‘Where are AMD’s scholars?’

    

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Brethren of the Allied Masonic Degrees have received the latest Allied Times newsletter, which contains all kinds of information on recent and upcoming events, including Masonic Week. Also of note is a message from the chairman of Grand Council’s Publications Committee concerning the upcoming edition of Miscellanea.

This, ideally, is the annual book of quality papers written by AMD Masons around the country and presented in their local councils. Looks like we’re getting a “best of” anthology of classics this year. Too little new material is being submitted by the council secretaries (or maybe submissions received aren’t that great) to fill the pages of a quality book, so most of this new volume comes from the past. Here’s the table of contents:

▪︎ 1939-1941: “The Union Degree,” by Wendell K. Walker

▪︎ 1939-1941: “Evolution of the Tracing Board,” by S. Clifton Bingham

▪︎ 1949: “Light From The Forty-Seventh Problem of Euclid,” by J. Edward Allen

▪︎ 1950: “Group Masonic Research,” by William Mosley Brown

▪︎ 1954: “Freemasonry Past, Present, and Future,” by William A. Thaanum

▪︎ 1981: “The Itinerant Degree Peddlers,” by S. Marshall Sanders, Jr.

▪︎ 1991: “Ray Shute and the A.M.D.,” by Keith Arrington

▪︎ 2024: “What Come You Here to Do?,” by Robert G. Davis

▪︎ 2024: “Forward of Freemasonry and the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824-1825 American Tour,” by B. Chris Ruli

Papers in AMD need not meet the same requirements one finds in research lodges. For starters, these do not have to be research papers, but rather information of “Masonic interest” is how I think the rule phrases it. The requirements aren’t at all rigorous, so standards in length, style, and content shouldn’t prevent everyone from participating. Naturally, not everyone is destined for this kind of work. AMD also needs ritualists, administrators, and organizers, but there ought to be someone writing the educational content of meetings.

This brings me to my principal gripe about Grand Council: It charters constituent councils too generously. The proof of this, in part, is seen in how practically no one in the country gets published in Miscellanea. I’m not sure if Charter No. 600 has been issued yet, but it’s close. Where are all the Masonic scholars in all these councils?

It took Grand Council almost forty years to issue Charter No. 83 in 1971 (to my council), but in the past fifty-three years it has cranked out more than 500? Fifty-three years when the Masonic population in the United States dropped from more than three million to 800,000? How does that make sense?

It doesn’t, of course, because AMD was meant to be small. It is not open to Master Masons; one must be a Royal Arch Mason, which precludes about 90 percent of Master Masons from joining. And one does not petition; one is invited into a council. And we cannot invite too many because each council is constitutionally capped at twenty-seven members.

Get it? It’s supposed to be a small, even elite, fraternity. One of the codgers who was still around when I was brought in twenty-three years ago called it the Ph.D. level of Freemasonry.

So, now that the Allied Masonic Degrees in the United States is supersized, where are all the writers? (Why am I not writing for Miscellanea is the obvious question, and my answer is complicated, but I do have reasons.)

To have your work published in Miscellanea, give the paper to your council secretary, and he will forward it to the Publications Committee.

UPDATE—October 30: Okay, a friend back channel called bullshit on my “reasons,” so I’ll share one here: Where are the dozens of Grand Council officers in this? If, say, eight of them submitted papers each year, we’d get a book. They all were appointed to their glamorous positions meritoriously, and there was no tedious cronyism at work, so what gives?

     

‘Three papers, two degrees, one ingathering’

   

The Allied Masonic Degrees of New York will host its Downstate Ingathering on the 29th of this month. Register here.

Remember: Participation is limited to brethren of the AMD in good standing.

Click to enlarge.

     

‘A busy weekend!’

    

Wow! That was one busy weekend!

Actually, I guess it was only the twenty-six or so hours between Friday and Saturday nights, but there were three meetings packed in there.

Scott Council 1 of New Jersey’s Cryptic Rite hosted its Annual Assembly Friday. Not just elections and installation of officers, but a palpable “do or die” night. The grand master wanted to see the officers were proficient in the Opening, Closing, and the NPD form of balloting. Hardly unreasonable, but the atmospheric tension changed a deservedly festive evening into something ruinously uncomfortable.

Had this been my first meeting in Freemasonry, I wouldn’t be back for another. It was like Dean Wormer at Delta House cashing in the Double-Secret Probation. Except we knew it was coming.

The grand master has had the goal of reducing the Grand Council from ten subordinate councils to four. I don’t believe he was elected for that purpose. I’m not aware that he made this a campaign promise. I do know this goal has not been revealed to the membership at large, but only to the hundred or so guys who keep everything afloat statewide. Basically, if you didn’t attend Grand Council’s Annual Assembly in March, and if you’re not among the few who heed the Silver Trumpet, as it were, in your local council, then I doubt you’d have firsthand knowledge of the plans to reorganize the Cryptic Rite in New Jersey thusly.

On our end at Scott Council, we were presented a Hobson’s choice: We would merge with a council twenty-two miles away in an arrangement that would rob us of meeting place, meeting schedule, our money (I suspect that was key in all this), and our name.

The upside? I don’t know. Gaining the wisdom that comes from being burned?

The plan was written in ink before we knew what was happening. No negotiation. No common ground. Just a “join or die” sales pitch that would have created a new council to be another division in the Atlas-Pythagoras Corporation. A perfect deal for them, but we weren’t getting anything out of it—and did I mention we never asked for any of this, that eliminating Scott Council would have doomed Scott Chapter, the Royal Arch chapter with whom we’ve been conjoined since 1860?

I could go on and itemize the various nefarious components of that entire process, but I’m determined to remain positive.

In truth, Scott Council did have one option: to vote down the obnoxious merger scheme, and that’s what we did, to persevere into the future, which is what we’re doing.

Congratulations to T.I.M. Frank, for steering us into the safe harbor of the end of the year, and to new T.I.M. Rob for organizing the team that will see us through the ensuing Anno Depositionis. Everyone did a strong enough job with the ritual to stave off the all-but-threatened arrest of our warrant (ergo the uneasiness in the room), and we’ll have to improve on everything moving forward.

