‘The Masonic Con with a mission’

    

The Grand Lodge of New York’s first Masonic Con is about four weeks away, so buy your tickets now. Masonic Con New York will examine Freemasonry in the 21st Century: Self and Society—a look at where our fraternity should go as modern America suffers from an epidemic of male loneliness, as documented in the recent study from the U.S. Surgeon General.

Click here.

Freemasonry, as a path of self-development, as a social network, and as an influential and history-making institution, bears the potential to remedy the crisis facing so many American men. Come here our speakers discuss the ideas behind this Masonic Con with a mission:

Keynote Speaker

Maj. Gen. William Green, Jr.

Chief of Chaplains

U.S. Army

—with—

 

Dr. Heather K. Calloway

Executive Director

Center for Fraternal Collections

and Research, Indiana University

Bro. Chuck Dunning

Educator and Author

Bro. Bull Garlington

Author and Attorney

Bro. Michael LaRocco

Executive Director

Chancellor Robert R. Livingston

Masonic Library

Bro. Jim Loporto

On “The Elephant in the Room”

This day of Masonic and social studies is open to the public, except for Bro. Loporto’s presentation at day’s end, which will be restricted to regular Freemasons, with an emphasis on seating Apprentices, Fellows, and new Master Masons.

Mariners 67

The weekend will begin Friday, January 17 with the famous Mariners Lodge 67’s Maritime Festive Board and Beefsteak Banquet. That’s a separate ticket for a magnificent meal in an unforgettable ambiance of feast and song. This is the kick-off of the lodge’s bicentennial celebration.

The speakers program awaits you on Saturday the 18th, also featuring tours of Masonic Hall, plenty of vendors, and other attractions.

Click here.

Afterward, the 1781 Society welcomes you for cocktails and socializing with our speakers and with Grand Master Steven A. Rubin and our Grand Lodge leadership. (This too requires a separate ticket.)

There are group rate hotel accommodations and special rate parking as well.

Questions? Contact me here.

     

‘Do you know about the 1781 Society?’

    

New York Freemasonry has a corps of philanthropists who commit to support our Brotherhood Fund which aids distressed brethren and their families in times of need. I was late in learning about this, but it has appeared on my radar because a 1781 Society cocktail hour will cap our Masonic Con weekend in January.

(Tickets to Masonic Con New York can be had here, and there is an option to also buy tickets to the after-Con cocktail party. I’ll have much more on Masonic Con very shortly, but we have six amazing speakers booked, plus other major attractions.)

Anyway, the 1781 Society welcomes contributions of many denominations but, as the Society says: “This isn’t just a donation—it’s an invitation to become part of something truly special. Join the 1781 Society and add your name to this list of those preserving the legacy of Freemasonry in New York!”

Read all about it here.

     

‘Lafayette hath come to us now in his fulness of fame’

    

Réunion des musées nationaux

Two hundred years ago today—and at this very minute—New York’s Freemasons were hosting and toasting their historic Brother, the Marquis de Lafayette. The last surviving general of the American Revolution was invited to the United States by the Masonic Order to be a “Guest of the Nation” for a valedictory tour in the autumn of his life.

He had landed at New York the previous month and traveled New York and New England, enthralling cheering crowds all throughout. He returned to Manhattan before continuing travels that would extend well into 1825 and would encompass all twenty-four states.

Bro. Chris Ruli released his second book last month; Brother Lafayette recounts the Masonic details of the historic tour. I haven’t seen it yet, but I aim to buy a copy next Thursday when Chris comes to the Livingston Library for a talk. But, on Monday, September 20, 1824, a grand banquet of more than 500 Freemasons was hosted at a place named Washington Hall, located on Broadway at Reade Street. In lieu of Chris’ book, I turn to Lafayette: Guest of the Nation, which consists of contemporaneous local newspaper reportage, and was compiled and edited by Edgar Ewing Brandon and published in 1957. Quoting the September 21, 1824 edition of The Evening Post, the book says:

Masonic Dinner to La Fayette

Yesterday afternoon in consequence of previous arrangements, General La Fayette partook of a dinner at Washington Hall, to which he had been invited by the Grand Lodge of this State. From 5 to 600 of the Craft, decorated with their sacred symbols, were present.

