Karen Kidd, author of Haunted Chambers: The Lives of Early Women Freemasons will speak at the Southern Colorado Consistory of the Scottish Rite in an open meeting on February 3rd, 2010, at 7:30 p.m.In the Spring of 2009, Kansas' Mt. Zion Lodge No. 266 in Topeka promoted a conference of Traditional Observance/European Concept lodges, entitled The Gentleman, the Scholar, and the Mystic: Exploring Modern Masonic Practices in North America, to be held from Friday, April 16 – Saturday, April 17, 2010. Initially, our ambitions for this conference encompassed a wide- ranging variety of presenters and topics, but on reevaluation, the economic realities and the difficulty in scheduling some presenters make us think that the most efficacious use of our time is to focus very specifically on the best practices and practical issues of the TO/EC movement.
To that end, we have streamlined the conference to support this mission. Additionally, we have scaled back the registration fee to the sum of $40, which amount will include lunch on Saturday.
Guests may arrive Friday night and enjoy hospitality provided by the brethren of Mt. Zion lodge. The conference will commence at the Grand Lodge of Kansas, ADD ADDRESS, at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday with the opening of lodge in the first degree. After being called to refreshment, the general session will begin, followed by a catered lunch. The conference will resume in the afternoon with several breakout sessions highlighting best practices. Lodge will be closed in form and the brethren may join the membership of Mt. Zion lodge for a festive board following the meeting.
Topics:
“Best and Worst Practices for Lodges”
“Starting new or re-creating existing Lodges”
“Masonic Leadership, Partnership, and Mentoring sister lodges”
"Rebirth of Philosophical & Spiritual Aspects of Freemasonry."
The agenda for the conference is as follows:
Friday, April 16, 2010
6:00 p.m. Mixer and dinner, venue to be determined.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 6:00p.m. Presentations and discussions. Lunch included.
7:00 p.m. Festive Board
Reservations may be made by contacting Joesphe Stiles, Secretary, Mt. Zion Lodge at joesphe @ gmail.com
Hotel rooms have been blocked at a very favorable rate.
TOPEKA HOLIDOME: $69.00 plus tax.
A story out of Lawrence, Kansas spotlights fraternal groups like the Masons, Knights of Columbus, Eagles and others, focussing on the "dwindling numbers" angle.The Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization exclusive to practicing Catholic men, 18 years and older, recently retained a volunteer membership director who uses lists of new parishioners from St. John the Evangelist Church and word-of-mouth to find new blood.
Even so, member Joe Laframboise says his club's membership skews to the over-40 set. He blames a societal shift for the younger generation's lack of interest.
"When I was growing up - and I'm over 50 - we just had regular TV, for example," he points out. "There wasn't cable TV, the VCR and DVD hadn't come around yet. There are just so many other distractions, if you wish. You can do a lot of different things different ways - by yourself, in a group."
Laframboise cites the book, "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community," written by Robert Putnam in 2000, who reported that the number of Americans attending club meetings has declined by 58 percent in just one generation. Two-parent working families and increased options for free-time activities are to blame, according to the author.
"People are just doing things by themselves on their computers, and they're not interested in belonging to a group," Laframboise says.
Doris Bateson, who with her husband, Leroy, has been active in the local Fraternal Order of Eagles since the '70s, says she is particularly disturbed by how the "Bowling Alone" problem affects Generation Y.
"The reason young people aren't getting involved is because they're not fraternally oriented. We're going to have to figure out a way to change that if we're going to survive," she says.
Bateson, who is a Past International President of FOE, believes the way to do that is to emphasize community service.
"Recently at (Aerie) 309, we've gotten more involved in community projects like the St. Patricks' Day parade and the Boys and Girls Club. The younger generation is joining because they want to be involved in community projects, and that's a good thing."
Still, Eagles membership is down - approximately 20 percent for women and 50 percent for men - since the Batesons helped build the current Eagles Lodge at 1803 W. Sixth St. The smoking ban, which went into effect in 2004, didn't help either.
"We lost 200 members with the smoking ban," says Leroy Bateson. "And bingo attendance dropped, too."
Dana Laudick, 57, daughter of Leroy and Doris and FOE member, sees another reason for the organization's degeneration.
