‘A Historic 1820s Table Lodge’

    

Ben Hoff has researched the period accuracy of the ritual to be employed in this table lodge, so expect something different from the usual.

Tonight’s convocation of Scott Chapter 4 in New Jersey was most enjoyable. I think I counted fifteen Royal Arch Masons in attendance for the occasion of the Official Visit of RE Michael Flaherty, District Deputy GHP.

We elected two Master Masons to membership by initiation, and two Royal Arch Masons to membership by affiliation. Companion Flaherty delivered an educational talk on the veils. Drawing from ritual, Scripture, and personal reflections, he explained meaningful symbolism of the banners to help us better understand what we Royal Arch Masons do in our chapters.

U.S. Mint

The Keystone State.

A good question was posed afterward: Why do chapters in New Jersey hang four banners and chapters in Pennsylvania hang only three? No one was certain of the exact answer. I kept my mouth shut—I’m learning!—because some people get cranky when I offer some information. Questions like this usually can be answered simply as historical facts circumvent poetic interpretations. Long story short: Thomas Smith Webb authored the four-banner arrangement in his book of 1797, so that is what the General Grand Chapter stipulates. New Jersey, being a member of the General Grand Chapter, consequently uses the four. Pennsylvania is not part of the GGC, and they use a ritual inherited from the Ancients of England. Just as Pennsylvania lodge ritual is distinct from everything else in America, their Royal Arch ritual too is different. It’s the Keystone State! Let ’em do what they want.

And, while I was there, I learned of this event coming next month.

Union Lodge 19 is our landlord—as it has been through most of our history since the 1850s—and its Master, W. Bro. Eric, is our Principal Sojourner in chapter. He told us about this table lodge.

I know the story of William Morgan is nothing to celebrate but, being how 2026 is the bicentenary of that disaster, which ignited the anti-Masonic panic of the 1820s and ’30s, we ought to teach each other about it. I’m always surprised when I encounter a Mason who knows nothing about the “Morgan Affair” and the resulting political turmoil in the Northeast, but not everyone knows.

So, the particulars are shown in the flier above. All I can add is Eric says the table lodge ritual is authentic to the period, as researched by Ben Hoff, New Jersey’s “go to guy” for the history of Masonic ritual. If Ben says this is the way they did it 200 years ago, you can toast with confidence. He is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, where he writes prodigiously about how Masonic rituals evolved over the centuries.

Keynote speaker Craig Applebaum is our immediate Past Master at the research lodge. While I haven’t heard this specific talk from him, I don’t doubt it will be informative and engaging.

Sorry to say I probably won’t be able to attend. My speaking engagement in Oklahoma will be St. John’s Day, and the cable tow stretches only so far. But you should go!

If this subject interests you, please add the research lodge’s meeting of Saturday, September 12 (9:30 a.m.) to your calendar. That’s when I will discuss the Anti-Masonic Party in New Jersey. I’ll talk about the Morgan Affair as a necessary introduction to the topic of the political movement in the Garden State that almost killed off the Masonic fraternity there. By the time the hysteria abated, there were only a couple of lodges and a few dozen Masons still standing. (And you thought there were problems now!) The lodge also meets at Union 19 in North Brunswick.