued a directive earlier this month evicting OES chapters from all Masonic lodge halls and buildings in his jurisdiction. 

In their letter, OES Grand Worthy Matron Billie Bradford and Grand Worthy Patron Michael E. Berry, Past Grand Master of Arizona, stress that the change was ONLY for women, that the Masonic membership requirement for men remains unchanged. It reads, in part:

"Prior to the adoption of this legislation in October 2024, those eligible to membership in the Order of the Eastern Star included:

• Affiliated Master Masons in good standing and any female relatives who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption to Affiliated Master Masons in good standing, or if deceased were in good standing at thetime of their death; as well as:

• Members – either active for three (3) years or majority – in the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls or in the Job’s Daughters International, each of whom having attained the age of eighteen (18) years.

Resolution 42 added the following:

• Women sponsored by a sister and brother who are members of the Order

"Please be aware that one important qualification did not change—any man wishing to join the Order of the Eastern Star must be a Master Mason in good standing. If a male petitioner is not a Master Mason, he cannot join Eastern Star. And if a male member of Eastern Star is suspended from his Lodge (whether for non-payment of dues or otherwise), then he is also automatically suspended from Eastern Star. In other words, membership in Freemasonry is a prerequisite for any man wishing to join Eastern Star.

"The change that was made to the membership qualifications applies strictly to female petitioners for the degrees in Eastern Star and adds only a category for sponsored membership. The gist of sponsored membership is that any woman who wants to join the Order of the Eastern Star and who does not meet the standard requirements for membership can nevertheless petition for membership if she presents with her petition two letters of recommendation, one of which is signed by a female member of the Order in good standing, and the other is signed by a male member of the Order in good standing. In other words, if a woman wants to join Eastern Star as a sponsored petitioner, she must first be vouched for by a Master Mason who is in good standing.

"We understand the concern over the foregoing change, especially that it has eliminated the prerequisite Masonic connection for female petitioners. We ask those espousing this belief to remember that before sponsored membership was enacted, the connections between some of our petitioners and their Masonic relations were spotty at best. For example, a young woman who never or barely knew her grandfather but could prove that he was a Master Mason in good standing when he died was eligible to join Eastern Star—but the woman who has been a constant companion to her Master Mason boyfriend for decades could not.

"In fact, we see sponsored membership as requiring a much stronger Masonic connection than Eastern Star previously required. While the young woman who never or barely knew her Master Mason grandfather, uncle or stepbrother is still eligible to join, a woman who wants to join but who is not related to a Master Mason must present a letter, signed by a living Master Mason in good standing, in which that Brother vouches for the woman’s character. In our opinion, this demonstrates that not only does the Order of the Eastern Star remain deeply connected to Freemasonry, but no sponsored member may join without the express approval of a Mason. In other words, unlike a woman who can prove a direct relationship in her past, Master Masons in the present essentially have direct authority over which women are eligible to join."

It goes on to state that the vote to make this change was overwhelmingly passed by their members last year, who all DID have the Masonic family relationship. Moreover, the state Grand Chapters do not possess the ability to ignore, set aside, or modify the national rules, nor do the national grand officers have the ability to do so, while most Masonic Grand Masters DO possess that power within their jurisdictions. Meaning, the GM of West Virginia didn't have to evict them. He certainly could have remained silent on the subject, waited until his annual meeting, and asked for a vote of the subordinate lodge representatives.

Another point made by the letter is a matter of basic Masonic charity and brotherly love. 

"The directives and edicts issued or being contemplated in the various Masonic jurisdictions have had a major impact, as we have been inundated with calls, emails, and letters of concern from Eastern Star members both in North America and all around the world. Our hearts break for these Sisters and Brothers whose membership may be impacted because for many of our members, particularly those who are in the golden years of their lives, Eastern Star is one of their few opportunities for social interaction and camaraderie."

This is the real heart of the matter. How does the action of the Grand Master of West Virginia help Freemasonry in any way, shape or form? How does evicting the Eastern Star Chapters his serve his members?

CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW TO ENLARGE

OES Removed Masonic Family Relationship For Women Last November

by Christopher Hodapp

THIS STORY IS SLIGHTLY EDITED FOR CLARITY FROM ITS ORIGINAL VERSION FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2025, 12:33AM

As reported here on Monday, the  Order of the Eastern Star has been evicted from all Masonic buildings in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of West Virginia. In the wake of that decision, I was sent the following letter that had issued back on January 2nd of this year by the OES General Grand Chapter. 