"Young people are more than willing to help, and they're great at participating in charitable fundraisers. But - and my mother will disagree with me because she's 80 and a charter member - the rituals that some of these organizations adhere to - the stuff that goes on at the meetings - these kids aren't at all interested in that. It's boring to them. It's dated. You've got a 15-20 minute ritual that they perform just to open a meeting. They're not going to sit through that."
She said her 22-year-old son recently joined the lodge, primarily to use the lounge where liquor prices are lower than bars around town.
"We may have to start doing things a little differently than we did 100 years ago in order to get the involvement and do good things for the community," Laudick says.
Now Available!
· Discover the meaning of “The Lost Word”
· Decode Masonic and alchemical symbolism
· Explore the innermost rooms of Washington D.C.’s Masonic temples
· Visit the restricted areas of the U.S. Capitol and other landmarks
· Uncover the myths in the maps and monuments of the nation’s capital
· Crack the codes buried in The Lost Symbol’s artwork and puzzles
· Examine how noetic science may change the way we perceive life, existence and the universe
Hot on the heels of the "21st Century Renaissance" rule changes announced by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania's Grand Master Thomas K. Sturgeon (see here for the whole text), a website has been launched that is pushing back. The Pennsylvania Masonic Restoration is a movement initiated and sustained by Pennsylvania Freemasons who believe in the oaths they took to preserve and maintain our Masonic customs, ritual, landmarks and usages. We believe that Pennsylvania Freemasonry is unique in the world and represents hundreds of years of tradition and the hard work of millions of Freemasons. It should be preserved and passed down to future generations of Freemasons as well preserved and maintained as it was for us.
To that end, we seek the restoration of our Masonic heritage. It is not our goal to challenge the authority of the Right Worshipful Grand Master nor to interfere with the administrative functioning of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. We hold our oaths inviolable, including our requirement to support the Constitution and all rules, edicts and/or resolutions that may be issued. It is our hope and our goal to see the recent detrimental changes made to our ritual and customs repealed. Until that is accomplished, we seek to find ways for our Pennsylvania Masonic Brethren to meet the conflicting challenge of obeying the directives of the Grand Lodge and honoring the specifics of the oaths we took as Freemasons which directly contradict some of those directives.
"Bristol Masonry is unlike anything seen elsewhere in England. In the first degree alone one witnesses unusual ceremonies and hears statements which will surprise even the well-read Mason. Have you ever heard "the Nile, the Ganges, the Euphrates, [and the] Mississippi" mentioned in an Entered Apprentice degree? How about "the immeasurable wilds of the scattered Indian tribes across the mighty Atlantic...the wandering Arabs, roaming tartars, or far distant Chinese"? Have you ever seen the "circle of swords," the "cup of affliction" or the "writing test" given to an Entered Apprentice? It is all here, and much more. As one of the most unusual rituals in the English language, Masons travel from all over the world to witness these fascinating ceremonies. Boasting what is probably the oldest Craft working in England, Bristol ritual retains aspects which are similar to the unpublished Irish workings, but also resembles Continental Masonry in some regards."
On Saturday, January 9th from 10 am to 2 pm, the Historic Royal Arch Building located in Manasquan, NJ will be open to visit for the first time in years. The former Goodwin Chapter No. 36 building which was built in 1923 has an historic Masonic Lodge room which is a beautiful, grand, expertly crafted work of architecture that you MUST see in your lifetime. The owners have agreed to allow Masons and their families to visit the building this Saturday. The Lodge Room is done in an Egyptian motif and has a 30 foot VAULTED ceiling that must be seen to believe! I have been to the Building and every Mason in NJ should see the architecture, workmanship and awe of the Royal Arch Mason Lodge room. The marble floors, inlaid keystone, columns, sphinx, eagles, paintings, hieroglyphics are all in great shape and create a true Masonic work of beauty!
I strongly suggest that you take this opportunity to visit the building this Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM.
The Royal Arch Building is located at 168 Main Street, at the corners of Main Street and Route 71, in Manasquan, NJ. The Broadway Grill is located in the building and can be used as a reference point for your GPS system. I have included some web links to the building and some info about the Goodwin Chapter Building below.
Please send this to everyone on your list. Bring your friends and families for the tour. You do NOT want to miss this opportunity to see this grand RAM Masonic room which is sitting right in your backyard! Please remember to thank the owners for giving the tour of the building! The owners should be thanked by the Masons of New Jersey for not destroying this beautiful Masonic Masterpiece!
I truly hope that you can make it to the Building on Saturday. Please make every effort to attend the open house and see the Lodge room!