I felt much better the next morning, even though I had to trek all the way back to the same place where my council met twelve hours earlier. It was time for the Biannual Meeting of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786! Elections/installation, etc.

Josh Barnett photo

Cheers to Worshipful Master Marty, who led us through a time blemished by the pandemic; to Matt, who served in the South, but now must take leave for personal reasons; and to Mike, who helmed the secretary’s desk. Our new Master is Craig, who was installed by Grand Master David Tucker, himself a Past Master of our research lodge.

Upon receiving the gavel of authority, Craig installed his own officers, something I haven’t seen done since Marco’s day.

Exhibiting the wisdom of Solomon, Craig is letting his veterans do their thing. Matt has planned our visit to Princeton Lodge 38 for January 23, where he and Howard and Scott will show our hosts what a research lodge is all about. I am working on another visit for February, which I’ll tell you all about if it comes together. And I’m arranging an utterly mind-roasting day of Masonic culture for June. Bob is expanding on his John Skene Day for August. Don remains in the West, where he schedules the presenters at our Regular Communications. It’s going to be a great year.

While most present in the room had to race to other installations around the state, about a dozen of us adjourned to the steakhouse around the corner for one hell of a hearty meal.

“May I have a Guinness?” I said at the drinks order. “Small or large?” the young waiter countered. Accustomed to the universal measurement of the pint, I was vexed. “Large, please,” said I, like a confident blackjack player. It took almost thirty minutes, but the kid lurches toward me heaving a glass grail containing what must have been forty or more ounces of the malty medicant. Everyone looked at me like an intervention might be forthcoming.

I was careful to match it with a lot of food, and I downed every drop in an hour. It made no effect on my sobriety; I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. No, it must have been good because we were back in the car and Byron navigated us to Don Francisco Cigars, a smoking oasis apparently very popular with local Masons.

Seated in the back were half a dozen hailing from the several lodges in the area. I enjoyed an El Rey del Mundo (that’s the Honduran El Rey) Robusto Larga—the first time I’ve smoked one of those since I worked for Lew Rothman fifteen years ago. It was great. A little on the dry side, but still a pleasure. They could use ventilation in that place.

After a few hours it was back on the road because my AMD council was holding—that’s right—its installation of officers. I was still stuffed from the steakhouse so I skipped dinner, but Chef Andy served a three-course meal of soup, kielbasa with kraut, and a baked ham the size of a Buick small block. I had fun watching everyone eat while I scrolled through the research lodge installation photos on Facebook.

With both our master and our secretary out sick, Bill saved the night by having printed copies of the ritual in hand. (Come to think of it, he handled our council installation the night before.) There were about twelve of us for the meeting, of whom almost everyone had to exit for the qualification, but it went without a glitch and V. Bro. Nick is the new Master of J. William Gronning Council 83. Huzzah!

I’m done and extremely ready for bed. After driving about 250 miles in the past day, I’m less than three miles from home when I pass some local cop eying the traffic for whoever he can nab. He likes me, naturally. Pulls me over with his George Lucas light show and, with the face of a fifteen-year-old, informs me the light at my rear license plate is out.

I didn’t even know I had a license plate light, so I said to him “I didn’t even know I had a license plate light.”

“Pretty reasonable, if you think about it,” I helpfully added, “because it doesn’t work.” With too much passion in his voice, he also said he thought my car registration had expired. “No sir,” I said, producing the document as a card sharp might flip over the ace of spades to cinch the blackjack hand. He let me go “with a warning.” Twerp.

     

‘Ingathering in NYC’

    

The group portrait at the conclusion of a meeting seems to be a common tradition in Masonic Hall.

Wow! What a day! When I stepped outside this morning to walk to Masonic Hall, I could tell it was going to be a great summer Saturday. Blue skies, sunshine, gentle breeze, seventy degrees, quiet streets & open sidewalks—even the pervasive threat of crazy violence that demoralizes the once irrepressible city seemed to take the day off. You see, today was the Allied Masonic Degrees Downstate New York Ingathering.

Downstate can mean a lot of things. New York is a big state, so referring to downstate can indicate New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. For me personally, everything north of 72nd Street is upstate, so these designations are variable. Anyway, several local councils of Allied Masonic Degrees collaborated on the labor at hand: a daylong extravaganza of conferring degrees and celebrating Masonic philosophy.

Jose Marti 512 charter.

These were Jose Marti 512 (our host), Moses Blatchley 567, and Antares 532. (I may be wrong about Antares. There seemed to be a change of plans regarding the participant councils that I didn’t catch at the time.) In the degree department, the brethren conferred three: Architect, St. Lawrence the Martyr, and the “chair degree” for St. Lawrence: Installed Worthy Master.

I don’t think I’ve received the Architect Degree actively before. We receive the degrees in name upon being inducted into the AMD, but in my twenty-one years in the order, this may have been the first time I’ve had that degree conferred on me. (Speaking of twenty-one years, I suspect there’s a good chance I was the senior-most AMD member in the room. An unsettling notion.) The degree itself is derivative of the Craft degrees in that it concerns Solomon, GMHA, and the Temple. Historians believe this was one in a suite of three degrees, with Grand Architect and Superintendent, comprising a rite that now is lost to time.

I should back up. If you’re not familiar with the AMD, it is an invitational order, open to Royal Arch Masons. It cobbles together about a dozen degrees that once upon a time were side degrees that a Mason might receive in lodge. You pay a fee, you receive a degree. It’s not as crass as that to be fair. The truth is the degrees we receive in tidily organized Royal Arch chapters and other groups had been worked in Craft lodges before the advent of those chapters, commanderies, et al. It’s just that a number of degrees did not make the transition from lodge side degrees to extra curricular “high degrees,” and they were in a kind of limbo as time passed and other degrees became independent sovereign bodies (e.g., Mark, Royal Arch, Templar). So, in the 1890s, English Masons united these orphaned degrees, making them the Allied Masonic Degrees. The myriad details of it all are incomprehensible unless you make a deep study of them, something I haven’t done in many years.

After the Architect Degree, we had lunch; after that, it was time for a panel discussion with Oscar, Praveen, and Matt.