Language is inadequate to give a correct description of the scene. On entering the room, we found ourselves in the midst of a magnificent temple, at the upper end of which was raised a vaulted pavilion, the canopy supported by marble columns, the front arch decorated with laurel and flowers; at the center of which was a brilliant illuminated star.

In the rear of the pavilion, and immediately behind the General, was a beautiful transparency, emblematic of Masonry. The floor was here raised about two feet from the level of the room, on which was placed a circular table, extending from column to column, and garnished in the most splendid style with temples and candle branches of great magnitude and exquisite beauty. At this table was seated the General, and the Right Worshipful Grand Masters and Wardens.

Immediately opposite, and at the other end of the room, was a splendid alcove, having in the center a fine transparent painting, representing the Genius of America, elevated on a pedestal, and holding in each hand a wreath. On one side of the pedestal was a fine and well executed full length likeness of WASHINGTON, and on the other a similar likeness of LA FAYETTE, both in Masonic costume, and joining their hands in brotherly friendship. On the front was inscribed “Veritas et Lux”—Truth and Light. At the bottom was a plow, sheaf of wheat, &c.

The whole of this group was placed within a circular colonnade of thirteen columns, and around the columns were entwined the names of 76 distinguished patriots of the Revolution. On the top of each column was a letter, the combination of which formed the motto “E Pluribus Unum.”

The front of the alcove presented two columns supporting an arch, at the center of which was a star of variegated lamps. At the piers opposite the door of entrance, was hung full length likenesses of Washington and Hamilton, both looking towards the pavilion, painted in oil, and in elegant carved and gilt frames, ornamented by appropriate trophies. Over these two pictures was a transparent rainbow.

Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, GLNY

Between the columns of the pavilion and the alcove were four other columns, supporting hemispheres, and uniting at the head of the room, where was fixed a large resplendent sun, its center formed of convex looking-glass, which reflected the different objects below in all directions, and produced a very sublime effect. Eight immense chandeliers of cut glass were suspended from the ceiling, and a vast number of lamps and candles were distributed throughout the temple, which sent forth an inconceivable blaze of light.

Over the door of the entrance was an extensive bower of evergreens, suspended to the branches of which was a transparent atmosphere with the words “Lafayette, the Friend of Freedom, and Benefactor of Mankind.” Within this bower were seated the musicians, entirely hid from the view of the company.

Down the interior of this immense temple, a space of about 80 feet in length, were placed six tables, besides the two at the top and bottom, which were laid out in the most splendid style and loaded with all the delicacies and elegancies that could be procured, and arranged in a manner which reflects great credit on Mr. McIntyre, the keeper of the House, who appears to have exerted himself, particularly on this interesting occasion, to give entire satisfaction to the brotherhood.

The decorations under the general superintendence of the Committee were got up by Mr. Andrews; the transparencies, by Mr. Reinagale and Mr. Herring; the oil paintings by Stewart and Trumbull; and the joiner work by Mr. Newcomb.

During the dinner, several appropriate toasts were given, a list of which we have not yet received. The following song, written for the occasion by a well known native bard at the special request of the Committee of Arrangements, was sung by Mr. Keene, and received with great applause.

FAYETTE’S RETURN

TUNE: “Anacreon in Heaven”

The hero hath come in the eve of his day,

To the land where he planted the tree of his glory,

And warmly that land doth her gratitude pay,

And long shall she cherish his name in her story;

Each heart springs to meet him In triumph he moves Midst the men who adore him,

The men whom he loves

And the stars of our banner in darkness shall set,

Ere oblivion gather the wreath of FAYETTE.

He hath come to us now in his fulness of fame,

And proudly we claim him our friend and our brother,

For he guarded the altar of freedom whose flame

Oppressions fierce minions all vainly would smother;

He bled in our cause

With our fathers of old,

When their flag of defiance

They sternly unrolled—

And ne’er shall the sons of such heroes forget

The friend of their fathers, the gallant FAYETTE.

