Volume 69 No. 03
May-June 2022
The Guns of 75 Pg 8 Principles
Save the date
SR Clubs
pg 5
pg 6
pg 7
2 Seattle Scottish Rite
Scottish Rite Communicator Valley of Seattle
www.seattle-scottishrite.org
SCOTTISH RITE OFFICERS Ill. James D. Cole, 33° Sovereign Grand Commander Ill. Alvin W. Jorgensen, 33° S:.G:.I:.G:, Orient of Washington Ill. Greg Goodrich, 33° Personal Rep. of S:.G:.I:.G:. greg@seattle-scottishrite.org Daniel Southerland, 32° KCCH General Secretary Communicator Editor secretary@seattle-scottishrite.org Gene Ulrich, 32° KCCH Treasurer Ill. Tom Lamb, 33° Almoner PRESIDING OFFICERS Jaime Speicher 32° Master of Kadosh, Consistory Gerry O’Brien 32° Commander, Council of Kadosh Bryan Reagan 32° Wise Master, Chapter of Rose Croix Anthony Brandt 32° Venerable Master, Lodge of Perfection Seattle Scottish Rite Center 1207 N 152nd St. Seattle, WA 98133-6213 206 324-3330 voice 206 324-3332 fax
The Communicator (USPS 485-660) is published by the Valley of Seattle, A&A Scottish Rite, 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213, for the benefit of its members, bimonthly and is mailed as a non-profit publication to all members of the Valley of Seattle and to specified other interested parties. $2.00 per member is assessed for the publication of The Communicator. Periodicals postage paid at Seattle, Washington and at additional mailing offices. The material contained within this publication is intended for the education and enjoyment of the members of the Masonic Fraternity and all material published becomes the property of Seattle Valley of Scottish Rite. Postmaster: Send address changes to — The Communicator at 1207 N 152nd St., Shoreline, WA 98133-6213.
To sow, that others may reap; to work and plant for those that are to occupy the earth when we are dead; to project our influences far into the future, and live beyond our time; to rule as the Kings of Thought, over men who are yet unborn; to bless with the glorious gifts of Truth and Light and Liberty those who will neither know the name of the giver, nor care in what grave his unregarded ashes repose, is the true office of a Mason and the proudest destiny of a man. Brother Albert Pike
Seattle Scottish Rite 3
News from the Personal Representative Brethren,
I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to our newest members that have recently received their 4th-14th degrees. Unfortunately, I was out of town and did not have the pleasure of personally welcoming them to the Valley, however I look forward to greeting them in person at our next stated meeting in May. Several weeks ago, a few of us traveled to sunny San Diego, California for the Scottish Rite Conference. Our new fellow, Peter Kim had the chance to meet with our Sovereign Grand Commander and I look forward to hearing what golden nuggets he will bring back to our Valley. In addition, we heard several speakers from a range of topics on how we can continue enhancing our membership and overall Scottish Rite experience. As you will see in this issue, we have a date for our 150th Anniversary celebration set. This will be a momentous occasion and I strongly encourage everyone to attend as this will truly be a once in a life-time event for our Valley. In addition, we are lucky enough to have our Sovereign Grand Commander attend. As you know, our dining room can only hold about 150 people. Because of this, we also made the decision to start off registration for our members first. If we have seats left, we will invite other Valley’s to attend, but once again, priority for registration will go to our members first. We will open registration once we get closer to the date. Fraternally, Greg Goodrich, 33° Personal Representative of the S:.G:.I:.G:.
4 Seattle Scottish Rite
Greetings All, So many things have been happening at your valley in the last month and they continue to be going. I will try to update you all and hope you are all able to be here for the fun times. First let me say we have a great new class of Scottish Rite Masons coming in right now. They have just completed their Lodge of Perfection degrees and are looking forward to the Rose Croix. Please make sure you Congratulate them when you see them. Also, join us for the Rose Croix of degrees June 25th. If you are wanting to be involved we sure can make that happen, just drop us a line. Come see how well our brothers are conferring the degrees, quite impressive. We are working hard to get our 150th celebration all in order. We will be having a black tie celebration on September 24th here at Seattle Valley to celebrate. So as page six say’s, save the date. Also look who will be our special guest, as if you didn’t already have a reason to celebrate. We are also looking to have another get together over the summer to celebrate. How about a big BBQ for all and have some great fellowship with family and friends? So there is much to get excited about as we are still going very strong and getting stronger as we go. As you all know we have our new charity Rite way up and running so if you are looking for a great cause to donate to, this would definitely be the one. We look forward to being able to do great things for our causes through Rite way. Please think about this when you are wanting to donate. We will have a link to donate up and running soon on our website, If you want to start now just let me know and we will make it happen. This will be an awesome vehicle for us to go even further in our giving. Just remember we are dark in the summer months of June- August so there are no stated meetings. This does not mean there is nothing going on so stay tuned to the great activities during the summer. There will be degrees conferred and social events going on so look on our website calendar and our facebook page for updates. Also we will be sending out emails to our members. May you have an excellent Memorial Day weeked this month and please remember those who gave all for the greatness of this counrty.
