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The Perfect AshlarJuly / August 2014
“.....on which all Masons should test the correctness and value of the tools in which they make their contribution to Masonry as well as to the society in which they reside.....”
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Save these dates!
This fall, engage with Masonic experts as they present research and historical analysis on “Freemasonry and the Creation of the American Republic.” Learn from masonic scholars examining the American Republic, its Masonic roots, and how the experiment in self-government has evolved since the 18th Century – and is still guided by Masonic principles.
The Symposium will feature:
• Grand Master John Cooper on Freemasonry and the creation of the public space• Grand Marshal William Miklos on the influence of Freemasonry on the development of
constitutionalism in America• Past Grand Master R. Stephen Doan on Freemasonry and the progressive movement in
California• Director of the National Civility Center Kent Roberts on how the civility movement
today is essential to the survival of the American Republic
Celebrate the Craft at Annual Communication
This October 10-12, gather in San Francisco for the 165th Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of California. We’ll be here to connect with each other, to further our Masonic education, and to acknowledge this year’s achievements. We’ll usher in the new line, and help shape Masonry’s future.
For additional information on registering for these events check the California Grand Lodge website:
www. freemason.org2 of 11
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Guarding the North Gate…
Freemasons have spent the last fifteen years pointing an empty sleeve at the grave, and blaming our declining membership numbers on the four-million Masons who were members during our post World War II boom years. Who have had the very bad timing to pass on to the Celestial Lodge Above in record waves over the last dozen or so years.
In most jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, the losses of members from deaths has been statistically tapering off, while the losses due to Freemasons walking away from the fraternity have been rising at an alarming rate. We're initiating a very healthy dose of new Masons every year. But these men, whom we have initiated, passed and raised, are deciding in increasing numbers to say “no thanks” to what their local lodge offers. Masonic membership rolls are still dropping, but not from natural causes. The truth is, we are boring our members to death.
It has long been understood that the Baby Boom generation didn't join the Masons. As a result, there is a five-decade difference between the generation of men who kept Freemasonry alive for us and the men who are now moving into leadership positions throughout the fraternity. At any other time in the history of Freemasonry, each succeeding generation came along approximately in twenty-five year intervals, making changes in their lodges, and in Freemasonry as a whole, to reflect their needs and desires. Masonry has always adapted to serve the societies in which it resided. Until recently……. now, instead of a twenty-five year adjustment in direction, Freemasonry is suffering from fifty years of habit and hardening of the arteries.
Instead of adapting to the changing needs of the new generation these members will kept their lodge barely alive trying to do things the way they have been done when most of them joined a half century ago. The same eight or so members will met for a meager meal before their monthly meeting. They will open lodge with passable ritual, read the minutes and the bills. There will
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Philosophum non facit barba!
rarely be any business, new or old. They will close and flee the building, and be home by 8:30.
They didn't do anything to appeal to new members. But neither are they serving their existing ones. Nor are they doing anything to attract new members. They rent a lodge room in the big downtown Temple building depending on its material existence to sustain masonry.
Leadership has no age, and there are no limits on imagination. A lodge has to mean something to its members. It has to remain part of their lives, every day, every week, every month. Time is a very valuable commodity, especially in todays working families. No one would ever voluntarily join a memorization club, and no one wants to join the oldest, greatest, most legendary fraternal organization in the world, only to be sentenced to a lifetime of monthly meetings of minute-reading, bill-paying and petulant sniveling over why no one comes to meetings anymore. Be honest with yourself. What rational human being seriously wants to go to the trouble of leaving home to go and listen to someone spend twenty minutes reporting that nothing happened at last month's meeting either?
It will be the lodges that provide programming for their active members - whatever their age may be - that will survive and prosper into the future. But those that stubbornly cling to the notion that lodge is no event, that lodge is just one more meeting to be borne, that lodge is that most terrible of things, Ordinary - those are the lodges that will literally bore themselves to death. Those are the lodges that will slip silently away in the night. And the shadows of things that Might Be will have faded into the concrete Reality of a deserted lodge room.
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The majority of the points in this column were taken from a article by Christopher Hodapp, author of Freemasons for Dummies.