Following the reprint of this description of the Masonic banquet, the Commercial Advertiser in the issue of September 23, printed also the address of the Worshipful Master of the Grand Lodge. No newspaper consulted published a list of the toasts. The following is the address of the M.W. Grand Master, Martin Hoffman, to Gen. La Fayette, on his entering the Grand Lodge:

This book’s title page.

BROTHER LA FAYETTE—Your return to the United States has rekindled the recollections of the surviving warriors and patriots of our revolution, and the joy which pervades every heart evinces the deep gratitude of all our citizens. Permit us, your Masonic Brethren, to join the general voice of gladness, to offer you the hand of friendship, to welcome you among us, and to express the warmest sentiments of brotherly love. We receive you with pride and exultation; we hail you as a BROTHER and PHILANTHROPIST; we cherish you in our hearts as a patron of our order.

To the names of WASHINGTON, LIVINGSTON, CLINTON, and other distinguished Masons of our country who have shed a luster on our institution, who have presided over our labors, who have patronized our assemblies, we now, with heartfelt gratification, record in our annals, the presence and name of LA FAYETTE.

To which the General made the following reply:

Most Worshipful Grand Master, and beloved Brethren—I am happy in your affectionate welcome; I am proud of the high confidential honors you have conferred, and purpose farther to confer upon me. Our Masonic institution owes a double luster to those who have cherished, and to those who have persecuted it. Let both glories, equal in my opinion, be the pride of every member of our fraternity, until universal freedom insures to us universal justice.

As already noted, Lafayette was eager to reach the Federal Capital—“the seat of government.” He had been apprized that extensive preparations were making in Philadelphia and Baltimore for his reception in those cities which would consume many days. He had been detained in New York by the repeated postponements of the Castle Garden Fête, and this, in turn, necessitated a delay in the trip up the Hudson and undue haste in the receptions in the several towns along the river that had invited him to make them a visit. Even this excursion was so hurried that his short stay in various towns was a disappointment to the inhabitants and an embarrassment to himself.

Visit the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York here to see all thirty toasts.

I assume this banquet took place at this very hour two centuries ago because they would want to make greatest use of the daylight, and because the night did not end when the feast concluded. After the festivities, Lafayette and entourage took in a show.

Royal Shakespeare Company

From this summer’s production
of The School for Scandal.

They adjourned to the Park Theatre to see The School for Scandal, starring a Mr. Barnes as Sir Peter Teazel. This theater was a major venue in its day. Built in 1798, it stood for fifty years at 23 Park Row, right outside City Hall Park, with its 2,000 seats. It burned down December 16, 1848, by which time the theater district had migrated uptown to the Washington Square area.

Amazingly, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged The School for Scandal at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon this summer! It closed two weeks ago. The RSC says:

RSC

After Shakespeare but long before Bridgerton, there was The School for Scandal, Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s brilliantly biting comedy of manners in five acts. This new production—styled to the nines with period flair—promises an exuberant feast of big wigs and even bigger laughs. 1770s London, where the aristocracy’s morals have plunged lower than the necklines on the women’s gowns. The vicious Lady Sneerwell enjoys ruining reputations for pleasure, and her latest target is the young bachelor Charles Surface—why should this pretentious little rake inherit his uncle’s fortune? Together with Charles’ conniving brother Joseph, Sneerwell orchestrates an elaborate scheme of intrigue and infidelity that’s sure to ruffle all the right feathers—hopefully.

My original plan for tonight was to bring The American Lodge of Research to host an anniversary dinner either in that neighborhood or maybe half a mile north at Le Coucou on Lafayette Street. It was too difficult to plan, frankly. It’s a busy time, particularly with fêtes Lafayette. Maybe in 2074, eh?

Click here to keep track of New York Freemasonry’s many celebrations of the Lafayette Bicentenary.

Bon week-end!

     

‘Harmonious Masons make a happy Grand Lodge’

    

With apologies to Dublin’s motto.

Time to forge a new fake passport!

I’ve been keeping tabs on this throughout the year, and part of the picture came into focus today. That is the 300th anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Ireland next June.

We learned this afternoon that a New York delegation will be in Dublin during the days immediately preceding and following St. John the Baptist Day; I might make a slightly longer trip of it. There’s lots to do.

Irish regalia, as depicted in Crowe’s Masonic Clothing and Regalia.

