Saint John's Day in Winter 2022

 

   Houston York Rite Masonry wishes all Brothers and Companions a joyous and peaceful                      holiday season.

Scriptures and the Royal Arch Ritual

 

by

Rabbi David P. Alpert

     One of our subscribers, Rabbi Alpert, of Boston, very kindly supplies us with a copy of a recent address which he delivered before the Grand Chapter of Massachusetts.  Coming, as it does, from a Hebrew scholar, it bears the air of authenticity.

     “The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner.  Did ye never read in Scriptures, the stone that which the builders rejected has become the head stone of the corner?”

     Several variations of the same theme are used in the chapter ritual.  They incorporate the quotations from various parts of the Bible, Old Testament and New.  All the verses together emphasize how central the thought is.

     Difficult as it may be to indicate in English, we should recognize that all the variant verses trace to one source, to the Hebrew in Psalm 118.  The impression that the original gives is something jubilant, ever triumphant.

      “I shall not die but live and declare the works of God. . . . Open to me the gates of righteousness. . . . The stone which the builder refused is become the chief cornerstone.”

      English readers have sometimes suggested that the cornerstone assumes merely a decorative and ornamental place in the building.  Hebrew traditions looked on the cornerstone as strategic, fundamental, and cohesive to the structure.  In the realm of personal experience for each one of us, though gives special place to the cornerstone.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Assembly of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, December 12, 2022.  Members of the Council are encouraged to attend.  All Select Masters are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Convocation of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, November 14, 2022.  Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Assembly of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, October 10, 2022.  Members of the Council are encouraged to attend.  All Select Masters are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Degree of Past Master

Little has been published concerning the degree of Past Master; there are two classes of Past Masters – actual and virtual.  Actual Past Masters are those who have served as Masters of lodges.  Virtual Past Masters are those who have never actually served as lodge as Master, but who have been elected and symbolically installed in order to qualify them for advancement in the capitular rite.

      The Square, which is one of the emblems of the degree, is explained and given a new interpretation; in the symbolic degrees, it was explained as an instrument for squaring your work; here it becomes the symbol of one who has so squared his work that it is now an emblem of advancement, for it is the proper jewel of a Past Master.

     Much might be said about the Square, for within its angles and sides are contained the ancient secrets set forth by Pythagoras – told to use in our symbolic degrees, but never explained.  It is the ancient symbol of the 3-4-5, of which we will hear more in a later degree.  While little is said about the square, the student Freemason will devote his time to a full consideration of its value.

Upcoming Degree Work

 

A Mark Master's Degree has been scheduled for Monday, September 19, 2022, at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM.  Future degree work is planned for the third Monday of each month.

Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Convocation of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, September 12, 2022.  Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Our Newest Members

 

At today's York Rite Festival, on behalf of Washington Chapter No. 2, the Royal Arch Degree was conferred on two worthy brothers, both of whom hail from Holland Lodge No. 1.

Kazimir Karwowski

John Williamson

Welcome, Companions!

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Assembly of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, August 8, 2022.  Members of the Council are encouraged to attend.  All Select Masters are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Convocation of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, July 11, 2022.  Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended. 

Saint John's Day in Summer 2022

 Houston York Rite Masonry would like to

 wish all Brothers and Companions a safe and                       happy day.

Masons' Marks

 

by

Wallace McLeod 

(1931 - 2020)

      One of the main symbols of the degree of Mark Master is the mason’s mark.  It is a type of identifying device that goes back long before the invention of writing.  In many societies a craftsman would set his mark on his handiwork to identify it as his production; this was done not just by stonecutters, but also by other artisans, such as pottery makers.  Thirty-five years ago I had the opportunity to do some archeological work in Greece, and I can testify that potters 5000 years ago, in the Late Stone Age, used to put marks on the vessels they had cast.  This is more than a thousand years before real writing reached that part of the world.

     It doesn’t seem likely that such marks were actually on building stones until considerably later, and probably not at the time of King Solomon’s Temple.  But if you look at the great stone-built cathedrals of Europe, you will find that many of the individual stones do have marks inscribed on them.  They are usually simple, being composed of straight lines, and sometimes including squares, angles, and triangles.  These are masons’ marks.   

Stated Meeting Notice

The next Stated Assembly of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, June 13, 2022.  In addition to the regular order of business, the election of officers for the 2022 - 2023 Cryptic year will be elected.  Members of the Council are encouraged to attend.  All Select Masters are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Convocation of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, May 9, 2022.  In addition to the regular order of business, the election of officers for the 2022 - 2023 capitular year will be held.  Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended. 

Stated Meeting Notice

The next Stated Assembly of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, April 11, 2022.  Members of the Council are encouraged to attend.  All Select Masters are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

York Masonry and the York Rite

 

by

Edward M. Selby (PGHP Ohio)

1905 - 1976

Albert Pike was a great leader in American Masonry and perhaps its greatest intellect.  He was not, however, noted for charity to an opponent.  The Scottish Rite in both Southern and Northern Jurisdictions got off to a slow start in the early years of the 19^th century.  The Southern Jurisdiction, which Pike headed (1859 – 1891), was torn asunder by the Civil War and Pike himself was attainted as a former Confederate General.  In addition, segments of the York Rite, which were by then firmly entrenched, persisted in a policy of regarding Scottish Rite Masons as a small body of Masonic elite, in which membership was predicated on previous York Rite affiliation.  Born out of impatience with this situation, Pike displayed his temper with this statement (Allocution 1876):

    Our American Masons generally have heretofore seemed to imagine that there is no Masonry entitled to the name, in the world, outside the United States; and that there is but one legitimate Rite of Masonry, the “York” Rite.  There neither is nor ever was a York Rite.  The very name asserts a falsehood.  There never was any grand lodge of York.

     Ill-humored as this statement was it nonetheless contained an element of truth, particularly if Pike is permitted to define a Masonic Rite as he once did:

     A Rite is an aggregation and succession of any number of degrees given by one or more bodies, but under the authority of a single supreme Government.

Stated Meeting Notice

 

The next Stated Convocation of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, March 14, 2022.  Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

Stated Meeting Notice

The next Stated Assembly of Houston Council No. 1, Royal and Select Masters, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, February 14, 2022.  Members of the Council are encouraged to attend.  All Select Masters are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.

 

Grand Lodge Officers

Washington Chapter No. 2 R.A.M. and Houston Council No.1 R. & S.M. would like to acknowledge and congratulate the following Companions who have been appointed to positions of leadership for the Grand Lodge of Texas:

W. Comp. Kevin Todd Binder
Grand Junior Steward

R.W. Comp. Kevin Clingan, District Deputy Grand Master, Masonic District 30-A

R. W. Comp. Hunter Schappaugh PHP, District Deputy Grand Master, Masonic District 30-B

R. W. Comp. Aaron Tyksinski PHP(a), District Deputy Grand Master at Large

Comp. Charles Edward Ivy PHP, District Communications Officer, Masonic District 30-A

Comp. Jeffrey Holder, District Education Officer, Masonic District 30-G

Stated Meeting Notice

The next Stated Convocation of Washington Chapter No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, will be held at the Masonic Hall at 4911 Montrose Boulevard at 7:00 PM on Monday, January 10, 2022.  Members of the Chapter are encouraged to attend.  All Royal Arch Masons are welcome.

Proper attire is recommended.