During the early 1930s, this delicate, little, five-petaled flower, which is similar to the common violet, became a symbol of Freemasonry in Nazi Germany. It exemplified the spirit, dedication, and courage of men who literally held to their Masonic principles and beliefs in the face of gravest danger. Shortly after Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933, he issued two decrees. One provided for Nazi control over the educational process. The second made membership in a Masonic Fraternity a crime. Hitler viewed Freemasonry as part of "the Jewish conspiracy" and wanted it eradicated. At that In Nazi Germany time there were 85,000 Masons in good standing in Germany. Adolf Eichman, who would later play an important role in Hitler's "final solution" raided the Grand Lodge of Germany and confiscated all of their records including the names and addresses of 80,000 German Masons. Lodge property was confiscated and Eichman secretly issued orders that Masons should be put to death. His orders were followed. The remaining 5,000 German Masons whose records were not found, immediately went underground—hiding their records, lodge paraphernalia, and identifying jewelry. Active Freemasonry in Germany ceased to exist. In 1934, members of the German Grand Lodge of the Sun (one of Germany's pre-war Grand Lodges) began wearing the blue Forget-Me-Not instead of the traditional square and compass on their lapels as a mark of identity for Masons. This was a Masonic secret that was never broken. Throughout the whole era of Nazi domination little blue Forget-Me-Nots appeared on lapels in cities and even in concentration camps, worn by brothers whose love of freedom, learning, and Freemasonry remained strong even under repressive Nazi rule In 1947, when the Grand Lodge of the Sun was reopened in Bayreuth by Past Grand Master Beyer, a pin in the shape of a Forget-Me-Not was adopted as an emblem of that first annual convention by those who had survived the bitter darkness of the Nazi era and were now able to openly rekindle the light of Freemasonry. In 1948, the first Convent of the United Grand Lodges of Germany also adopted the pin as an official Masonic emblem honoring those brothers who had been forced to shelter the light of Freemasonry within but dared to wear the little flower openly. The tradition of using the blue Forget- Me-Not as a tribute to those whose fidelity to the Fraternity sets them apart was also used by the Masonic brotherhood of the blue Forget-Me-Not that recognizes the contributions of Masonic educators. Although Adolph Hitler was able to destroy the outward vestiges of Freemasonry by
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If Freemasonry is good, then lets talk about it...
continued on page 5
THE FORGET-ME-NOT….a story of courage in Nazi Germany
desecrating temples and imprisoning or murdering Masons, he was never able to completely eradicate Freemasonry in Germany. He was never able to understand that respect for individual rights and the love of liberty and learning will continue to burn in the hearts of some men, and that is the place where Masonry can endure even under the most repressive environment. Like the phoenix, Masonry rose out of the ashes of Nazi Germany (as it is also doing in several former communist bloc countries) as a tribute to the courage of man and the durability of those values and lessons that Masonry holds dear. [Excerpted from an article in the SDLMR Bulletin, September 2013, South Dakota Lodge of Masonic Research]
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…..continued from page 4
THE 15th MASONIC PRESIDENT
In the courthouse of Plattsburg, Missouri, there is a statute of Brother Atchison bearing the inscription “David Rice Atchison 1807-1886, President of the United States for One Day.” The circumstances were the transition from President James Polk to Zachary Taylor. According to the law at that time, President Polk stepped down as President on Sunday, March 4, 1849. Zachary Taylor was a deeply religious man and refused to be inaugurated on a Sunday. Thus, according to ascension laws, the office falls to the Vice-President George M. Dallas. However his term also ended on noon on March 4. Thus the Presidential line then falls to the President Pro Tern of the Senate—who was David Rice Atchison. The problem was debated in the Congress for several hours and agreed by them that Brother Atchison, although never inaugurated was legally and by the Constitution, President of the United States from noon on March 4, 1849 until noon on March 5, 1849. Brother Atchison was a member of Platte Lodge No. 56 in Platte City, Missouri. [From an article in Masonic Temple Topics, February 2014]
A WORD FROM THE WISE “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” ----- Mark Twain, Author & Freemason
Freemasonry by the monthFirst Monday
Kern River Valley Lodge no. 827First Tuesday
Libertas-Security No. 466Kern River Royal Arch Masons, Kernville
Second TuesdayBakersfield Scottish Rite
First WednesdayMeudell-Oildale No. 695
Indian Wells Valley Lodge No. 684Ridgecrest
First ThursdayBakersfield No. 224Second Thursday
Norris C. Viles RAM, RidgecrestFirst Friday
Bakersfield York Rite Bodies(Dark July and August)
Second FridayAllied Masonic Degrees
(Does not meet every month)Dates change….check with the body for
additional information
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Masonic Events in and about Kern County
Kern River Valley No. 827Kernville
First Monday of every month6:00 pm dinner
7:00 pm Stated MeetingThe Worshipful Master invites all
Entered Apprentices, Fellowcrafts and Master Masons. For additional
information contact
Tom McKinney 760-417-6962 [email protected]
Green Dragon
2014Fellowship
For information on the Green Dragon Tavern
Fellowship Events
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Kern County York Rite Bodies
BakersfieldKern Valley Chapter No. 75 Royal Arch Masons
Bakersfield Council No. 28 Cryptic MasonBakersfield Commandary No. 39 Knights Templar
Bakersfield York Rite Bodies meet every first Friday of the month with the exception of July and August.
KernvilleKern River Chapter No. 162 Royal Arch Masons
Meets every first Tuesday with the exception of July and August at the Kernville Masonic Center, 562 James Road
RidgecrestNorris C. Viles Chapter No. 153 Royal Arch Masons
Meets the second Thursday of every month with the exception of July and August at the Ridgecrest Masonic Center, 625 North Norma Street
For additional information:www.bakersfieldyorkritebodies.org
www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org
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Masons 4 MasonsSupport THE brothers that support us
CMC § 809.220; B.
Remember when this was a binding contract?
To a Freemason it still is!
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Masons 4 MasonsSupport THE brothers that support us
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To have your business or Masonic Body featured in this publication as well as the Bakersfield Masonic
Bodies and Kern County Shrine websites contact the editor at: [email protected]
Masonic restrictions apply
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