I’m making inquiries into possible activities of the Lodge of Research 200 and the Chapter of Research 222 that week. And, outside the Order: There’s the Peterson shop on Nassau Street, and maybe a visit to the factory is feasible. There may still be a pipe club in town, although the anti-smoking laws in the country are fanatical. There’s the legendary Dublin Chess Club. And the Brazen Head, of course. Book of Kells, museums, Grafton Street (especially James J. Fox).

I suppose that’s nearly the extent of my interests anymore, but it’ll be a fun trip!

     

‘Lodge of Excellence in New York (where else?)’

     

Hailing from a lodge named Publicity, the Magpie Mason takes interest in market research conducted in the Masonic world. Yesterday, the Grand Lodge of New York revealed its latest initiative under MW Steven A. Rubin which aims a) to help lodges reflect on their strengths and weaknesses; and b) to have Grand Lodge salute and/or assist as needed.

(I couldn’t help noticing this comes on the eve of the Masonic Restoration Foundation’s weekend, but that is coincidental.)

We, as Free and Accepted Masons, speak of strength in the midway point of our trigradal system, in the Second Degree—the one dealing with mind and senses while ascending certain stairs—when the Pillar on the left hand is introduced. This Lodge of Excellence enterprise starts with a question. From the publicity:

The program begins with a simple survey to help us understand your Lodge’s strengths and identify the areas where we can assist. During the Masonic year, your Grand Lodge Officer will work with your Lodge leadership to complete this 29-question survey in yes/no format. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers—only valuable insights. The information we gather will give us a clear picture of our Lodges and help us to customize programs to assist with Ritual, Administration, Social Activities, and Community Involvement and more.

As Master of The ALR, I started completing the survey, but this obviously isn’t intended for research lodges. The questions concern lodge proficiencies in ritual, education, communication, community relations, social events, charity, and more. Lodges excelling will be recognized appropriately, and lodges needing help, aid, and assistance will receive the same from well informed brethren.

What more could you want?

And where else would you find a resource like this? Excelsior—“Ever Upward”—is New York State’s motto. Lodge of Excellence will enhance Grand Lodge’s efforts to serve our lodges, taking the Craft ever upward.

     

‘Agüeybaná: New York’s new lodge’

    

GLNY

Grand Master Steven A. Rubin and Assistant Grand Secretary Richard W. Bateman display the freshly printed dispensation for Agüeybaná Lodge, which will meet in New York City.

Dispensation was granted last week for a lodge in New York City to begin meeting in the Tenth Manhattan District. MW Grand Master Steven A. Rubin briefly announced the launch today:

I am pleased to share that, on this day, I signed the Dispensation for Agüeybaná Lodge UD, the newest lodge in the Grand Lodge of New York. Agüeybaná was the principal and most powerful chief of the Taino people on Boriken, modern-day Puerto Rico, when the Spanish first arrived on the island on November 19, 1493.

Agüeybaná is a historical name on the island. An online Taino dictionary, and other sources, put it as The Great Sun, and show its significance in late fifteenth and early sixteenth century Puerto Rico. (And, needless to say, lovers of fine tobaccos recognize the name Taino, as the tribe also lived on Cuba. Cohiba was named for the Taino word for the rolled tobacco leaves these indigenous people smoked.)

Its first meeting will be Thursday, September 26 at 7 p.m. in the Doric Room on eight for the Installation of Officers.

The Tenth Manhattan, “the Cosmopolitan Tenth,” is home to our lodges that work in foreign tongues, like French, Italian, and Spanish.

Congratulations to all the brethren. ¡Salud!

     

‘Help wanted: Grand Historian’

    

The Grand Lodge of New York seeks a Grand Historian.

After serving under several Grand Masters, RW Gary Heinmiller apparently is exiting that office, and MW Steven Rubin, our Grand Master as of last month, is looking for a successor.

Rubin, during his time as Deputy Grand Master, built the foundation for a Grand Lodge that honors its illustrious history. And let’s be honest, few grand lodges have accomplished anything approaching what New York has.

