Greetings Brethren,
May has been a busy Masonic month so far, and luckily (or not so luckily depending on your preference) the warm weather looks like it finally might be here to stay. First and foremost, earlier this month at St. John’s we had our annual Grand Lodge Visitation. Most Worshipful Grand Master Roman Volsky and the officers of the Grand Lodge came and sat in our Lodge to discuss some of the activities and events the Grand Lodge will be conducting this year, as well as hearing my Master’s report about the status and progress of our Lodge for the 2017 Masonic year. I would recommend that each brother visit the Grand Lodge website and fill out the registration forms for the Universal Brotherhood Weekend activities as well as the Fourth of July Parade activities and other events they are offering now. I’ll be marching in the National Mall parade with my son, and I encourage you all to sign up and get out there with your families.
Secondly, the Pillar Officers attended the Grand Lodge Semi-Annual Communication to listen to some proposed Grand Lodge legislation, hear committee reports, and vote on some legislation that focused on providing lodges with the flexibility they need to retain and bring back some brothers the Lodge may have lost due to non-payment of dues (NPD). The Grand Lodge has developed a program that allows for members who are delinquent on dues payments an easier path to rejoining the lodge. The information about this program is attached separately. Please read it and inform other Brothers about it. We will also discuss it in the June stated. Additional legislation involved some information technology issues and privacy issues that the Grand Lodge has been working on resolving. The Grand View website (different than the Grand Lodge website) has seemed to resolve most of the privacy concerns on the members. Our Worshipful Brother Anand Trivedi will be conducting a tutorial at the June stated of the Grand View website. Please attend this meeting as we will discuss how this website will really change the way DC Masons communicate and organize.
Thirdly, a couple of us from St. John’s visited Hiram Takoma Lodge No. 10 as they performed a courtesy degree for two of our own Brothers who have now been passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. I hope everyone has an opportunity to congratulate our Brothers Colin Timbers and Jeff Doctor who went through that Fellowcraft degree and help them grow in Masonry and extend their understanding of receiving more light in Masonry. While at the meeting we began discussing some joint meetings and events with Hiram Takoma Lodge, and we look forward to those discussions continuing and getting some events on the schedule. I will inform the Lodge of some concrete ideas as they become available.
Looking forward to seeing everyone in June and updating the brethren on all the new developments happening in our jurisdiction.
Sincerely and Fraternally,
James S. Parkhurst
Worshipful Master