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I've known of an ceremony where a lodge adopts a child... http://encyclopediaoffreemasonry.com/a/adoption-masonic/ "The Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, has published the ritual of Masonic Adoption for the use of the members of that Rite. "

I collect them. Several GMs have granted me dispensation to own restricted copies. Their comparative study has been illuminating in tracing the evolution of the ritual.

This saddens me. You know, in the days our ancient brothers built the great cathedrals, the Craft represented the most advanced engineering and fabrication technology on Earth. What happened to teaching people correct principals and then letting them govern themselves? Why, in these...

I would have appreciated being able to take my son to a lodge in his college town, introduce him around and give him some folks he could rely on, in his separation from me. We did not, at the time, and we may have lost a good man to the Craft. Time will tell. I've helped two good young men...

I was thinking. The last two months, I've been using the speech recognition feature of windows to write stuff in my most recent college course. I got a tip of going through the tutorial at least two times. The tutorial has you read the text aloud and it is learning your voice as you learn the...

I would allow each lodge the right to set policy regarding membership--to be masculine, feminine, or mixed-gender--with the exception of special, general lodges like the Lodge of Research. That said, I also favor specialty lodges--those who, per their bylaws, can limit their membership to a...

I teach a Genealogy Class, so have all the browsers on all my 6 notebooks, to let everyone have the experience they are used to, when i set up my portable classroom. I like Chrome for school research, because of its tie into google translate. I'm finishing a master's in ancient and classical...

I think Arizona handles a cypher/clear text well. I have one by special dispensation. For me. I'm glad I was not exposed to one until after I was raised. But what are the "secrets of Freemasonry". Everything in the ritual is searchable on the internet. I prefer to keep the ceremonies...

If we are going to expect them to blog, we should expect it of all the officers in the chairs--so as to give them some years to get the hang of writing on a regular basis. I'd also consider the need for a Grand Editor to give them some tutoring and feedback. I resurrected the idea for a...

"Interesting moments" also include those that bring you up, standing. I was a new WM. We were in the middle of the pot luck dinner before a stated meeting. One of my brethren, sitting near me, was eating heartedly. As he finished, I commented on his good appetite and he said, "This is the best...

Over the last two years, in pursuit of my masters in ancient and classical history, I'm made a couple of friends who are professors at American Catholic University--both Jesuits. I'll be seeing them later this week and will bring up the Craft. We shall see what their opinion will be.

The most fascinating aspect of the thread is learning of the close brotherly relationships one can form during the learning process. I pray we all learn from this--and feel inspired to maintain our own proficiency, so that when the GAOTU places a new brother in our way, we may be found duly and...

Smithfield 455 in NE Tarrant County (IVO Fort Worth) should have been called Bell Helicopter Lodge, for all the employees that are members. Working there myself, I had many men who were willing to spend a 10-minute break or even their lunch, working with me over sandwiches and sliced apples...

I'm David Terrell. I live in the national capital area, where I work for BAE Systems. They hire me out to government agencies to help them catch bad guys. For over 20 years, I lived and worked in the Fort Worth, Texas area, where I became a Mason in 1994. I was an Engineer at Bell...

At one point, being of a historical bent, I read the entire 150+year collection of my lodge's minutes. It took a while. I noticed very little difference in the principal form of the meetings. But, having, by this time been an officer of the lodge and having experience as a Naval reserve officer...

I shall approach this from the perspective of one who was very active from the time I was initiated (1994), through years in the chairs, to the time I moved from Texas to Virginia in 2007. What kept me coming back to lodge, in Texas, was the friendship. Being able to associate with men who...

I appreciate you saying so, Brother. --David

Being a visual learner, I drew a floor plan on a piece of poster board and used my son's little green fighting men to represent the action. The grenade-thrower represented "one" of the ruffians and the candidate switched between the rifleman firing from the shoulder, the kneeling bazooka-man...

This is my one other... finished... Masonic poem. It was the evening of 18 February 1998. I received a telephone call telling me that Charlie Groves, one of our Past Masters, had inoperable and terminal cancer. You have to understand. Charlie was the man whose favorite job in the lodge was being...

Just before my raising, my wife's wallet and checkbook were stolen. The criminal "cleaned us out" and it was some time before all the damage was mitigated. It was tough; telling my new Brethern I was broke. I was amazed at their response. A while later, this poured into my journal...