‘A rainbow over the moon lodge’

    

Michael LaRocco

Another fine festive board tonight at New York’s last remaining moon lodge.

Warren Lodge 32 did it again: the annual outdoor affair with catered barbecue, the seven toasts, approximately 80 guests, and a rainbow to cap it off. I mean the rainbow isn’t planned.

Rainbows follow rainfalls, and did we get rain! “Extreme Weather” is what my weather app forewarned as I got to within twenty miles of Rhinebeck, and it wasn’t joking. The inundation mostly tapered off by the time I got there, but then the wind picked up. Literally picked up everything on our table—and even one of the tents, which took a flight further than the Wright Brothers’ inaugural foray. It really was a mess: You have your “sword” in one hand, your “cannon” in the other, and somehow you had to hold down your place setting before a gust violently threw it all at the next table over. No injuries reported.

I didn’t shoot a single photo consequently. On the plus side, though, the tempest caused the temperature to drop a good ten or so degrees.

I sat with the contingent from Joseph Warren-Gothic Lodge 934 (the other Warren lodge), and had a good time despite their having consumed all the wine by the time I arrived. Kind brethren at nearby tables made sure we were able to charge our cannons, fortunately.

The lodge’s souvenir poker chip.

Also bumped into W. Bro. Steve, immediate Past Master of White Plains 473. And Deputy Grand Master Steven Rubin, of course.

I’m not usually one who discusses weather, but after the seventh toast (absent brethren) was proposed by W. Mark, Master of Joseph Warren-Gothic—and I mean at the second he stopped speaking—the rainbow appeared.

     

‘Music at St. Michael’s this May’

     
Bro. Stephen Rumpf, the Right Worshipful Grand Organist of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York will celebrate his 70th birthday later this spring with an organ recital in New York City. From the publicity:

Organ Recital

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church

225 West 99th Street

(at Amsterdam Avenue)

New York City

Friday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Open to all

Suggested donation: $20

Acoustically and aesthetically, St. Michael’s truly is one of New York’s premier performance spaces. The church houses two fine tracker-action pipe organs built in 1967 by the Rudolf von Beckerath Organ Company of Hamburg, Germany, and a newly restored 1938 Steinway Model B Grand. Together with the superb acoustics of the church building and the great stained glass and mosaic masterworks by Louis C. Tiffany, St. Michael’s is an extraordinary space for worship and music.

More information at 212.222.2700.

RW Rumpf is a Past Master of both Kane 454 and Joseph Warren-Gothic 934 in Manhattan, and he is well known for his musical genius far beyond the Masonic world also.
     

'Finding Joe'

  
(With apologies to the makers of the recent film on Joseph Campbell.)

The Searchers Club held a very special meeting tonight, so special that the group required the Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library to serve as an appropriate setting. On the agenda was the unsealing of several mysterious parcels recently received from Japan, boxes containing Masonic treasures that excited our anticipation as we eagerly awaited the moment of unveiling.

Regalia, parchments, jewels, and ephemera of various kinds filled several cardboard cartons shipped to Bro. Darryl Perry in New York from his friend Diana in Japan, daughter of the late Ill. Joe Diele, a renowned Scottish Rite Mason in Japan.

Bro. Darryl & Bro. Earnest.

The medium-sized cardboard cartons were shipped by the daughter of the late Ill∴ Joe Diele, 33°, GC, a hard working Scottish Rite Mason of the Southern Jurisdiction who passed away in 2005. Not knowing what to do with so much regalia and ephemera, she sent them across the planet to her friend Bro. Darryl Perry of Joseph Warren-Gothic Lodge No. 934, who co-founded the Searchers Club with Bro. Earnest Hudson.

The group assembled included RW Tom Savini, director of the library; RW Bill Thomas, Grand Treasurer, RW Ron Steiner, public relations director; various club members; and other miscellaneous, curious Masons, like myself. None of us knew anything about our departed brother. All we had to go on was his obituary published in the May-June 2005 issue of The Scottish Rite Journal. It was up to the Mystic Tie to bring us together to share this moment of exploration and remembrance.

Please read about Bro. Diele here to get a better idea of his service to the Craft. For brevity here, I'll just let the photographs speak for themselves.

Ill. Diele received these jewels in recognition for presiding over three Scottish Rite bodies.

The jewels shown above are past presiding officer jewels. From left: Venerable Master of a Lodge of Perfection; Wise Master of a Chapter of Rose Croix; and Commander of a Council of Kadosh. Diele presided over these bodies in Tokyo. In 1973, he received the Knight Commander Court of Honour, and in 1975 the 33°. The following year he was appointed Deputy for Japan and Korea, and served until his retirement, only several months before his death. In 2001, Supreme Council bestowed on him its top honor, Grand Cross of the Court of Honour.

Ill. Bro. Diele was not a mere office-holder or title-chaser. His leadership extended into the work from which true legacies are founded. Please do read that obituary for the details, but to offer a few highlights, Diele brought the Tokyo Masonic Center to fruition. He was honored with the Takashi Komatsu Distinguished Service Medal from the Grand Lodge of Japan, and even was an Honorary Past Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Japan, and was an Honorary Marshal of the District Grand Lodge of Scotland in Hong Kong. Honors such as these are not awarded frivolously or frequently.

From left: the jewels of the Thirty-Third Degree and Knight Commander of the Court of Honour, both Scottish Rite honors, and the Joseph Warren Medal from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

RW Bro. John Chang inspects a certificate awarded to Ill. Diele.

Obviously death figures largely in Masonic thinking and practice. How many other fraternal orders have their own ritualized funeral services? "To live respected, and die regretted" is how the ideal is phrased often.

And then there are all those things we leave behind. Maybe a bookshelf of Masonic literature. Carry cases full of aprons, caps, fezzes, and other clothing. White gloves. The leather-like snap cases containing highly ornamental gold medals. Gold always is valuable, especially today. Lapel pins by the score. Plaques, certificates, souvenirs. So much more. Where does it all go after we ourselves are gone?

Into the trash, mostly, except for the gold. Maybe for sale on eBay or somewhere. Perhaps occasionally given back to the brother's lodge, which already has an abundance of such inventory.

As explained above, the daughter of the late Ill. Diele, not knowing how to properly care for these Masonic items seven years after the death of her father, shipped them all to Bro. Darryl. During our enjoyable meeting to salute the memory of our late brother, Darryl decided to return everything to Japan, not back to Diana, but to the Tokyo Masonic Center, where the Masonic memory of Ill. Joe Diele deserves to serve others today and tomorrow as an inspiration. In that way, one overcomes the sting of death and robs the grave of victory. SMIB.

Bro. Earnest Hudson, RW Tom Savini, RW John Chang, Bro. Darryl Perry, and RW Ron Steiner.