I am posting this as a clarification of what started the imbroglio in West Virginia that led to Grand Master David Pyle's eviction directive to the OES. In his directive, he had claimed the OES had dropped the prerequisite of Masonic membership. That is obviously not correct, as scores of readers who are both Masons and Eastern Stars rushed to point out. (Click the images to enlarge them.)

The letter went out in January from Most Worthy Grand Matron Billie Bradfield and Most Worthy Grand Patron Michael Berry. It informed all OES chapters that their rules had been changed by the voting membership back in November 2024 regarding petitioning candidates, and removing the Masonic relationship requirement FOR WOMEN ONLY. 

Since its founding in the 1850s by Kentucky Past Grand Master Rob Morris, the OES required a female petitioner to be the wife, daughter or grand daughter of a Master Mason. The new rule passed last November has dropped that familial relationship with a Freemason. Instead of being related to a Mason, the new rule requires a female petitioner to present a letter of recommendation from a Master Mason and an existing OES Sister. But men wishing to join the OES must still be Master Masons in good standing. 

That detail was left out of GM Pyle's directive. 

Perhaps he wasn't aware of it.

The General Grand Chapter's letter goes on to clarify that state grand chapters do not have the authority to alter this new change in candidate criteria. They cannot choose to keep the former 'women must be related to Masons' requirement instead of the new one, even if their own members strenuously object. So the choice was made by the national body, not the West Virginia Chapter, which now has been given the order of the boot by the grand master.

According to Pyle's directive the GL of West Virginia's code forbids non-Masonic groups from using Masonic halls in that state. But if the OES still requires its men to be Freemasons (and women can't be recognized as Masons there anyway), nothing substantive has changed. To be brutally honest about it, the OES should have dropped the Masonic family requirement for women decades ago when membership declines showed no chance of recovery. Nevertheless, Grand Master Pyle has chosen to declare the OES a non-Masonic organization in West Virginia, even though the rule change hasn't really made it any less a Masonic group than it was before.

There is one other wrinkle to this West Virginia story that I hesitate to bring up because of the potential fecal cyclone it raises, and because I have absolutely NO proof that the issue even crossed the mind of Grand Master Pyle. I will only mention it because many commentators have suggested privately that it may be the REAL reason for the OES' eviction from West Virginia lodges. 

Prince Hall Eastern Star.

West Virginia GM Boots OES Chapters Out of All Masonic Buildings

by Christopher Hodapp

NOTE: THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF TUESDAY APRIL 8, 2025 AT 7:50AM:

I've had it confirmed that on March 21st, 2025, David Ray Pyle, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of West Virginia, issued a directive ordering all chapters of the Order of the Eastern Star to vacate all West Virginia Masonic buildings, effective immediately.

WV Grand Master David Ray Pyle

In his directive, he states that the O.E.S. in West Virginia no longer requires Masonic membership as a prerequisite. Consequently, they may no longer be permitted the use of any Masonic hall in that jurisdiction. He further states that the order extends to all Masonic building premisses, not just the lodge room itself.

GM Pyle has given the O.E.S. until July 21st to remove their property and ephemera from all Masonic halls, with a final drop-dead eviction date of September 21st.

GM Pyle's explanation in his directive is not exactly correct. The Masonic membership prerequisite still remains in place for men wishing to join the OES. Only the female relationship to an existing Mason has been dropped from their requirements.

Here's the change announced last November by the OES General Chapter:

WASHINGTON — At the Order of the Eastern Star (OES) 51st General Grand Chapter held in Florida [sic]* in October 2024, a resolution was passed to allow membership to all women who are sponsored by two members of the Order and are eligible for membership. This is a change from the previous requirement that OES members have a Masonic family affiliation or have been a members of a Masonic youth group. OES members nationwide are excited about this change as it will allow more women the opportunity to experience the friendship of Star and to make a difference in the world through its charitable works and kindness to others. 

Information regarding the OES can be found at the websites https://washingtonoes.org or https://easternstar.org

*To be completely factual, their triennial assembly last year was in Myrtle Beach, SC, not Florida. Thanks to Brother C. Winston Douglas for finding this OES announcement. 