His initiatives, just off the top of my head, include: Craftsmen Online, the Lafayette bicentennial, the lodge history project, Masonic Leadership Academy, the Masonic history project. That last one involves self-guiding walking tours in various parts of the state to see places significant to Freemasonry. There’s probably more, but I can’t remember.

And Gary? I don’t hear from him lately, but he and I go back to the Masonic Light group twenty or so years ago. He is a legend in local historian work way up in the Liverpool area. He has compiled meticulous histories and biographies on Masons. Amazing dedication to preserving information that, frankly, only the nerdiest among us appreciate. Read more about him here, although that is very out of date.

In the graphic above, that is Tacitus on the right. I don’t recognize the fellow on the left, but since he’s smoking a pipe, you can bet he knows what he’s talking about!

Tacitus? Arguably, the great historian of Rome’s first century CE empire period. I got to know him during my college days. Not breezy reading.

Good luck with the application!

(Yes, I applied, last fall. No, I don’t have what it takes. If you know me, you recognize I’m not Grand Lodge material.)

     

‘A humble, daring, and eloquent banner’

    

time.com

Today is Flag Day in the United States. This is a holiday, but not a federal holiday that would close government offices and financial institutions. Flag Day has been a traditional observance in American life since 1916; while that may not compute to a great span of years, we today definitely inhabit a completely different world that eschews traditions. To almost all appearances, we have become a people conditioned to indifference toward our nationality and our symbols because of some alleged guilt for which we are supposed to atone in perpetual despair.

Why observe on June 14? It was on that date in 1777 when the Second Continental Congress voted to make the Stars and Stripes our country’s flag.

It was Woodrow Wilson who issued the presidential proclamation in 1916 to “rededicate ourselves to the Nation, ‘one and inseparable,’ from which every thought that is not worthy of our fathers’ first vows of independence, liberty, and right shall be excluded, and in which we shall stand with united hearts for an America which no man can corrupt, no influence draw away from its ideals, no force divide against itself, a Nation equally distinguished among all the nations of mankind for its clear, individual conception alike of its duties and its privileges, its obligations and its rights.”

The fourteenth of June was not designated Flag Day by law until 1949, when President Truman signed House Joint Resolution 170.

Between 1916 and 1949, New York Freemasonry made its own rules which, it could be argued, were befitting of those times. Grand Master Robert H. Robinson, speaking to Grand Lodge assembled in Masonic Hall on May 2, 1922, said in reflection on the previous year:

On June 14, 1921, National Flag Day was celebrated by Masonic lodges in nearly every corner of the State, and it is our hope that this birthday of our Flag may every year be made a veritable feast day in the Craft. Masonry inculcates loyalty to State and Nation, and it is for us, as citizens of our beloved country, to keep ever alive the wisdom, the loyalty, and the patriotism of our forefathers. I quote from a memorable document on “Your Flag and Mine”:

“If anything in the world symbolizes the realization of the dream and aspirations of men, it is surely the Stars and Stripes. It has been said that young men dream dreams and old men see visions, but never before in the whole history of our race had the prophetic souls of men more surely recognized the coming of a new and better age than when Old Glory was first flung to the breeze.

 

“It is the symbol of the hopes, the aspirations, the struggles, the sufferings, the victories, the happiness, the progress-in short, the very lives of more than one hundred million people.

 

“The world has never known a banner more humble in its origin, yet more daring in its conception, and more eloquent in its appeal to the hearts and minds of men the world over. For nearly a century and a half it has flung forth a message to liberty-loving peoples of all lands, bidding them welcome to a land of opportunity, a land where there are neither kings nor czars, princes nor peasants, a land where all men are brothers with equal liberty and justice for all. And its message has been heard and answered.

 

“There were but 3,000,000 persons, or about one-half of the present population of New York City, in the entire United States when the flag sent forth its message over land and sea, and the civilized world laughed cynically at the ‘great experiment.’ But men’s hearts thrilled and are still thrilling at the great experiment which has become the embodiment of the greatest ideal in government the world has ever known. Men came and tasted of liberty and found that it was good.

 

“Today, more than 100,000,000 Americans—men, women, children—stand ready to defend their ideal with their lives, if need be, even as the little handful of patriots 140 years ago fought and died for the same ideal. Whether they be newcomers or citizens whose forefathers sought refuge on these shores, it matters not now. Americans by birth and Americans by adoption make common cause of the Flag and the ideal for which it stands.”