Bro. Mike of Half Moon Council was out of town on Royal Arch Grand Chapter business, but he had suggested “Why AMD?” as a thematic question for the panel. The trio tendered remarks that traced the history of the AMD and its degrees up to the present day; that described Masonic Week (many are unacquainted); and the differences in attitude toward, and the covert nature of, the order. V. Bro. Praveen said AMD maintains a “sub rosa” character in New York—and I hope this edition of The Magpie Mason doesn’t blow its cover! There was much understandable curiosity about the AMD’s origins and development. RV Oscar provided specifics on the evolution of certain rituals to make clear the utter bizarreness of the AMD situation.

We met inside the Doric Room on six.

I think most Freemasons in the United States are unaware of, or haven’t even given a thought to, the history of Masonic rituals. As I explained in this space last month about the 1658 Rhode Island myth, there are Masons who consider themselves researchers but actually believe the three Craft degrees they know today have existed and gone unchanged since time immemorial. There are Masons who have no idea that the rituals of the lodge differ from state to state. What we know in New York varies noticeably from what they do in New Jersey, and the Pennsylvanians work rituals that are significantly different from both, for example. So, to attempt to explain how the rituals inherited by AMD might have come into existence would require a post-graduate level inquiry into both history and anthropology. I don’t think there’s even been a book that satisfactorily tells the story—or if there was, it’s been long out of print.

Our panel speakers: Oscar, Praveen, and Matt.

To illustrate, Oscar explained how the AMD was exported from England to Maine, but that doesn’t mean all the rituals were English in origin. Our Royal Ark Mariner Degree actually is Scottish, he said. When examining English, Scottish, French, Dutch, etc. rituals, one finds “the wild, wild west of Freemasonry,” he added. “People were doing all kinds of things.”

“They’re still finding rituals,” he continued. “If you open every door, you’ll be opening doors for the rest of your life.”

We were getting into the mid afternoon, so the time came to open a lodge of St. Lawrence the Martyr and to confer the degree. For some of the historical or legendary, depending on your point of view, basis of the story, click here. It is the introductory degree in English AMD, but we Americans don’t have such a structure. (We did have three initiates for the day though.) Nevertheless it is an instructive and memorable degree, even if its various signs and gestures slip your mind.

Can it be coincidence that St. Lawrence the Martyr Degree regalia bears the New York City colors of blue, white, and orange? I think not!

After the degree, those who have yet to preside over an AMD council were asked to step outside while the rest of us opened a Board of Installed Masters to confer the Installed Worthy Master of St. Lawrence the Martyr Degree.

The ritualists in all three of the degrees today performed with skill and confidence. A pleasure to watch.

The quitting hour was starting to draw near. This Ingathering featured no research papers or other formal readings, and I’m not accustomed to that, but Bro. Javier capped off the day with his original and heartfelt discursion into the esotericism of space, dimension, shape, direction, and the like. Neither reading from a text nor referring to notes, which I’m also not used to, he weaved personal speculations into, if I understood correctly, an inquiry into the nature of the Masonic physical world. It’s not at all impossible that some of it soared over my head, but it was an apt conclusion to the memorable event. But we weren’t finished yet!

I never know what to do with the parchments, but there’s no denying they convey warm memories of great occasions and terrific people for many years.

There were presentations, including official Grand Council parchments to all of us certifying our advancement in the aforementioned degrees, and also—of course!—lapel pins. I’ve never even seen an Architect Degree pin before. I believe I’ll wear it to lodge to see if it prompts any questions. (So much for sub rosa!)

     

‘AMD Ingathering in NYC’

    

I was trying to limit summertime Masonic activities to just Warren Lodge’s festive board until news of this singular occurrence broke. The brethren of the Allied Masonic Degrees in New York City will host an Ingathering next month! Register here.

     

‘A busy 24 hours!’

    

Bro. Barry Holsten of Flying Fish Brewing.

As you know, the Twenty-Four-Inch Gauge divides a day into equal periods for three essential needs, but did you ever squeeze three Masonic meetings into twenty-four hours?

That was my weekend. (It’s an improvement over how my life looked a couple of decades ago, when, every quarter, I’d have six Masonic functions between Thursday and the following Tuesday nights. No more of that, thank you.) But last Friday, there was an urgent assembly of my Cryptic Rite council, followed by the research lodge the next morning, and my AMD council that evening. Two of the three were satisfying events, so I can’t complain.

The rough spot was the bimonthly meeting of Scott Council 1 of Royal and Select Masters. I probably should have moved my York Rite memberships to New York by now, but I guess I’m sentimental—or some kind of mental. We learned days earlier that our Grand Council expects all ten of the local councils to reorganize and become just four councils. While I don’t doubt some of the Cryptic councils in our jurisdiction are truly dysfunctional and would be wise to amalgamate with a healthier group, I don’t think that’s necessary for Scott—unless, I suppose, we’re considered the stronger party. But what seems to be happening is the Grand Council wants Scott 1, Gebal 3, and Adoniram 9 to form a new Cryptic council, working out the details among ourselves. From what I’m hearing, Gebal wants nothing to do with it, while Adoniram proffered a “draft” of a consolidation plan that in reality looks like a proposal of some permanence.

I hope Scott rejects the idea. I realize not everything is perfect in the Secret Vault, but I’m not sure things at Scott are so dire that a “suggested” consolidation costing us our identity, meeting time/place, etc. is justifiable. We’re only 162 years old!

I also was unhappy to learn how the three-man delegations from each of our councils were most inappropriately staffed with dual members. The teams from both Gebal and Adoniram included members of Scott. I objected, and I think that’s been rectified already, but it makes one skeptical of the process. Also, these delegations are heavy with Grand Council officers, another potential conflict-of-interest red flag. Even worse—to my mind, at least—is the lack of transparency on the part of Grand Council. It disseminates a thirty-page monthly newsletter, but without a heads up about this consolidation plan? Great, thanks.

Bro. Alex Vastola is at labor in Yorktown-Diamond Thistle Lodge 555 in Tarrytown, New York. 