To reiterate, the OES has ONLY dropped the familial relationship with an existing Freemason for women. Men joining the OES still are required to become a Master Mason first.

So, GM Pyle does have leeway, even with their regulations in West Virginia. And to cut off the OES, which is seen as being of benefit to hundreds of lodges throughout the U.S. (along with being an occasional goad to non-Mason men whose girlfriends, wives or daughters are OES members to seek Masonic membership), seems unduly harsh and shortsighted. While the OES has waned in popularity over the decades, there are still plenty of Masonic lodges that will struggle, or even close, if their Star chapter isn't there to support them (or share in the cost of running their building). It's pretty tough to see how kicking them to the curb when nothing substantive has changed benefits - or even protects - Freemasonry in West Virginia.

Says the Dummy Mason from the relative safety of his perch in Indiana where we don't load up our regulations with needlessly restrictive stuff like this. 

I don't recall exactly when West Virginia holds its annual communication, but I believe it's in November, which will be after Pyle's final eviction date. So even if someone can sponsor a resolution to change the rule and get it passed, it will be too late to stop the U-Haul trucks.

I've not yet seen an official reaction from the O.E.S. Grand Chapter of West Virginia or the O.E.S. General Grand Chapter in Washington, D.C. 

West Virginia Masonic Home Being Demolished

WTAP-TV is reporting that the Grand Lodge of West Virginia's Masonic Home in Parkersburg is being demolished this week. The retirement home was originally built in 1921 for West Virginia Masons and their relatives. It has been closed since 2016.

Beginnings of demolition can be seen in this photo from WTAP-TV

The once bucolic setting of the Masonic Home now overlooks the local shopping mall.

In 2017, city and county officials expressed a desire to work with the fraternity in developing new uses for the property. But according to the report by WTAP, Grand Lodge officials will not reveal why the facility is being torn down, nor what - if any - future plans are for the large property.

I am told that the West Virginia Masonic Home had just six residents when it closed in 2016. The Masons in the state were all paying to support a facility their own members did not even patronize. The sad reality is that Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid rules, combined with an avalanche of local, state and federal medical facility requirements over the last 30 years have completely upended the model of care for members that the Masonic homes were built around more than a century ago. They were created as part of a national movement among many fraternal organizations to create a safety net for their members and families at a time when health insurance, federal health programs and retirement packages did not exist. They predated even social security. 

Further complicating matters has been the easy mobility of retirees and their extended families over the last five decades. When extended families largely remained within easy driving distance of each other until the last quarter of the 20th century, the Masonic Home made a perfect retirement location. But with smaller and more distant families as a regular way of life these days, combined with the explosive growth in the home health care industry, living in the same state is no longer that important, much less in a traditional retirement community. In a state like West Virginia where the mountains and weather combine to make winters especially challenging for the elderly, an increasing number of them now flee south to warmer climates altogether instead of just hunkering down in the retirement home across the state. 

It's difficult and whoppingly expensive to operate such a facility today, and in almost every case, they are required by the realities of the retirement insurance programs to be open to the public, not just members anymore. Some grand lodge Masonic homes have found ways to adapt and open up to the public, while still honoring their lifetime commitment to their own members. But others have not succeeded, or have simply abandoned these facilities and historic missions entirely. West Virginia is merely the latest. 

Meanwhile, the downtown Masonic Temple in Parkersburg, built in 1915, was recently sold to the owner of the famed Woodcraft Supply Company. He intends to use it as a toy museum.

George Washington's Masonic Apron at Mount Vernon This Week

(This post was updated Friday, 2/22/19 at 2:15AM. After posting the original story, I went back and looked up more about the history of this apron and the controversies over it.)

Since 2011, the brethren of Mt. Nebo Lodge 91 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia have graciously permitted their 234-year old George Washington Masonic apron to be displayed to the general public during President's Week each February at Washington's Mount Vernon Estate in Virginia.

Young George Washington was initiated, passed and raised as a Freemason at the Lodge of Fredericksburg, Virginia between 1752-53. According to the story provided by the lodge, after the end of the American Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette allegedly presented his friend Washington this French-made silk Masonic apron while visiting Mount Vernon in 1784. The hand-embroidered apron features a square and compass, the crossed flags of France and the new United States, a memento mori, sprigs of acacia, and a tessellated cable-tow tied with three knots, referred to by French Masons as la houpe dentelee, which represents the mystic tie that binds all Masons in brotherhood.