Fraternally, Daniel J. Southerland, 32° KCCH General Secretary
Seattle Scottish Rite 5
6 Seattle Scottish Rite
Seattle Scottish Rite 7
Seattle Valley Clubs Knights of St. Andrew
Hello Brothers, In March the Knights of Saint Andrew performed the 29th degree and initiated four Brothers into our ranks. Please join me in congratulating Michael Cramer, Peter Kim, Patrick Hevesi, and Daniel Echo. We were also able to support the Lodge of Perfection last month in presenting the 4th and 14th degree and look forward to supporting the other bodies in any way we can. Additionally, the KSA implemented a new initiative called the Big Brother program where each new Candidate in the 2022 class is paired with a Knight. Our goal is to support the candidates and ensure they have a Brother who can assist them on their journey seeking new Light. We are here to serve the Valley so if there is anything we can do to support you, please don’t hesitate to ask. If you are interested in joining the Knight of Saint Andrew, please contact our General Secretary and we will make sure you get a petition. Lastly, I would like to introduce this year's Officers, I’m honored to serve with them. Chieftain - Joshua Coutts 1st Chieftain - Gerry O'Briant 2nd Chieftain - Jaime Speicher Chancellor - Patrick Hevesi Commander - Allen Abbott Recorder - Arturo Ortiz Guard - Daniel Echo Fraternally, Joshua Coutts KSA Chieftain
Eastside Scottish Rite Cub: Master Craftsman Program Join Us for Our Monthly Master Craftsman Discussion Started four years ago, Dean Markley hosts a Master Craftsman Program each month. Our objective is to read, review and discuss each of the twenty-nine degrees offered through the Scottish Rite. We’ve just ‘re-started’ the program – Post-Covid - beginning with the 4th Degree in March and the 5th Degree just this past month. For example, this past month we discussed the following about the 5th Degree – Perfect Master: 1. What are the two principal lessons of the 5th Degree? 2. What was a custom of practice required of the candidate for this degree from 1883 to 1935? 3. During the funeral of Master Hiram, the Square, Compasses, Gavel and 24-inch rule, are placed over his heart upon the coffin. What do these symbolize? 4. What did you get out of this degree, the review and discussion? 5. How can ordinary people make a difference in the future? 6. How can we, as Scottish Rite Masons, do things that outlive us? Join us this month as we read through the Sixth Degree – Confidential Secretary, using the Script, plus, our two main resources: A Bridge to Light and Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide. We meet on the fourth Tuesday, 24th of May, at 7 pm on May 24th via Zoom or at the Seattle Valley. Look for the invitation at a later date.
8 Seattle Scottish Rite
THE GUNS OF 75 One hundred and fifty years ago! (from 1925) The Battle of Lexington was fought on April 19,1775; the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17. What emotions, what echoes, what old historic memories stir in our hearts as we remember those days and dates. When Lafayette held in his hand the musket which fired the first shot of the American Revolution, he exclaimed: “This is the alarm gun of liberty!” To England the war was an episode; to is it is an epic. Time does not tarnish those events, nor distance dim the glory of days that tried the stuff of which men are made. All that America means, all that it has become, had its beginning at Lexington and Bunker Hill. It meant a new nation, built upon a new basis, with a new relation of Church and State, a new opportunity for mankind - the opening of a new era. An oft-told story, taught us from our earliest years, it throbs like a drum-beat in our blood, like the echo of the foot-steps of God in time. Emerson said truly that the farmers who stood at Concord Bridge fired “A Shot Heard Round The World.” Its flash divided the records of man into before and after, and its echoes will never die while men love liberty and value the rights of man. It was the first act in a drama of history, but, somehow, it reads like a record of our Family Bible. For history, in its great meaning, is more than a series of events. It is an unfolding of ideas, the fulfillment of a Divine purpose in time. Events do not stand alone. They are linked together by a thread of cause and effect, a law of seedtime and harvest. What went before explains what followed after. If we are to know the meaning of the events we remember today, we must go back of the immediate inciting causes to the facts and forces that lay behind. History is philosophy teaching by example; it is theology acted out. Our sturdy forefathers who emigrated first to Holland, and then to America, bore with them the seeds of liberty. Those seeds nourished by the wise tolerance of the Dutch, they planted in the fresh soil of the New World. They sought the New World in search of liberty of conscience and freedom of worship. Let us never forget that our independence was first religious, then political. Our democracy had a spiritual foundation, our republic a sacred origin. Having breathed the air of religious liberty, by a sure logic our fathers finally demanded the same liberty in political affairs. They would gladly help pay debts incurred partly in their behalf; but they refused to be taxed to that end, unless they were allowed to have a voice in shaping the policy of state. It was the old, high British ideal, forgotten by the motherland and