My honored successor, I am sure, will have a message for you this coming Flag Day couched in his own fearless and inspiring words. I cannot myself lose this opportunity of impressing upon you, men of the Grand Lodge, the nobility and far reaching effect a yearly general celebration of Flag Day would have upon the life and vitality of our Craft, and if there is nothing else in the address read to you this afternoon that invites your attention, I beg your earnest, your patriotic, and your liberty-loving loyalty to the glorification of “your flag and mine,” our glorious banner of liberty.

MW Arthur Tompkins

Robinson’s “honored successor” was MW Arthur Tompkins (the brilliant visionary who signed my lodge’s warrant!) Several weeks later, he encouraged New York’s lodges to commemorate Flag Day. At his direction, Grand Lodge’s Bureau of Social and Educational Service provided lodges ideas for programs they could adopt, plus books, poems, and other relevant literature, including an essay of 6,000 words on the subject of the U.S. flag.

“The display of bunting by Masons throughout the State added materially to the observance of the day and patriotic exercises were conducted in many of the Lodges,” MW Townsend Scudder, chairman, said in his report on the matter.

And, in fact, on Flag Day 1921—at this very minute, actually—Sea and Field Lodge 1 hosted a Flag Day observance inside the Grand Lodge Room. Secretary William C. Prime reported to Grand Lodge how “upwards of 2,000 Master Masons from the Metropolitan District and neighborhood, at which addresses were made by Hon. Martin W. Littleton, Brother Job E. Hedges, by Rear Admiral Reynold T. Hall, Gen. Barbour, and by Bishop Wm. T. Manning. A large delegation of servicemen attended with colors, which were massed with appropriate ceremony, and the occasion was one of dignity, as befitted it, and truly memorable.”

There are many more details to share, but you get the point. My point in this edition of The Magpie Mason is I believe we have lost something. Of course our fraternity is much smaller today, so there is less talent and fewer hands to set to labor, but we unintentionally have accommodated modernity too much in our thinking. We ought to be honoring Flag Day right now. We have more than 400 lodges. Are any marking today’s holiday? I haven’t heard of any.

Our city tonight is polluted with other flags, symbols that divide people, shout for fringe cultic identities, and even encourage warfare. Our gentle Craft possesses an antidote to much of what ails society, and that the simple symbolism of a Flag Day celebration can signal to a weary and uncertain public that they are not alone—that unity with other citizens can be found.

     

‘Sizing up the Master’s Chair’

    

Most of the class today at Masonic Hall.

Today I completed the suite of classroom instruction available to lodge officers in the Fourth Manhattan District of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York. Or at least I think I’m done. I’m not aware of anything else.

Since January, I have enjoyed four Saturdays for the Protocol class, Road to the East (two days), and today’s Master’s Chair course. Having taken these in fairly rapid succession, I can say there is much overlap and redundancy in these three. I went through the Masonic Development Course in 2015 and, honestly, I don’t recollect much except it makes a good introduction to the fraternity—but these three could use some restructuring. Or maybe that’s intentional because not everyone will enroll in all the courses.

RW Rochie comfortably assuming his Staff Officer duties.

Anyway, the Glorious Fourth’s new Staff Officer, RW Bro. Rochie Santos, expertly guided us through the more than four hours of instruction and comprehension tests. For clarity, I’ll explain that I am going into the East of The American Lodge of Research next month. I did the Craft lodge bit nearly twenty years ago—and I ain’t doing that again, despite knowing Publicity Lodge would be far easier to govern than was my previous lodge.

Truly, Masters of research lodges do not require this kind of instruction. These lodges do not confer degrees or become involved in the ceremonial formality that demand so much care. We open; we close; we ballot. That’s the ritual workload. Official Visits do not occur. Meetings are few. It’s pretty stress free. (Well, to me it is. I’ve done this before also: a unique thirty-month stint as Master of New Jersey’s research lodge many years ago.)