(American Masons who visit lodges overseas will see this knotted rope symbolism tied with 'love knots' or 'infinity knots' commonly stretched all around lodge rooms, and it is strongly allied with the 'Chain of Union.' Brother Steve Burkle has written an excellent paper on this symbol and its relationship with the 'indented tessel' referred to in Preston-Webb ritual working. See it HERE.)

After Martha Washington’s death in 1802, this apron is believed to have been purchased for six dollars from her estate by Thomas Hammond, husband of George Washington’s niece, Mildred Washington. It was given to the Mt. Nebo Lodge in West Virginia prior to Hammond’s death in 1820.

The apron may be seen on display this week (February 15 - 24, 2019) at Mount Vernon's Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center. Admission to the Museum is included with general admission to the estate.

For more information, see the Mount Vernon website HERE.

The Watson-Cassoul Apron,
owned by Alexandria-Washington Lodge 22

This Saturday, February 23rd, the brethren of Mt. Nebo Lodge will hold a wreath-laying ceremony at Mount Vernon. The ceremony will begin at 1:30PM and will feature a prayer from their Masonic funeral service.


Of course, as with other relics alleged to have belonged to the nation's first President and most famous Freemason, the Mt. Nebo apron is not without its skeptics. It is remarkably similar to the the 'Watson-Cassoul Apron' that was presented to George Washington in 1782 by Elkanah Watson of Plymouth, Massachusetts and Monsieur Cassoul of Nantes, France.

Washington chose to wear the Watson-Cassoul Apron when he famously laid the cornerstone of the United States Capitol building in 1793. That famous apron is owned by Virginia's Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, and the Mt. Nebo apron looks to be almost identical in design, although of slightly rougher quality and different details (the skull and bone instead of the 'All Seeing Eye' within the triangle at the center, and the acacia instead of the radiant beams, primarily). It is possible that Mt. Nebo's is a copy or variation of the Watson-Cassoul Apron, or perhaps it was a prior prototype.

Lafayette Apron, owned by
the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania

A third Washington apron (and the best-known one) is known as the 'Lafayette Apron,' which was presented in 1784 by the Marquis de Lafayette, and is now in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Its design is quite different from the other two. The Lafayette Apron is said to have been sewn by the hands of Madame Lafayette herself, and so it carries a more romantic legendary status. Masons often mistake this apron for the one Washington wore at the Capitol cornerstone ceremony. And the Mt. Nebo story of their apron seems to combine the histories of the other two aprons. Nevertheless, it is possible that Lafayette did in fact present two aprons to his famous Masonic brother.

That said, the curators at Mount Vernon are obviously convinced enough by Mt. Nebo's provenance to confidently display it as authentic. And there's no reason to question that Washington really did have all three aprons presented to him in the early 1780s by his Brother Masons.

See the original story I posted in 2011 about the Mt. Nebo apron's first exhibition at Mt. Vernon: "Lost" Washington's Lafayette Apron To be Displayed at Mt. Vernon

West Virginia Masons Blocked From Performing Funeral For Ohio Brother

The Masonic Crusade website reports that a West Virginia resident who belonged to an Ohio lodge passed away, and that West Virginia Masons were barred from performing a Masonic funeral service for him.

That is the result of grand lodge politics and the ongoing battle over the expulsion of Past Grand Master Frank Haas.

A team of Ohio Masons came across the state line and performed a funeral service for the well respected brother, so his family did not have suffer from this tawdry bickering. But West Virginia Masons were not allowed to participate in the service.

In the name of all that is right and proper, brethren—would somebody please blink and bring this madness to an end?

The civil trial between Haas and the Grand Lodge of West Virginia begins December 6th.

Grand Lodge of West Virginia Withdraws Recognition of Ohio

This was posted today on the Grand Lodge of Ohio's website:

The Grand Master of West Virginia, Gregory A. Riley, Sr., issued an edict on April 19, 2010 withdrawing fraternal recognition from the Grand Lodge of Ohio because Steubenville Lodge No. 45 elected Frank Haas to membership and conferred the three degrees of Masonry on him on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

There is no information on the Grand Lodge of West Virginia AF&AM website, which has not been updated, apart from the Grand Master's name, in at least four years.