Click here for a Map
http://www.goodwinhiram.org/goodwin-hiram3_007.htm
http://www.goodwinhiram.org/index.html
Fraternally,
Joseph Christian McCann
Sunrise Lodge #288
Most Excellent High Priest
Goodwin Hiram Chapter No1
Interesting article today in the Jerusalem Post by Seth Frantzman about the development of Freemasonry in Israel.Since its inception, Freemasonry has welcomed Jews as members, and initially most Jewish Masons were from prominent Sephardi families. One of these, Moses Montefiore, is important because of his connection to 19th-century Palestine, where he helped improve the living conditions of local Jews. However, the first Masonic ceremony held in Jerusalem was conducted by a Kentucky-born Mason named Robert [sic] Morris at the Cave of Zedekiah (popularly known as King Solomon's Quarries) near Damascus Gate in east Jerusalem. Another Masonic lodge, the Royal Solomon Mother Lodge, was founded in Jaffa in 1873 by American settlers of the Adam's colony. The colony failed, and the lodge was maintained by Rolla Floyd, a survivor of the colony. Another lodge was founded in 1890 in Jaffa by middle-class Jews and Arabs.
The Masonic lodges at this time included Jewish and Arab notables. One example of these, according to an article written by Israeli Mason Leon Zeldis, was a Christian Arab hotel owner named Iskander Awad who was also an agent for the Thomas Cook travel agency. Lodges were founded in Haifa (1911) and Jerusalem (1931), and in each case the membership was composed of leading Jews, Arabs and Europeans.
Dr. Daniel Farhey, a Mason based in Haifa, has written that "Freemasonry is one of the few institutions that actively promotes better understanding between the different ethnic and cultural segments of Israel society, particularly between Jewish and Arab brethren, and also assists in the social integration of immigrants."
Back in August, I was invited to speak at Annapolis Lodge No. 89 in Maryland. Among the brethren I met that evening was Brother Eric Madison. He and Brad Finnsson have formed FraternalSoft Inc. and created the great iPhone software application, Masonic Traveler. Masonic Traveler is an outstanding lodge finder ap that works intuitively with your iPhone, providing names, address, contact information, maps and step-by-step directions, and more for almost every Craft lodge in the US. I can't recommend this application heartily enough. It has helped me several times already, and well worth its $7.99 price.
Obviously, its biggest shortcoming is that it is only as accurate as the information given to FraternalSoft by grand lodges, or found by them on lodge websites. Thoughtfully, they have included a feature request and contact support function within the ap, so you can help them stay up to date. The more popular it becomes with Freemasons, the more accurate its database will be.
As of January 1, 2010, Idaho joins more than 30 states across the country in offering a Masonic license plate. They were approved by the Idaho Legislature, to join about 40 other specialty-plate options that allow Idaho drivers to financially support nonprofit organizations.
Masonic philosophy drew on ideas from many religious traditions, and its adherents were remarkable—with the occasional exception—for welcoming members of all creeds, affording them a path of social mobility. This was the case for many Jews in Western Europe. The first Jewish Mason was recorded in England in 1732 and by 1793, an entire Jewish lodge was established in London.
Freemasonry became popular in colonial America, where the Freemasons’ self-described mission to “make good men better” resonated, and Masons played a vital role in the founding of the United States. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers were Masons, as were prominent Jewish figures such as Haym Salomon, the prime financier of the American Revolution, and merchant Moses Michael Hayes, who was the Grand Master of the lodge where Paul Revere served as Deputy Grand Master. Other notable Jewish Masons range from British philanthropist Moses Montefiore and Hungarian-born illusionist Harry Houdini to American composer Irving Berlin and Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). There have been 51 Jewish Grand Masters in the United States, and Israel itself is home to 60 Masonic lodges.
"If you were a macher or “big-shot” in the Jewish community in Arizona and wanted to be part of a service organization you would look to be part of something like the Masons. And on the altar in the Masonic lodge there is a Christian scripture, a Koran and a Tanakh. The one at our local lodge is an Orthodox Birnbaum Tanakh. I actually teach a Kabbalah class that takes place at a Masonic temple and a few Masons come to the class. All the members of the Masonic group are very interested in my Jewishness."
DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ARE GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. SUMMARY JUDGMENT IS GRANTED IN FULL AS TO NON-OFFICERS MICHAEL HOWARD, JOEL MICHALEK, CHRISTOPHER MICHALEK, TOME COSTE, HALCYON CHARITIES. SUMMARY JUDGMENT IS GRANTED IN PART AS TO DEFENDANT OFFICERS CHRIS SNOW, TODD WARMINGTON, LYNN ERIC CHIPPS, SCOTT KELLY. ONLY ISSUE THAT REMAINS FOR TRIAL IS RETURN OF "PERSONAL PROPERTY MASONIC IN NATURE AND UNPAID DUES." ALL OTHER CLAIMS FAIL. DEFENDANTS OWED NO FIDUCIARY DUTY TO GRAND LODGE AND DEFENDANTS ACTED IN GOOD FAITH TO PRESERVE ASSETS OF LODGE. THE COURT FINDS THAT THE VOTE TO TRANSFER ASSETS WAS DONE IN ACCORDANCE WITH BYLAWS. IN REGARDS TO NOTICE, ALL HAD NOTICE OF THE STATED (NOT SPECIAL) MEETING AND NO EVIDENCE WAS PRESENTED THAT ANYONE COMPLAINED. THE COURT ALSO DETERMINES THAT WRITTEN NOTICE OF THE ACTION WAS NOT REQUIRED BEFORE THE VOTE ACCORDING TO BYLAW 21.04, WHICH REQUIRES NOTICE ONLY FOR SPECIAL MEETINGS NOT STATED MEETINGS. FINALLY, THE COURT CONCLUDES THAT BYLAW 9.01 IS NOT APPLICABLE AS "ANY OTHER SUCH POLICY OF TEMPLE OWNERSHIP *** SUBMITTED TO TEMPLE COMMITTEE" AS THE ACTION WAS NOT FINANCING OR CREATING INDEBTEDNESS. PRE-TRIAL SET FOR 01/12/2010 AT 02:45 PM. PRETRIAL SET TO SCHEDULE ADDITONAL COURT DATES INCLUDING TRIAL DATE. CLPAL 12/22/2009 NOTICE ISSUED
Remember that we are especially interested in helping research lodges by giving your members' original work a wider audience. And a membership in The Masonic Society is a great idea for new Masons. At just $39 a year, members receive a beautiful wax-sealed patent, membership card, lapel pin, and four issues of the Journal. If you aren't a member, join today!
Membership is open to all regular, recognized Master Masons. See the website for more details.
Once you’ve seen her, you can’t help but be caught up in the romance of the building. She is a grand old lady and deserves our love and attention. I guarantee if we could pull the money together, she would make a wonderful addition to the arts venues of Muskogee. Maybe just one step at a time. . .
She’s been watching, as Muskogee grew and changed. She has seen an entire generation of folks born and died. The temple is waiting patiently for her moment once again to hold her rightful place in our community as a source of beauty and pride.
I had the great opportunity a few months ago to read an advance copy of brother Michael Halleran's upcoming book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, his in-depth study of interactions between Freemasons during the American Civil War. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Registration of Elected Officials Comes to Rome: The Freemasons Will "Unveil"Rome (December 11) - In Rome, there will be established the public registration of elected officials: advisors and assessors or persons named in municipal boards will have to declare membership of associations and organizations, including the Masonic ones. [There was a] violent reaction from the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, Gustavo Raffi (right), who spoke of profiling. The approved text was amended by the center-right majority.
"The Nazis and the Stalinists did this," said Raffi, declaring "the most extensive protection in all locations." Commenting on statements made yesterday by Mayor Gianni Alemanno, that "the appointed and elected officials cannot belong to secret societies, whether Masonic or not," he remarked [that they] "smell of sulfur and echo, we would like to believe out of ignorance (in the Latin sense of the term), the ominous allegations of conspiracy theory, about Satanists, plutocrats, Jews, Freemasons, of sad and sickening memory." He repeated that "the Masonry of the Grand Orient of Italy of the Palazzo Giustiniani is not a secret society but operates in the sunshine."
Alemanno: no aversion to the Freemasons. "I do not have any dislike of Freemasonry," said Mayor Gianni Alemanno. "Soon I will invite Grand Master Raffi to Capitol Hill to clarify any misunderstanding and to find a solution that ensures full transparency of elected officials [that does not] discriminate or offend any sensitivities and any culture."