The Master’s Chair class is heavy on etiquette and protocol, just like the aptly named Protocol class. And, unsurprisingly, Master’s Chair also delves into law and customs, just like Road to the East. But it is good and wholesome instruction, and it probably is beneficial to receive it outside one’s own lodge, where familiarity and casualness might dull the senses.

A few things I learned today:

• If the District Deputy Grand Master opts to close the meeting of his Official Visit, he is to be addressed as Worshipful Master. I think this is the opposite of what I learned long ago in New Jersey, where he would be addressed by his full grand lodge title. I think.

• If seeking dispensation to form a new lodge, no fewer than seven petitioners are required. In my day in Jersey, that number was forty, but I think I heard it was reduced in recent years, resulting in an Observant lodge being launched.

(Seven?! I think my lifelong ambition of starting Don Rickles Lodge just advanced one big step.)

• The Master and Wardens of a lodge may demit. While in office. Wow. Another contradiction from New Jersey’s law—otherwise, I’d have done it!

The American Lodge of Research will meet Tuesday, June 25 at 7 p.m. in the Empire Room for its elections and installation of officers, the new Master’s inaugural paper, and whatever necessary business. That paper will be “It’s Just Common Sense: Thomas Reid and the Fellow Craft Degree.” It’s drafted in my head. I just have to sit down and write.

The Stated Meetings of the coming year:

Tuesday, October 29

‘Masonic Hall Monitors’

A multifaceted review of Masonic ritual ciphers, monitors, and exposés. My old friend RW Bro. Ben Hoff, who succeeded me in the East of New Jersey’s research lodge, has written a new study of these texts, and tells of their history, diversity, and why they are essential reading.

Also, RW Sam Kinsey, our Custodians of the Work chairman, will talk to us about both New York’s latest ritual book and the upcoming monitor—the first since the ’80s. And RW Michael LaRocco, executive director of the Livingston Library, will exhibit a collection of antique, exotic, and otherwise notable ritual books. Oh, and yours truly will briefly discuss the newly reprinted Macoy Monitor from 1867.

Monday, March 31, 2025

‘A Night for the Marquis

and the Count’

As part of New York Freemasonry’s celebration of the Lafayette bicentenary, we will host Bro. Chris Ruli, author of Brother Lafayette, soon to be published, for a discussion of the Masonic aspects of the great man’s farewell tour of the United States in 1824-25. Also, Bro. Erich Huhn, who will be Junior Deacon of the lodge by then, will discuss Alexis de Toqueville’s thoughts on Freemasonry, gleaned from his own tour of the U.S. in 1831-32.

Monday, June 30, 2025

The blessed event!

RW Yves will be installed Master of The ALR.

Those are the mandatory constitutional meetings. We also will go on the road for a Special Communication, likely to New Rochelle. There probably will be a collaboration with New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. There might be something with another jurisdiction’s research lodge. There will be Zoom meetings to bring together our members wherever dispersed about the face of the earth. And maybe more opportunities I haven’t thought of yet.

Who knows? I’m a strange guy.

     

‘The new Grand Master is…’

    

GLNY

Puffs of white smoke are emanating from Masonic Hall—vanilla cavendish, if I’m not mistaken—meaning we have a new Grand Master! The Most Worshipful Steven A. Rubin, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, will be installed this afternoon.

No, I am not present at the Grand Lodge Communication. I’m simply following the updates on 1010 WINS.

I didn’t think they’d have results so early. Still waiting on tallies of the other contests. Will add those here later.

UPDATE—Those other elections: WOR-AM reports the names of the other winners.

RW Robert Hogan
Deputy Grand Master

RW Mark Loughran
Senior Grand Warden

RW John Haslam
Junior Grand Warden

RW Alberto Cortizo
Grand Treasurer

 
RW Richard Schulz remains as Grand Secretary, having sought re-election without any challenger.

The Senior Grand Warden election was interesting; when the deadline for declaring candidacies passed last fall, no one had stepped forward for the position! Had I known that was to happen, I myself would have filed on the Scald Miserable ticket. Maybe next time.

     

‘On the road to the East, 24 inches at a time’

    

The Road to the East class today in 2 East.