On a far happier note, New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 hosted its quarterly Regular Communication Saturday morning. We welcomed Bro. Alexander Vastola, Director of The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York. He presented a concise description of the institution’s history, goals, resources, and role in Masonic education. The Livingston Library is the envy of most grand lodges in the country, as only a few have exhibited the forethought and commitment to create such a monument to learning. More than 60,000 books and 40,000 artifacts! I’m proud to see The American Lodge of Research, my “other” research lodge, has become a partner with the Library on a few initiatives.

And finally, on Saturday night, it was time for a relaxed summertime (almost) gathering of J. William Gronning Council 83 of the Allied Masonic Degrees. We kept to the dining room and enjoyed an engrossing presentation on the art and science of beer brewing from one of our own: Bro. Barry Holsten, founder and proprietor of craft beer’s Flying Fish Brewing Co. Naturally he augmented his talk with samples of four of his products. Temperance was maintained at all times and a great evening was enjoyed by all.

Now I’m “off” for the next two weeks.

     

‘Masonic Week 2022’

    

I meant to post this a week ago, but it’s been busy and, frankly, social media renders Magpie coverage of Masonic Week redundant. I mean, during last Saturday’s AMD Grand Council Annual Communication, Barry was tweeting and I was Faceypaging progress of the meeting in real time. And then came tons of everyone’s photos. So this edition of The Magpie Mason is brief—I attended only several events anyway—and it is light on photography. There were No Photography signs posted around the meeting room but, unknown to me, they referred to the degree conferrals and not to the business meetings. So I inadvertently denied you my customary lens work, capturing the scenes of the same ten guys appointing each other to the officer lines.

My first Masonic Week (called AMD Weekend back then) was 2002, and this weekend, like that one, was blessed with unseasonably warm weather for the dead of winter. I wistfully recall sitting at the bar in the Hotel Washington’s lobby, enjoying a pint and a cigar, writing postcards to the brethren back at lodge, and noticing the tourists outside were wearing shorts and T-shirts. The temperature reached as high as 61 degrees this time. But no smoking anything anywhere in any hotel these days, just to illustrate how far our society has collapsed in only two decades.

I reminisced with Rashied for a few minutes about those old times and about all the friends who we don’t see anymore. Janet, who organized the annual luncheon at Old Ebbitt Grill; Scott, who played his bagpipes; and so many more Masonic Light members, some who have passed on, or no longer make the trip.

Heather Calloway was there, allegedly. I’m told she was representing Indiana University’s Center for Fraternal Collections and Research, supposedly. I’m doubtful because I staggered around the atrium, where stood everybody’s display tables, repeatedly, but didn’t see her. I probably need some kind of cognitive testing.

I didn’t even get a chance to shake Mark Tabbert’s hand. Just a fast wave. Mark’s book, A Deserving Brother, is due out this month. But I did get to meet Scott Schwartzberg after all these years.

It was a great Masonic Week thanks, in part, to the absence of a few of the usual groups that still were skittish over the pandemic. No offense, but without Athelstan and Knight Templar Priests, there was room on the schedule for degree work open to AMD brethren. What a concept.

The Masonic Society

Attendance this Masonic Week reached an all time high (at least as records and memories go), with about 430 registered. So it was exciting to see a record high 112 signed up for the anchor event of the weekend: the Masonic Society’s annual dinner. Because the pandemic pre-empted last year’s Masonic Week, this was our thirteenth, instead of fourteenth, meeting, and it felt good to be back.

Having been awake for twenty-two hours by the time we entered the banquet room, an endodontic job, sans anesthesia, would have been fine by me, but this was a true pleasure and a high note on which to conclude my term as president.

The new leadership team:

President Oscar Alleyne

First Vice President Greg Knott

Second Vice President Mark Robbins

Our seven-member Board of Directors has been reorganized with Mark joining the officers and John Bizzack retiring (he’s a new VP at Philalethes now). We have added Kevin Wardally of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, and Mason Russell of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Coincidentally, both are grand treasurers of their respective grand lodges.

And I also had the honor of announcing two new Masonic Society Fellows: William Maurer and Michael Moran. Bill has been published in the pages of The Journal of the Masonic Society, is a valued historian of early America, and is a long-serving trustee of the Livingston Library here in New York. Mike is the book reviews editor of The Journal. He also is central to Masonic education at home in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. We’re lucky to have so much talent in the family.

After a savory meal of roast beef and winter vegetables, it was time for our speaker. Chris Ruli was the grand historian and librarian of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia (on sabbatical now to work on another project) who has been studying Freemasonry’s historic activities in the Federal City for many years. He presented us “Masonic Myth of Our Nation’s Capital,” a discussion of some of his research that is intended to dispel the frivolous tales we sometimes hear about the Craft’s role in building Washington, D.C.

Chris told us of the persons, places, and things involved in how the District took shape with Masons participating, from the placement of the Boundary Stones that marked the city’s borders in 1791, to the construction of the Executive Mansion in 1792, to the cornerstone ceremony at the Capitol in 1793, with a lot more around town and into the next century too, including recovery from the arson of the War of 1812, and up to the Lincoln years. (I resisted the temptation to say that very day, February 11, was the anniversary of the start of the surveying process in 1791 that established the District’s boundaries.)

He exhibited not only command of his subject, but also command of his audience. You had to see it! I’m not enthusiastic about video recording our doings, but I’m sorry we didn’t preserve this lecture. It was a performance, and it was praised throughout the weekend at the hotel and for days after on social media. Chris has an uncommon gift for oratory, engaging listeners with humor to make a fascinating story doubly memorable. Not having the speaking skill or that confidence myself, I am really impressed and am in agreement with all who said this was one of the top Masonic talks I’ve seen.

The Q&A took us beyond the hour we were entitled to have the room, so we broke it up reluctantly. I really had to get some sleep anyway. But before our Friday night dinner, I attended the Blue Friars and the Nine Muses.

The Society

of Blue Friars

The Society of Blue Friars is a small Masonic institution that honors authors with membership in its select ranks. This year Adam Kendall of California became Blue Friar 111. He is a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 and is editor of The Plumbline. Adam presented his “The Scandals and Secret Rites of Benjamin Hyam,” found in QC2076’s Freemasonry on the Frontier anthology. It’s a story as wild as the Wild West and as confounding as any you’ll find in Masonic history.

