Officer’s Messages – November 2017

From the East
WM Tony York

Greetings from the East,

As the Sun must set each day in the West so my time as the temporary guardian of the East has come to an end. This year did not travel in a manner and method that I foresaw when delivering my remarks during my Installation BUT that isn’t to say that I didn’t have a GREAT year and truly loved the fellowship of the year. I want to thank the Grand Master, my officers, and my committee members for their endless support and friendship. I thank my fellow Brothers for electing me and trusting me with such an important job. I thank the Past Masters for your wise counsel and brotherly love. Lastly, I appreciate everyone’s display as living example of the Fraternity through your execution of your Obligations/Officer Oaths and through your skillful operations of the Working Tools as Free and Accepted Masons. It has been my humble honor to be your Worshipful Master. November was a very busy month with a very successful GMOV Homecoming, and truly enlightening Grand Lodge filled with the pride of our Grand Master’s successful year and plenty of fellowship. As we look forward to 2018, I am excited for our soon to be elected and appointed officers and pledge my support to your cause. And now the day has come and, so I take my final curtain ……..and turn this Trestle board over to a new Master. May the Great Architect of the Universe Bless and keep you until again we have the opportunity to meet in our great journey of life.

Fraternally,
Anthony (Tony) York W.M.

From the West
Bro Dennis Ashley

Greetings Brethren,

I attended the 153rd annual Grand Lodge Communication this past month, and what an amazing feeling I get after such events. There were several instances where lifelong friendships were decided upon immediately after communicating. I most certainly received further Light in Masonry. Thank you!

That’s why we’re are going to do our extreme best to bring the Silver State Award home to Mt. Moriah Lodge #39. It will require an extra effort along with maintaining our usual Obligations. If I assume the position of Master of this Lodge, it will be a goal of mine this year and it is Paramount we obtain it.

And once again thank you sincerely for your vote of confidence entrusting me with preserving the reputation of the Fraternity. Here listed are 8 qualities of a good leader that I found reading the Greatest Light in Masonry.

Diligence
Has trustworthy messengers
Doesn’t penalize people for Integrity
Listens before answering
Able to Discern
Listens to both sides of the story
Stands up under Adversity
Stands up under Praise

Also, our installation will be on December 9, 2017. Appetizers will start at 5pm, followed by the ceremony at 6pm, with an encore dinner immediately after. I would love for all available Masons in the area to attend.

Earnestly
Dennis Ashley

From the South
Bro Eric Willson

Happy Holidays everyone. It has been a great year to serve as Junior Warden. The last meal I will prepare will be for December. We’ll be doing hot dogs and assorted dressings. I hope everyone is prepared for their news roles in 2018. Make sure you’re ready!

Sincerely,
Eric Willson

From the Secretary
Bro Larry Kesler, PM

The Importance of Our Ritual

One of the great appeals of Freemasonry, both to the profane and to the Mason, is its antiquity. The Order can trace an unbroken history of more than two hundred years in its present form (the Mother Grand Lodge was formed in 1717), and has irrefutable documentary evidence of a much longer existence in simpler forms. Our present rituals — the plural is used advisedly, as no two jurisdictions are as one on what is correct in ritual — are the source books from which we prove just where we came from and, to some extent, just when. If we alter our ritual, either intentionally or by poor memorization, we gradually lose the many references concealed in the old, old phrases which tell the story of whence we came and when. Time is relative to the observer; what is very slow to the man may be very rapid to nature. Nature has all the time there is. To drop out a word here, put in a new one there, eliminate this sentence and add another one to our ritual seems to be a minor matter in a man’s lifetime. Yet, if it continues long enough, in a very few score years, the old ritual will be entirely altered and become something new.
We have confirmation of this. Most parts of the ritual are printed. These printed paragraphs are practically the same in most jurisdictions. Occasionally, there is a variation, showing where some committee on work has not been afraid to change the work of our fathers. But the printed portion of our work is substantially what it was when it was first brought to this country more than two hundred years ago. The secret work is very difficult in many of our jurisdictions. Some of the differences in ritual are accounted for by different original sources, yet even in two jurisdictions which sprang from the same source of Freemasonry, and originally had the same work, we find variations. These variations show that mouth-to-ear instruction, no matter how diligent it may be, is not wholly an accurate way of transmitting words. In spite of us, alterations creep in by the slow process of time and human fallibility, how much faster will the ritual change if we are careless or indifferent? The farther away we get from our original source, the more meticulously careful must trustworthy Masons be to pass on the work to posterity as we receive it.
The Mason of olden times could go to his source for re-inspiration — we cannot. Ritual is the thread which binds us to those who immediately preceded us, as their ritual bound them to their fathers, our grandfathers. The ritual that we hand down to our children’s children will be their bond with us, and through us the historic dead. To alter that bond intentionally is to wrong those who come after us, even as we have been wronged when those who preceded us were careless or inefficient in their memorization of the ritual. The Entered Apprentice, then, should not be discouraged if the ritual ‘comes hard’. He should fail not in the task, nor question that it is worthwhile, for on what he does and on the way, he does it depends in some measure the Freemasonry of the future. As he does well or ill, so will those who come after him do well or ill. LODGE RESOURCES MANUAL – A LODGE MANAGEMENT GUIDE – ME 44 – Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Canada in the Province of Ontario March 2009 But, we must not leave him to solve all his problems by himself, we, his mentor, his sponsor, his Brother, we must ensure that he knows that we will proceed with him along his Masonic travels.

Originally by R.W. Bro. David Bruce, St. Aidan’s Lodge No. 567