‘Wendell K. Walker Lecture on Thursday’

    

Look, if you’ve never listened to me before, this is a good time to start: Get thee to Old Number 2 next Thursday to hear this lecture.

Wendell K. Walker Lecture

Independent Royal Arch Lodge 2

‘St. John of Jerusalem:

A Link to the Past’

by Pete Normand

Thursday, March 19 at 7 p.m.

Masonic Hall, Empire Room

You probably noticed how a few things we accept without question about our fraternity’s past cannot be explained anyway. For example, where did the Holy Saints John come from?

They are not found in the Old Charges, where we learn how St. Alban actually was the patron of masons. So how did John the Baptist and John the Evangelist enter Masonic ritual and symbol? Bro. Normand’s explanation will astound you.

You might not believe a Byzantine patriarch of Alexandria, Jonathan Swift, Chevalier Ramsay, T.E. Lawrence, a patriarch of Jerusalem, and a London tavern could have much in common—and especially with our ritual—which is why you should attend I.R.A. 2 next week.

More than merely one scholar’s opinion, Pete connects historical dots that will convince you.

His Masonic biography says:

An active Freemason since 1978, he is a Past Master of four Masonic lodges, a past presiding officer of all the bodies of the York Rite, a 33° member of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and is a Past Grand Chancellor of the Grand College of Rites, U.S.A. In 1992, he was the Charter Master of St. Alban’s Masonic Lodge 1455, the first lodge created to pursue the best traditional practices of Freemasonry. From 2010 through 2014, he was President of the Masonic Restoration Foundation, an international organization that promotes and facilitates the formation of traditional and observant lodges. Best known as a Masonic researcher, writer and lecturer, Pete is a Past Master (1989) of Texas Lodge of Research, where he was named its fifteenth Fellow in Masonic Research in 2001. From 1991 through 1994, he edited and published American Masonic Review. He is a founding member, former editor and Fellow and of the Scottish Rite Research Society, founded in 1991. He continues to serve on the Society’s Board of Directors. In 2010 he was named the ninety-ninth member of the Society of Blue Friars, an invitational society of Masonic authors. Since 1984, he has served as the librarian and archivist of the Brazos Valley Masonic Library & Museum. He has served on the Fraternal Relations Committee of the Grand Lodge of Texas since 1991, and is a Past Chairman of the Commission on Information for Recognition of the Conference of Grand Masters in North America.

This will be Pete’s second Wendell K. Walker Lecture, the first being way back in the previous millennium.