Adam, Balvin, and David.

I encourage you to seek the several videos on YouTube of Adam’s previous tellings of the tale.

Council of Nine Muses 13

Then, at the meeting of the Allied Masonic Degrees’ Council of Nine Muses 13, James Winzenreid of West Virginia was seated, becoming both the fiftieth member in the elite council’s history and the warm body needed that afternoon to achieve a quorum. He succeeds Tom Jackson of Pennsylvania who died last year.

Tom’s death added another dimension to Masonic Week; he was eulogized repeatedly and extensively in multiple meetings. To hear different summations of his eighty-seven years is to wonder where one’s own life is going. His too numerous feats in Freemasonry comprise only a subplot in a life that couldn’t have been more productive without elongating the weeks and adding more months. Successes followed successes in his personal, professional, academic, and civic lives. Did you know he was a weightlifting champion as a young man in his early twenties?

Grand College of Rites

After about ten hours of deep sleep, it was time for the Grand College of Rites. I haven’t attended one of our meetings in several years, mostly because of repeated schedule changes. I think Saturday morning is a good time for it.

A lot of news from this meeting. Our new Grand Chancellor is David Kussman of California. If the name rings a bell, he is the Knight Templar who was illegally removed from his elected office as deputy grand master of the KT Grand Encampment by the grand master of the Grand Encampment—and is that guy gonna get his comeuppance next month! Read the Dummies blog for that story.

Joining the officer line as the grand seneschal is Clyde Schoolfield of Oklahoma. Clyde is grand secretary of the AMD. Jerry Klein retired as our grand registrar, and has been succeeded by Christopher Gamblin of Indiana. Duane Vaught exited the grand chancellor’s chair and took over as grand treasurer.

Arturo de Hoyos, grand archivist, was absent, tending to family needs, so there was no report on the upcoming edition of Collectanea, but we know it will be a continuation of the 1807 Cerneau Scottish Rite rituals. In the meantime, however, a bonus Collectanea has been mailed to the membership. Forget what I said about the Masonic Book Club possibly publishing Burlesque Degrees. The text of humorous, if hokey, rituals from the Golden Age of Fraternalism now is among the GCR bibliography.

Ark and Dove Degree

Somewhere in the weekend I, and maybe about a hundred others, received the Ark and Dove Degree. I have to hit the books and learn about this one; I’m not sure I’ve even heard of it before. From its name you’d connect it with Royal Ark Mariner, but it is different. Whether it’s derivative of, or adjunct to, R.A.M. I don’t know. It imparts a lesson in temperance, particularly with food and drink. I can’t decide if that message is ironic for Masonic Week, or if it is especially needed there, but it is a thoughtful brief degree. The ritualists performed well, and it was appreciatively received.

(You ever notice the word “peradventure” is used in a couple of our degrees?)

Grand Council

of Allied Masonic Degrees

And speaking of the AMD, Grand Master Mohamad Yatim enjoyed a dynamic year in office. The poor man was installed in quarantine conditions and via Zoom last February, but that humble start sparked a ceaseless tornado of activity that improved AMD at home and was felt abroad from the Philippines to the Congo. The accomplishments literally are too numerous to list here, so I’ll have to refer AMD members to the first four issues of the Allied Times newsletter. I will point out though how Prince Hall brethren now are able to be invited into AMD councils.

The Marvin E. Fowler Award was presented to Moises Gomez in thanks for his expert stewardship of the planning and execution of Masonic Week each year. To be clear, there is a committee. Its members get us attendees signed in, paid up, credentialed, inspected, injected, detected, and rejected—but it is Moises who is the omnipresent force in the hotel before we arrive, while we run amok, and after we’re gone. He checks the meetings to ensure the hotel is performing correctly. He provides his personal equipment so Chris Ruli can screen his slides during his presentation. He visits the brother who became ill and needed to be hospitalized. Moises is the Indispensable Man.

Aaron Shoemaker of Missouri is our new grand master. I think it’s reasonable to expect a similarly productive year for him. One of his first acts was to make Moises the grand superintendent for New Jersey.

So this, the 130th Annual Communication of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees, was the final meeting of the last Masonic Week I plan to attend, and even I was part of the ceremonies. My thanks to Mohamad for recognizing my work on the newsletter with a handsome plaque. Editing Allied Times last year was the least I could do—and let it never be said I don’t do the least I can do!

     

‘At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’

    

Moises Gomez photo

Without yet being present, I’ll begin coverage of Masonic Week 2022 with word from the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees. Yesterday, MVS Grand Master Mohamad Yatim, accompanied by Grand Council officers, visited Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

While this solemn activity has become especially important in Masonic circles in recent years, the fraternity paying respect at the Tomb is a tradition. For instance, on October 19, 1925, the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction) visited the Tomb, taking a break from its deliberations at the House of the Temple.

In 1922, just several months after the Tomb’s installation, New York’s RW Bro. Solomon Holzer, Past Master of Daniel Carpenter Lodge 643, wrote to Grand Secretary Robert Kenworthy, saying he thought our Grand Lodge ought to encourage the Masonic Service Association to “place a suitably inscribed bronze tablet” on the Tomb, and should the MSA not succeed, the Grand Lodge itself ought to do it with the goal of holding a ceremony on November 4, the Masonic birthday of George Washington. I don’t think the idea went anywhere.

I expect to arrive at our hotel this afternoon, just in time to witness Adam Kendall take his place among the Society of Blue Friars. See you there.

     

‘My Masonic research speech’

     

I had a great day last Saturday: attended the research lodge in the morning and AMD at night, with an intermission at a cigar store that happens to be popular with the brethren. At both Masonic meetings, which fortunately took place in the same room, I dusted off my stock speech on the direction Masonic research lodges should take, with an emphasis on places to find information, whether online or in a building somewhere.

