I am pleased to announce that my Lodge, Breathitt #649 in Jackson, KY, now has a brand new website. It was designed and coded by none other than yours truly.
Got the approval of the Worshipful Master last night at Degree Team practice, and today it’s up there for the world to see.
Visit the Breathitt Lodge at www.Breathitt649.org
Well, paint me purple and call me Martha, I’m a Hillbilly! And it was a blast, to be sure.
Of course, I had no idea what to expect except that it was going to be an interesting experience. Interesting might actually be slight a word to use to describe it, actually. It was certainly a fun time!
A couple of weeks ago me ‘n Miles went over to the Lee County Shrine Club. He’s already a Hillbilly, so he got have the fun of watching me get ‘nishiated.
And a bonus: on the same day I became a Turtle. That, in itself, was worth the trip…
Are you a Turtle?
From the It Was Bound to Happen Sooner or Later dept…
As many Brethren I’m sure already have heard, former W.Va. Grand Master Frank Joseph Haas has filed suit against the West Virginia Grand Lodge as well as the current Grand Master Charlie Montgomery and previous Grand Master Charles Coleman, among others.
According to the suit, while Grand Master, Haas led the charge to ‘rid Masonry in West Virginia of [its] Orwellian, repressive, regressive and unconstitutional practices’. When Coleman came in, I guess he ruled those changes null and void due to procedural errors. Current Grand Master Montgomery evidently gave Haas a dressing down while in Lodge and expelled him. It appears the expulsion was without trial. Haas is not listed on the West Virginia Grand Lodges website as a Past Grand Master.
After realizing that many lodges don’t have websites, or have websites that are barely kept up, I decided to create an easy way for Masonic Lodges to create and maintain their very own website. For free and with no ads.
Introducing…. FreeLodgeSite.com!
Right now, the site has the following features:
Also, users can subscribe to lodges and get automatic updates when the lodge site is updated. Another feature allows the lodge site editor to send an email to every member of the lodge (that has subscribed) to keep them informed of any happenings.
There are alot more things I want to do with the site, but I hafta first see if it’s going to be used before I spend any more time on it. It’s pretty cool (I think), very web 2.0-ish and all that. If you put your lodge on the site, please drop a line and let me know how you like it.
The site is 100% free for any Regular Masonic Lodge and is not ad-supported.
Silence Dogood has a great blog post over at The Middle Chamber about Lodge dues. I personally like the $20 per month plan, though each Lodge must decide what it needs to support itself and it’s programs. I know we could certainly do alot more in our Lodge if the dues were up’ed by even another $20/year.
I just finished reading American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communitues by Mark Tabbert (see more info here). It was a really great read and I do recommend it to anyone interested in American history from a Masonic point of view.
One of the great things about this book is that it shows how Freemasonry has occasionally re-branded itself in the public eye in response to the changing face of American society. That’s all well and good, but one way that current Freemasonry is trying to stay relevant is to pretty much open the doors to anyone and everyone– let ‘em come in and give ‘em the degrees.
If Freemasonry is going to sit idly by and let someone become a Master Mason in one day, well that is just too much for me. If we allow Freemasonry to come to this, how are we any different than any other group that simply charges an annual fee for membership? Personally, when I joined the Lodge it was for other reasons than just another nametag. I’m already a member of Kiwanis (not knocking Kiwanis, mind you).
I am GenX. Born and bred a child of the Eighties. Believe me, I know all about wanting immediate satisfaction. My generation wants everything NOW. But, guys, come on! The very core of what Freemasonry stands for might as well be thrown away if we just allow anybody to join… so long as they have a checkbook.
I feel somewhat cheated that I received the 32° of the Scottish Rite in a single day. What did I really learn in one day? The three months it took me to become a Master Mason were well spent. I studied. I read. I talked to other Brethren. I learned. I understood what I was getting into. And I approved.
My obligations mean something to me. There are Brothers in my local lodge that I would trust to the ends of the earth. But when men can take the Master Mason obligation en masse, I’m sorry, they are simply being cheated.
I guess what I’m saying is simply this: it’s about the quality of man rather than quantity of men. I would rather be a member of a lodge of 10 Brothers whom I know and trust with my life than a lodge of 1,000 whom I barely know.
Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks for this traveler. I went to Ashland, KY for a a Scottish Rite reunion a couple weeks ago and now am a 32° Scottish Rite Mason. The very next week we had an Entered Apprentice move to Fellow Craft and a Fellow Craft get raised, all in the same night!
Prior to the meeting getting started, there was some business that neeeded tending to… It seems that the two Brothers who had been appointed as Stewards couldn’t do those roles after all. So, what to do? Well, the decision was made and I was asked if I would server as Sr. Steward for the year instead of Marshal, which is what I was going to be. ‘Sure!’, I said. So another Brother and I were sworn in as Stewards and then proceeded to serve in that capacity (completely without preparation) for the two degrees we had to do that night. Thank God I had my copy of Look to the East in my back pocket!!!
Along with the new Worshipful Master at the Lodge, we are starting a degree team, which is very exciting. Not sure if we’ll have to audtion for roles or if we’ll end up begging a few of the Brethren to help us fill all the roles needed. For those of you ‘in the know’, I’m hoping for Bad Guy #1…
Elections at the Breathitt Lodge #649 were an interesting experience. Not interesting in the way that elections are usually interesting… I mean there was no mudslinging or the typical grandstanding that you see in a typical government election. Still, quite an experience.
The morning had a little contention (but it was that sort of noble contention which we as Masons can tolerate). The evening installation was a public ceremony and my uncle came as a visitor which was pretty cool. I was also asked by the Worshipful Master if I would be interested in taking a larger role within the lodge by being appointed as the Marshal. That was very cool! I get to wear a fancy apron and a Jewel and everything. In the photo of the lodge officers for the incoming year, I’m the guy who couldn’t seem to figure out how to get the apron on straight…
Also, I turned in my application for the York Rite. As we have a Commandry here locally that will be quite easy (well, at least I won’t have to travel). And, I found out about a Scottish Rite event on Jan 5 in nearby Ashland, KY’s El Hasa Shriner’s Temple. So, within the next month I could be a 32° Scottish Rite Mason and beginning in February I can start my path down the York Rite to becoming a member of the Knight’s Templar.
I have to say that I am a little undecided about whether to do the Scottish Rite then jump right into York Rite. I’ve only been involved in Masonry for eight months, and a Master Mason for five. I still have so much to learn of the Blue Lodge that I wonder if it isn’t too soon to jump into any single appendant body, much less two. I dunno, but I guess I’d better decide quicky– if any Brethren have suggestions or comments please let me know your thoughts…
Whew! What happened to the last six months of 2007?! I blinked my eyes and all of a sudden it’s Christmas time. Actually, I kinda know what happened; I sold my software company, took a real job as Executive VP with the acquiring company for a while, got tired of corporate life (again), and started out back on my own. So, essentially, I’ve been about as busy as a little bee in Springtime. Nice to actually have a day off to sit down and surf the net and blog and watch TV and whatever else might pop into my little mind (mmmm, beer!)
I am very proud of some of the accomplishments that have occurred over the past number of months. But the one that I’d like to blog about tonight is what happened yesterday afternoon– I finally completed the Proficiency for the Master Mason degree. Now, I’ve been a Master Mason for about five months now, but last night I proved that I knew the stuff necessary to hold an office in the Lodge. After I finished, our Sr. Deacon told me, ‘I’ve seen alot of those, and that was just about the best I’ve ever heard.’ Wow, cool. It was a great accomplishment, and took a fair amount of practice to learn everything, but it feels great to have it done. I guess it’s neither here nor there for the most part, but it is a load off to finally get it accomplished– for the past three meetings I’ve been wanting to do it but just haven’t had the opportunity to attend lodge meetings due to one thing or another.
The big excitement, that which I am most looking forward to, is St. John’s Day (December 27). We’re meeting at the lodge to elect our new officers for the coming year. Not sure how that whole thing works, but I can’t wait to find out. I do know that the voting practices of Freemasons are a pretty cool (you’ll hafta join to learn just how cool), and I am excited to see the ceremony within the lodge and the decorum of the Brothers on such an important and valuable occasion.
In any case, St John’s Day should be really cool.
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