It’s official: The keynote speaker at The Masonic Society’s banquet at Masonic Week next month will be Bro. Eric Diamond of Chicago!
Bro. Eric is well known about the apartments of the Temple, but he might be best known as the long-serving host of X-Oriente, the granddaddy of Masonic podcasts, launched more than a decade ago. (I don’t mean to exclude co-host Bro. Jason Van Dyke! The pair bill themselves as “The shock troops of the Enlightenment.”) Eric is a Board Member of The Masonic Society, and is at labor in outstanding Craft lodges in Chicago and New York.
The subject in store for us on the evening of Friday, February 9 will be how Enlightenment values, from which Freemasonry emerged and had nurtured, are under threat today.
The Masonic Society banquet is the highlight of the Masonic Week festivities. Hosted in the coveted Friday night slot, this event is open to, yes, Masonic Society members, and also other Masons, our spouses, and friends of Freemasonry. If you are not planning on attending Masonic Week—for example, if you reside in the area, and want to join us for this dinner—I believe that can be arranged.
Visit Masonic Week here. And from there, you may make dinner reservations and follow another link to book your hotel room.
Grand Lodge aims to launch a third lodge in the near future, and is seeking brethren to affiliate with it.
In addition to the two new lodges intended for the Columbia University and City University of New York communities, a sister lodge for John Philip Sousa Lodge in Portugal will be set to labor in New York City, and be warranted with that same name.
Sousa (1854-1932) was at labor in Hiram Lodge 10 (now Hiram-Takoma 10) in Washington. He was a Royal Arch Mason, a Templar, and a Shriner.
RW Ted Harrison again is the point man. He says:
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| Noble John Philip Sousa |
“The Grand Master has given us the green light to form a new lodge dedicated to promoting international universal Freemasonry. The new lodge is proposed to be named John Philip Sousa Lodge in memory of a great Mason, well known for his military march music and also for his Portuguese lineage. Sousa was an active Mason, raised in Washington, DC.
“There is currently a John Philip Sousa Lodge in the Grand Lodge of Portugal, and its founding Master is in the process of moving to New York. It is his vision to form this new lodge not only to fulfill the normal obligations of a lodge to raise candidates and teach Masonry, but to assist Masons visiting New York to properly connect with local lodges which can welcome them, and also to provide contacts for New York Masons traveling overseas to be able to connect with a lodge at their destination.
“A list of prominent New York Masons and eager younger Masons have already agreed to support this venture, and if you have interest in being involved in working with Masons from foreign jurisdictions, please contact me and we would welcome an opportunity to discuss this with you. It will be a rare chance for you to be a part of a new lodge, and one with this purpose and mission.”
I appreciate lodges that bring some culture into Freemasonry. I’m sorry to say I won’t be able to attend this performance, but maybe you can.
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