I’ve written and talked about it here and there for many years. Thanks to Mark Tabbert, I gave it more focus at some point. He and I were in a hospitality suite at a Masonic Week long ago chatting about the plight of research lodges when he pointed out how their labors could be simplified by zeroing in on local subject matter. For example, New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 would explore history and biography of the fraternity in that state. It sounds simple and obvious, but somehow that’s not what typically happens in research lodges. Too often, the few who endeavor to write papers are drawn to subjects that either are too broad (e.g., the medieval Knights Templar), are irrelevant (Templars again), or otherwise are beyond the writers’ abilities.

So write about local Masonic history. It’s in your backyard. Grand lodge archives, lodge records, historical societies, libraries, church records, the occasional graveyard, museums, and other local resources exist for you.

To illustrate the point, I pitched numerous names of lodges and Masons from the embryonic period of New Jersey Freemasonry of the last four decades of the eighteenth century that would be ideal for storytelling. I figure a man who was a Freemason during this period most likely had to be “a somebody” in society—a real pezzonovante in government or commerce or religion, etc.

Take the Ogden family. The secretary of St. John’s Lodge in Newark during the 1760s was Lewis Ogden. The brother who made possible George Washington’s St. John’s Day festivities at Morristown in 1779 by getting the lodge’s paraphernalia from Newark to the military lodge there was Moses Ogden.

Ogden is a very prominent name in the state’s history, practically right up to the present day. The first New Jersey Ogdens, the Puritans who settled there in the 1600s, were stone masons. There’s a great story there!

The other speaker at the research lodge that morning was Bro. Erich, a candidate for a doctorate in history who also is our QCCC local secretary. He discussed similar aspects of Masonic learning; because he went first, I had to trim a lot of what I usually would have said.

Between the two meetings, Bro. Byron brought me to a favorite smoke shop. Mane Street Cigars in Woodbridge is a great place to socialize and smoke, and apparently it’s very popular with Masons. We could have opened a lodge! Even without so many of us being on the Square, it is an extremely friendly place. Everyone who enters receives greetings from all, and they themselves make a point of saying hello to everyone. Very cool.

Because man cannot live by pipes alone, I chose a La Gloria Serie R Maduro—my first cigar in a really long time—and it was heavenly. One of those smokes you savor all the way up to the head. This was a No. 5, about a Toro shape.

I’ll wrap up this unusually long edition of The Magpie Mason with a reminder that I will present this Masonic research talk again on October 28 at The American Lodge of Research in Manhattan. This time, I’ll have a list of suitable New York Masonic topics to suggest for research. Seven o’clock in the French Doric Room.

     

‘A feast day for the AMD’

    

The Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees in the United States launched an online newsletter for its brethren earlier this year, and its most recent issue contains a very short article that is worth repeating now.

Outside the United States, the Saint Lawrence the Martyr Degree is the AMD’s initiation ceremony, and it is the degree on which councils transact their business. It is an important and well known degree.

Anyway, that newsletter article says:

We could use a few more feast days for celebration in Freemasonry. Generally speaking, Freemasonry derived from England has both Saint John the Baptist Day (June 24) and Saint John the Evangelist Day (December 27). And Masonry of Scottish heritage has the Feast Day of Saint Andrew (November 30). I always wondered about the Irish, but that’s another story.

I propose we brethren of the Allied Masonic Degrees make August 10 a cause for festive commemoration. That midsummer day is the Feast Day of Saint Lawrence, who was martyred on that date in 258 at Rome. His death is just as it is described in our Saint Lawrence the Martyr Degree, so there’s no need to render the story here. Even the grim humor about turning over his half-cooked body is according to tradition. He is the patron saint of both poor people and of cooks, appropriately.

Brethren, call for informal gatherings of your councils the world over for Tuesday, August 10 to honor heroic Saint Lawrence, whose principled bravery, even unto death, is no less admirable than even that of our Operative Grand Master Hiram!

I suppose a menu of grilled meats would be most fitting.

With the big day upon us already, maybe it’s too late for this edition of The Magpie Mason to spur your council to action, but who knows? I believe in you.

     

‘Gronning’s golden anniversary’

     

A happy fiftieth anniversary to my AMD council! On this date in 1971, J. William Gronning 83 was duly constituted under the auspices of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America.

This was before my time, y’understand, so I can’t speak to what happened or even who was there (although I would guess Thurman was present), but I surmise some of the brethren had returned home from AMD Weekend at the Hotel Washington in D.C. the previous week, where Grand Council hosted its annual meeting and issued our charter.

J. William Gronning

J. William Gronning was a prominent York Rite Mason from the area who served as MEGHP of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in 1962. Remind me to tell you more about him some time.

I was tapped for membership in the invitational group in 2001; served in the East in 2003 (two years before I became Master of my Craft lodge); and even manned the Secretary’s desk for a stretch during the first decade of this century.

It’s hard to think of myself as one of the old timers, but the math supports the allegation. I’m still active, attending two of our quarterly meetings each year. Now I’m newly active with the Grand Council, having been asked to work as editor in chief of Allied Times, a long overdue national newsletter, initiated by MV Mohamad Yatim, to keep the brethren apprised of what’s going on. The first issue is in the works.

AMD membership had been a highly exclusive prize for many years. It took Grand Council nearly forty years to issue its 83rd charter—ours—in 1971. Today, fifty years since then, the number of charters issued in total is nearing 600. As the Masonic Order in America has been contracting precipitously in these recent decades, the number of these councils has proliferated unpredictably. The essential purpose of AMD is two-fold, one of those tasks is to present academic-like research, and I don’t have to tell you there are very few Masons doing that work these days. The growth makes no sense, but here we are.

I strongly doubt there will be a hundredth anniversary for Gronning Council, so I raise a glass to our fiftieth today. Cheers!

      

‘AMD Gathering next month’

     
The brethren of the Allied Masonic Degrees in New York have announced their state gathering. From the publicity:

New York AMD Gathering

Saturday, October 1 at 10 a.m.

Schenectday Lodge 1174

394 Princetown Road, Schenectady

Most Venerable Gary B. Hinson, KGC, Sovereign Grand Master of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America will be attending.

The Council will open at 10:30 with a brief paper by RV Oscar Alleyne. Other papers may be presented. Lunch will be served, followed by the First Grade of the Scarlet Cord Degree. Presentations will be made after the degree.

