Comments and Discussion
This is a place to leave comments for other brothers, about the web site or anything else you want (just remember that this is an open page available to the public - We reserve all rights to delete your post if it is non masonic).
Thanks for visiting the site. Click here to sign up for the "News by Email" and all posts will be emailed to you each time one is made!
Thanks for visiting the site. Click here to sign up for the "News by Email" and all posts will be emailed to you each time one is made!
posted by Etiwan 95 at
12:10 PM
4 Comments:
contact Barry Klein to order an anniversary sticker or coin at 843-884-3848 or bdklein@bellsouth.net. sticker is $3.00 and coin is $10.00.
Brethren,
I have just determined that other non recognized Masonic organizations have recently obtained approval for a South Carolina License Plate with the Square, Compasses, and letter G on them. The other Masonic Plate currently at the DMV now has AF&AM on the plate. I have also been informed that the Prince Hall Grand Lodge is also applying for a license plate and I do not know what Designation that they will be using. This means that there will be at lest three different Square, Compasses, and letter G license plates in South Carolina.
Please inform the Brethren in your area as soon as possible that when they are purchasing a Masonic Plate at the DMV, they must specify the AFM license plate which designates them as Ancient Free Masons.
If a Brother purchases the wrong plate, the proceeds will go to the other organization and the Brother will have a license plate reflecting an un recognized "Clandestine" Grand Lodge. Although the DMV is supposed to be checking for Dues Cards, they will be unable able to keep the different designations straight. It will be up to the Brother purchasing the License Plate.
Fraternally,
Gerald L. Carver
Grand Master of Masons in SC
AWARDS for October
Robert W. Langston - 25 YEAR
Roderick G. MacBride - 25 YEAR
John F. Taylor, Jr. - 25 YEAR
Douglas R. Mellichamp,PM - 40 YEAR
James E. Greer - 60 YEAR
Brothers
The following article from today’s Charlotte Observer is forwarded as a matter of Masonic information.
Fraternally,
Dan Wilson
WM,
Vesper Masonic Lodge
N.C. white, black Masonic groups reconcile
After years ignoring each other, 'we're brothers again'
By Richard Stradling
richard.stradling@newsobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008
JASON ARTHERS – (RALEIGH) NEWS & OBSERVER
RALEIGH Members of the state's two Masonic organizations ended 138 years of official disregard Friday by signing a resolution recognizing each other as brother Masons.
The resolution, signed near the end of a two-hour ceremony full of formality and speeches, ended a vestige of the segregation era, during which the two groups – one white, the other black – spent decades following the ancient tenets and teachings of freemasonry while each pretended the other didn't exist.
“Today's a historic day, because we're here to say we're brothers again,” said David Cash, a Methodist minister from Kannapolis and grand master of the white group, the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina.
Cash and his counterpart, Milton “Toby” Fitch Jr. of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina and Its Jurisdictions, signed the document in the old House chambers of the State Capitol. They sat at a table where North Carolina's resolution to secede from the Union was signed 148 years ago.
Both Prince Hall and AF&AM Masonic groups carry on the traditions of a fraternity founded by building craftsmen in medieval Europe. The state's AF&AM organization was founded in 1787, though some of the individual lodges date back earlier. The state's Prince Hall group was founded in 1870.
Despite shared roots and goals, their members did not officially recognize each other as Masons until Friday.
“We are of the same family,” said Dan Blue, a Prince Hall Mason and state legislator from Raleigh. “This is an opportunity to complete a circle.”
The ceremony, which had the feel of a peace treaty signing, was years in the making.
Members of the Prince Hall Masons unanimously passed a resolution recognizing their white counterparts as true Masons at their annual meeting in 2004. But a similar resolution failed several years in a row at AF&AM meetings, despite impassioned pleas from the group's leaders. This year, in September, it passed 642-328, leading to Friday's gathering, which filled not only the old House chamber but also the old Senate, where the overflow watched on a big-screen TV.
Membership in the larger, white lodge has fallen from 73,000 at its peak in 1981 to less than 50,000, even as the state's population has soared. But Friday's ceremony was a reminder of the devotion of many Masons to the organization and the influential people it attracts.
U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge led the pledge of allegiance, and former state Supreme Court justices Henry Frye and James Exum Jr. also spoke.
The resolution signed Friday does not merge the groups in any way.
But it should lead to cooperation between the two Masonic organizations.
Cash, the AF&AM grand master, said representatives of the two groups are meeting to work out visitation issues and protocol. For example, he noted, Prince Hall Masons have a dress code, while the AF&AM does not.
“They are a little bit more formal,” he said.
That formality was on display Friday, as Prince Hall members in particular wore colorful aprons around their waists and medallions around their necks. A color guard of Prince Hall Masons with epaulets on their shoulders, two rows of buttons down their chests and hats covered with white feathers lined the aisle of the old House chamber with raised swords as officers from the two organizations filed in.
Earlier this fall, Fitch and the Prince Hall Masons made Cash an honorary member. Friday, Cash returned the gesture, reading a framed resolution with a preacher's shout before the two men embraced before a shower of flashbulbs and a standing ovation.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link