I ought to have tackled this years ago, but it was only this morning that I finally attended Grand Lodge’s Road to the East course. Or Part I at least. The second half will take place in a few weeks. It didn’t seem necessary to me these past nine years, but since I’ll be installed in the East of The American Lodge of Research in June (that’s the plan anyway), it occurred to me I’d better receive this good and wholesome instruction.

One of the dozens of PowerPoint slides.

The sum of that instruction is in the form of an unwieldy binder titled The 24-Inch Gauge Masonic Resource Guide that is available to New York Masons from our Grand Lodge’s business office. It contains accumulated knowledge and wisdom from the ages. The current version is dated 2018 and could use refreshing. (Just speaking as an editor, there are things in here that drive me bananas.) Here’s the advice on lodge publications:

But it’s a must read because it is a broad compendium of information about our fraternity’s idiomatic ways of doing things. I won’t make any friends by offering this advice, but every lodge should acquire a copy, digitize it, and make it available to the brethren. Sorry.

It was a fun, interactive class led by Bro. Tomas, the Fourth Manhattan District’s Staff Officer (and incoming District Deputy Grand Master), with the assistance of Bro. Philippe, our retiring DDGM. There were fourteen students in attendance, including the Wardens and Junior Deacon of Publicity Lodge.

Bro. Michael Siegel, in a video presentation, explained how to navigate the more than 400 pages of our law book. Will you guys please stop making new laws? Barring future scientific advancements, like the cloning of Masons, everything has been covered and codified into law already.

I realize the prospective Master of a research lodge—talk about idiom!—actually doesn’t require this training, but it’s perfectly worthwhile and is a big part of the education and development our Grand Lodge makes available.

     

‘The first law of the lodge’

    

At the Fourth Manhattan District’s Protocol Class yesterday.

You think you know something about Freemasonry, but then attend a Masonic Protocol class.

That’s where the Magpie Mason was twenty-four hours ago, joining three lodge brothers and others from the Fourth Manhattan District at Masonic Hall for instruction in the finer points of dos and don’ts. Actually, I shouldn’t have written “lodge brothers.” It’s lodge brethren.

If you think yourself above protocol instruction because you’ve read Waite, Wilmshurst and whatever, get used to the idea of being wrong about that. Approaching my twenty-seventh anniversary in Freemasonry, even I was very curious about what would be imparted to us yesterday. Sure, I knew most of the material already—even I can learn osmotically over time—but a lot of it contradicted what I had learned earlier in life as a—cough—“New Jersey Mason,” and some of it was new to me.

It was in 1924 when Grand Lodge, at the suggestion of MW Arthur S. Tompkins, made the Bible presentation part of lodge life. ‘I am glad to report that my recommendation…has been adopted by many lodges,’ he said before Grand Lodge in May of that year. ‘I hope it may become a universal custom, one that shall indelibly impress upon the mind of every new Mason the fact that the Holy Bible is the Great Light in Masonry; that the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is the cornerstone of our fraternity; and that our first duty to is to God, and the Sacred Book should be the lamp to our feet and a light to our paths.’ 

“We study Protocol because we are convinced of its powers to help maintain harmony,” said RW Bro. Tomas Hull, Grand Director of Ceremonies. “It is a form of courtesy to the individual and a manifestation of respect to the Craft. Harmony is the first law of the lodge. Where discord enters, Freemasonry leaves.”

In the I Knew That category, for examples:

 - No one may tread across the Master’s Carpet.

 - No smoking, food, or drink is permitted in the lodge room.

 - The Inner Door may be used only during degrees.

In the Contradictions Department:

 - Never say “Blue Lodge” or “Symbolic Lodge,” but say “Master Mason Lodge” or “Masonic Lodge.”

 - Do not say “Worshipful Sir” or any other “Sir.” (I’ll never be able to break that habit!)

 - Do not say “To you and through you.” (I can break that habit.)

Under New (to me) Material:

 - There are no “Open Installations” or other events, but instead are “Public.”

 - Do not say “grace the East,” which I’ve never heard before.

 - Do not say “Sitting Master,” although I never knew where that came from anyway.

There was an awful lot more. As my lodge’s tiler, much of the instruction was idiomatic to my responsibilities. Make sure you avail yourself of this and the other courses offered in your district!