Please inform the brethren of your AMD Council of this important and memorable event.

Additional details to follow as we approach the Most Venerable Sovereign Grand Master’s visit.

Contact Frank Karwowski here if you plan to attend, as well as how many will be making a reservation for lunch. MOL reservations accepted by those who have access to it.
     

‘A singular surprise at Masonic Week’

     
I better get to the Masonic Week coverage, although there won’t be much this time because I attended only three functions before heading home too early on account of a medical concern. So, I attended The Masonic Society’s ninth annual banquet, the Society of Blue Friars 73rd annual Consistory, and the Grand College of Rites’ annual meeting. But this edition of The Magpie Mason concerns the Allied Masonic Degrees meeting on Saturday, by which time I was well on my way home, where Bro. Mohamad was honored with a singular surprise.

I was there in 2002 at the former Hotel Washington when Grand Master James Olmstead inaugurated the Marvin Edward Fowler Award as his final action in office, presenting it to Herb Fisher (MVGM of AMD in 1981). Olmstead designed the glass piece, having a gentle green hue added to symbolize AMD beyond the fraternity’s emblem and wording on the surface of the beveled glass. It is awarded, and not necessarily meant to be given every year, to those designated by the grand master in thanks for outstanding service to the fraternity. Its namesake had died just two months before our meeting in Washington, DC. Marvin Fowler was one of those Masons who provided backbone to American Freemasonry, having served as grand master of AMD and grand master of the Grand Lodge of Washington, DC, and was a VIP in many other apartments of the Temple. He is remembered as one of the Masons who ensured the Masonic Week (then known as AMD Weekend) tradition continued through the years as chairman of the planning committee. He had been around for some time, having been coroneted at 33° Scottish Rite Mason back in 1943! (He was made a Mason at age 22.) I did not know him; in addition to the age difference, I was still somewhat new to AMD in 2002. Nevertheless, I felt it was a pretty emotional moment when the award was revealed to the brethren present, and its first recipient was asked to approach the East to accept it. Fowler’s son Ed was junior grand warden of the Grand Council of AMD at the time too, adding more fraternal warmth to the occasion.

Courtesy Moises Gomez

Fast forward 15 years, and it is Bro. Mohamad’s turn. Here he is, at left, receiving the award from outgoing Grand Master Lawrence Tucker.

One unusual detail: Mohamad is a past master of Atlas-Pythagoras Masonic Lodge 10 in New Jersey. There are three other Fowler Award honorees who have links to the lodge. First, of course, is Thurman Pace, who served as grand master of AMD in 1994. In addition—and I had no idea of this until Bro. Moises Gomez pointed it out in the lodge’s March trestleboard—two honorary members of A-P 10 have received it: James M. Ward, past grand master of Mississippi (2004), and William R. Logan, past grand master of South Carolina (2016).

Congratulations, Mohamad! In addition to being proud to be your friend, I am in awe of your commitment to Freemasonry, and enjoy watching the tokens of esteem come to you.
     

‘Masonic Week in review’

     
Since Masonic Week was only two weeks ago, I don’t feel overly remiss in now getting to sharing some news and photos from the event. We gathered at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City in Virginia for the annual meetings and other happenings we enjoy.

What follows is by no means a comprehensive report of the activities, but is more like a “names in the news” summary. I do the best I can. I do not and cannot attend every meeting, so if I have omitted anyone, it’s nothing personal or intentional. It’s just difficult to keep track of all the elections and appointments. As so many brethren of The Masonic Society are ascending to the top echelons of the national governing bodies of the Masonic Week constituent fraternities, I use various “TMS” designations to identify Fellows and Members of The Masonic Society.

So, at The Masonic Society’s February 13 dinner, results of the elections of new officers and board members, and the elevations of new Fellows were announced to the more than fifty brethren and guests in attendance.

Ken Davis, The Masonic Society’s new president, displays the ceremonial gavel he is about to present to his predecessor, Jim Dillman of Indiana. Jim has guided the Society through a period of creative growth that is about to blossom in ways that will compel the Masonic world to take serious notice of our various doings. Sorry for being vague, but the announcements of the new initiatives are coming soon.

New Officers: Ken Davis of New Mexico is The Masonic Society’s new president. Patrick Craddock of Tennessee is the First Vice President, and I am the Second Vice President. Three new members have been added to the Board of Directors: Oscar Alleyne of New York, John Bizzack of Kentucky, and Mark Robbins of Minnesota.

Two TMS brethren were elected to become Fellows: again, John Bizzack, a frequent contributor to the pages of The Journal of the Masonic Society, and Michael A. Halleran, The Journal’s Executive Editor, and Past Grand Master of Kansas, and author, etc., etc.

Oscar Alleyne

In addition, Alleyne was the keynote speaker at the Society’s banquet. In remarks titled “The Masonic Scholar,” he employed humor and personal experience to illustrate the need for sober-minded responsibility in conducting Masonic research, especially in this age of frivolous internet sources offering misleading content. “I watched a young brother declare ‘Eureka!’ last week,” Alleyne said. “He visited a lodge in Montreal that had a set of aprons on display. One had these symbols: a set of blood drops, and a severed head. Well, this young brother said he stumbled upon an important find. He scoured the internet and found several references to John the Baptist—this apron, therefore was proof that John the Baptist was central in the Masonic world, and he was going to write a paper on it. This was exciting stuff.”

Courtesy A&ASR Jacksonville

“I politely informed him that the apron was for the Ninth Degree of the Scottish Rite, and that the jurisdiction he hails from no longer uses this apron, and it wasn’t anything significantly special. His response, deflated at best, was a resounding ‘Crap!’”

S. Brent Morris, Grand Abbott of the Society of Blue Friars, welcomes
BF No. 105, Michael Halleran of Kansas, to the Consistory.

The Society of Blue Friars is a small group of a highly select membership: published authors in service to the Craft. One new Friar, having been nominated by a current Friar, is named each year by the Grand Abbott—TMS Founding Fellow S. Brent Morris of Maryland—and the 2016 inductee is none other than new TMS Fellow Michael A. Halleran, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War. In addition, he is the creator of Hiram A. Brother, a Freemason of legend who is the diarist known through the pages of Bro. Brother’s Journal. Each new Blue Friar speaks on matters of Masonic significance at the annual meeting, and Halleran regaled his audience with a Brother biography steeped in the colorful humor for which the illustrated history is known.