In particular, six of the seven amendments have been approved: those of the majority, the first signers Federico Mollicone and Andrea De Priamo, extended the registration in addition to those appointed to positions within the City and cultural institutions as well as [firms?] participating in the Municipality of Rome. Further, under another amendment, elected and appointed officials must declare their membership in "cultural and sports associations, charities, non-profit organizations, co-ops, Masonic organizations, foundations and any other form of public or private organization not covered by privacy [laws]."
[snip]
The first signatories Mollicone and De Priam said they were "willing to meet all associations, including the Grand Oriente, requesting them to explain that this obligation is exclusively cognitive." "We are pleased with the approval of the resolution - said the leader of the Pd Umberto Brown - because transparency is the cornerstone of participatory democracy and is the basis of a process aimed at increasing the involvement of citizens in political and institutions. The leader of the PDL Dario Rossin said that "the extension of the registry administrators, and also to be appointed is a choice that goes into the sign of a total administrative clarity to the citizens."
Now, nearly 350 years later, another group of men met to form an organisation with the aim of researching Freemasonry: The Masonic Society. The name, deliberately chosen, alludes to the Royal Society and the visionary men, many of whom were Freemasons, who were at the forefront of the Age of Enlightenment. The Masonic Society has plans to be at the forefront of a new age of Freemasonry. 
At left in the original photo is his daughter, Laura, who was herself a patient at the Shriners Hospital in St. Louis. After Laura began receiving treatment at Shriners, Hortman decided to join the Shrine in 1968.
In 1872, for fun and charity, the white Masons started a fraternity called the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The black Masons formed their own Shrine group in 1893, the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order. Both groups referred to their chapters as "temples." Both called their leader "imperial potentate."
They coexisted, sometimes in the same cities, for at least two decades. But then, the lawsuits began. In 1914, a white Georgia lodge tried to bar a black lodge from imitating its name, constitution titles, emblems and regalia. The same then happened in Arkansas. When a white Houston group sued its local black counterpart in 1918, the case expanded to include Shriner groups throughout the United States and landed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The legal battle lasted more than a decade.
On June 3, 1929, the Supreme Court concluded that even though the black Shriners formed their group out of imitation, the white Shriners knew about the group's existence and didn't take legal action for years.
In fact, evidence showed that the white groups sold their paraphernalia to black groups for ceremonial use. The black Shriners were not trying to pass themselves off as white Shriners and it was too late for the whites to claim the symbols as exclusively theirs. The black Shriners celebrate this decision every year. They call it the Jubilee Day.
Eighty years later, Tampa's historically-black Harram Temple has no white members. The spokesman for the local historically-white Egypt Shrine doesn't think his group has any black members. Both groups say they would welcome a member of the other race.
The racial divide happens naturally, not by exclusion, says Hillsborough County Judge Eric R. Myers, an officer in the black Shriners group. Think of college fraternities and sororities. Think of sons following in their fathers' footsteps.
"Think about it across the board in a lot of organizations," he says. "Churches — come on, let's be real."
Myers, who is slated to become the chief of the worldwide black Shriners group in eight years, said he was in charge of the local temple in 1995 when he met a member with the white Shriners temple.
"Nobody had ever really talked to one another," Myers said.
The white Shriners invited the black Shriners to their circus, and the tradition has continued ever since. The black Shriners are also nationwide contributors to Shriners Hospitals, the major philanthropy of the historically-white group.
Eight years ago, the worldwide leaders of the white Shriners invited the leaders of the black group to their headquarters to trade ideas about attracting members and working together, remembers Jack Jones, imperial potentate for the historically-white group. That meeting concluded with an agreement that members of both groups could visit each others' temples throughout the organizations.
"We do have good discourse with them," Jones says. "They work toward the betterment of mankind as well as we do."
There are no serious discussions to fuse the two. What would happen to all those guys in line to become imperial potentate?
"If you come together," said Warren Spears, spokesman for the worldwide black Shriners, "that means somebody's going to be on the short end."
Expect to see much of what you saw three years ago in Tampa starting on Aug. 13 and lasting approximately a week. The city will be covered with red fezzes.
The Daughters of Isis, the female counterpart to the black Shriners, will celebrate its 100th anniversary here during the convention. They're all planning service projects. Ybor City's Seventh Avenue will make way for a huge parade.
And one of those days, maybe, the leaders of the black Shriners will visit the historically-white Shriners headquarters in Tampa to trade ideas again.
The white Shriners say they plan to extend an invitation.