Jeffrey Nelson tries on the Grand Chancellor’s collar and jewel at the Grand College of Rites’ meeting of February 13. It looks good! That’s retiring Grand Chancellor Lawrence Tucker at right.

TMS Founding Member Jeffrey N. Nelson of North Dakota was installed Most Illustrious Grand Chancellor of the Grand College of Rites of the United States of America. At the meeting of the Holy Royal Arch Knight Templar Priests, he also was appointed Grand Outer Guard. The GCR’s new Right Illustrious Senior Vice Chancellor is TMS Founding Fellow and Board member Aaron M. Shoemaker of Missouri. He unveiled the College’s new website that week.

On the GCR agenda are a few very important items:

• Those of us who love Collectanea can look forward to the reprinting and availability of previous editions.
• Some procedure must be devised for the issuance of regalia, and the return of the regalia. Sometimes there is a problem retrieving a jewel or something else important. It’s a vexing worry in the event of an officer’s death, so I’m curious to see how this develops.
• A tax-exempt foundation will be incorporated so that the GCR may receive artifacts, intellectual property, and other gifts in a manner that permits the donor to benefit from an income tax deduction. This has been in the concept stage for a few years, and I hope it is brought to fruition.
• In other news, some more practical goals are coming into view. Fellows of the GCR can look forward to membership jewels (die-struck pieces with cloisonné decoration) and certificates. No date announced on this, but it’s in the works.
• Mitchell-Fleming Printing, Inc., a vendor familiar to several Masonic fraternities, is the new printer of Collectanea, the new edition of which should be reaching our mailboxes in the coming weeks.

TMS Member Lawrence E. Tucker of Texas, having just completed his year in the Grand East of the GCR, was installed Most Venerable Sovereign Grand Master of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America. Upon taking office, the Most Venerable has the privilege of appointing the new Grand Tyler, and Tucker named TMS Founding Member John C. Elkinton of Texas to the position.

The 2016 Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees
of the United States of America.

MV Douglas Moore was the retiring Grand Master. He is very soft-spoken, so it was a little difficult to discern everything he said in his allocution, but he made some excellent points, including a call on all AMD councils to get organized within their respective states and to organize annual meetings. I doubt he meant business meetings, but rather what we in New Jersey have, for a number of decades, called Ingatherings. AMD brethren come together for a day of presenting papers and conferring a degree and whatever else. Always a great time.

I was there in 2002 when the Marvin E. Fowler Award was first presented, so I always take an interest in the new honoree. This year it is William R. Logan, Past Sovereign Grand Master.

The AMD Grand Council meeting has gotten shorter in recent years (thank you Moises?), but it’s still a full afternoon. Thankfully there usually are emotional highs, like the Fowler Award presentation, and other revelations:

MV Prince Selvaraj of Ontario and MV Doug Moore.

MV Prince Selvaraj, a very familiar face at Masonic Week for a number of years, is the Immediate Past Sovereign Grand Master of AMD in Canada, and now he also is Honorary PSGM of AMD for the United States.

Bro. James, secretary of the unfortunately named Illuminati Council in Illinois, presents outgoing Grand Master Doug Moore with honorary membership in that AMD council.

Illuminati Council (God, I wish for a name change there) No. 495 in Illinois sent its secretary, Bro. James, to the meeting to bestow honorary membership on Doug Moore. It obviously was a touching gesture that surely has an interesting backstory.

In other news, International Relations Committee Chairman Allen Surratt reported there is interest in both Italy and Brazil to see the Allied Masonic Degrees expand. The feasibility of this is being investigated.

RV Mohamad and MV Doug.

And finally, for this meeting, among the advancement of the line officers, my friend Bro. Mohamad (TMS Member) is the new Junior Grand Deacon!

The irrepressible Reese Harrison of Texas.

Also in the AMD, Founding Fellow Reese L. Harrison, Jr. of Texas exited the East of the Council of Nine Muses. Unique in the AMD fraternity, Nine Muses consists of only nine members—well, nine muses—appointed for life, who rotate through the officer stations.

As is custom, the outgoing Sovereign Master presents a lecture of Masonic interest (not necessarily a research paper), and Reese spoke of metrics. Not as in sterile calculations of dimensions, but speaking movingly of a Mason’s need to lead a balanced life. Without invoking either the traditional 32° or Kabbalah, he spoke plainly of the perils of losing sight of the important aspects of life—family, community, business, et al.—while spending too much time pursuing the ultimately frivolous honors the Masonic fraternities confer. There is a practical problem for Masonic bodies, he explained, where someone accepts appointment to a board of trustees as just another honor, but is incapable of executing the fiduciary responsibilities. (I’ve seen that a number of times in my years in Freemasonry.) He spoke at length, I think without notes, recounting anecdotes and imparting wisdom drawn from a long (no offense, Reese) life. Perhaps an unexpected subject, especially from one who has been a Masonic Week regular for four decades, but a fitting and always timely one.

Former TMS Board Member Fred Kleyn is the new Master of Nine Muses.

In the Operatives, known formally as the Worshipful Society of Free Masons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviors, Plaisterers and Bricklayers, the new Deputy Grand Master Mason for the Region of the United States of America is TMS Fellow George R. Haynes of Pennsylvania.

In the Order of Knight Masons, congratulations to you all.

Masonic Week 2017 will take place at the same hotel February 8 through 12. See you there.

I check into my room, go to the window to see what view there might be, and am confronted with multiple Templar crosses etched into the glass! Coincidence or Masonic conspiracy?!

 TMS Founding Members بافين دن. and Reed Fanning.

Reed and Prince Selvaraj of Ontario.

Michael, and TMS Members Ted and Ray.

TMS Founding Member Roberto and TMS Fellow Paul.

Although Stephen Dafoe quit the Masonic fraternity some years ago,
he is missed, and his presence is felt still.

Ted is the unofficial Masonic Week photographer.

Mohamad and Aaron in AMD regalia.