defended by its sons. The reigning King did not understand the Colonists. They were a long distance from the homeland, and no longer under the mystic spell which waits upon royalty. But they were loyal and law-abiding. As Franklin said, they were ruled “At the Sole Expense of Pen and Ink;” but they could not be coerced. One irritating act after another provoked anger, and, at last, alienation, until men in America began to hate the land which formerly they had loved. The Boston Tea Party, planned in old St. Andrew’s Lodge, and carried out by Masons masked as Mohawk Indian, was the last straw. the tension tightened, until finally the tie of allegiance was broken and resentment flamed into revolt. Early in 1775, news arrived that Parliament, in spite of the pleadings of Pitt, Burke, and Fox; had rejected the petition of the first Continental Congress, declaring that “Rebellion Existed in America.” It did, though it might have been averted, like nearly every war in history. On the night of April 18, troops were sent by General Gage to seize the powder stored by the Sons of Liberty at Concord, and to arrest as “Traitors” John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who had taken refuge with Parson James Clark at Lexington. They set out secretly, as they thought, not knowing how alert and watchful the patriots were, and how well organized.
Seattle Scottish Rite 9
By this time the whole countryside was aflame with anger and excitement. Men and boys came running, singly and in bands, and from behind hedges, trees, and stone walls along the road to Boston; pouring shot into the retreating British ranks, following them all the way until they were safe under the protection of their guns. Thus, without previous design, the war began, destined to change the history of the world. Small events, born of human blunder, become great by virtue of the idea and influences back of them, and initiate vast movements. The fight on the village green and by the bridge was hardly more than a skirmish, but it used by a Power other than human to institute the greatest republic on earth. The battle of Lexington shut the British up in Boston, then almost an island linked with the mainland by a narrow strip of sand beach. To the north lay the peninsula of Charlestown, on which were two hills, Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill. To the south Dorchester Heights overlooked the city. The American Army grew rapidly, as men flocked in from all directions - ill-prepared in all save courage. On June 17 they began busily to fortify Bunker Hill, and the British attacked. Twice the Redcoats stormed up the hill only to be turned back. When they made their third desperate charge they won, because the Americans had used all the powder they had, and were forced to flee, leaving Warren, Grand Master of Masons, dead on the hill. Lack of preparedness lost the battle - a lesson never to be forgotten by those who are wise! Yes. it is an old story, my brethren, as familiar to us as the alphabet; but it is a story that makes our hearts beat fast, in which our gentle Craft had an honorable part of which we have a right to be proud. It is the simple truth to say that our ancient Fraternity - faithful, wise and heroic - presided in the birth-hour of our Republic, as it guards its sanctity today. There are those who would belittle its influence, but the facts stand. It was not an accident that Washington and most of his Generals were members of the Craft. The story of the War of the Revolution might have been very different had not its leaders been bound together by the tie which Masonry knows how to weave between men, making them brothers. What followed we know as we know our family history. The genius of Washington, the dark days of Valley forge, the crossing of the Delaware, the coming of Lafayette, the final scene at Yorktown, the Constitution, the far-flung Republic - it is a story and a tradition bequeathed to us in the mystic continuities of inheritance. America was born - the last great hope of humanity - created by the Will of God and heroism of man, dedicated to the service of peace on earth and good will to men. As in its origin, so in its history, our Republic is a Fraternal symposium, in which many races are being built together into one community - an enterprise the full meaning of which we do not yet realize. If we celebrate our beginnings at Lexington, Bunker Hill and Yorktown, we do so with no ill will toward the motherland against which our fathers fought, wresting their liberties from an obstinate King and a truckling Parliament. Since then, in the greatest of all wars, Americans have fought side by side with Britons in an hour of common peril and high resolve, for the same principle for which our fathers fired “The Shot Heard Round The World!” The old feud long since gave place to friendship, to deepen and maintain that which is the first duty of thoughtful men on both sides of the sea. Yet, we do affirm the uniqueness of America, and we are bound by ties of blood, history and Fraternity to keep our Republic true to its high tradition of liberty under law. Today, remembering the brave days of old, when men poured out their blood that their sons might be free, we give thanks to God for our country, reverently invoking His Blessing upon its many races united in brotherhood, upon its unconstrained religious life, upon its passion for education, its cities shining in the sunlight. its countless homes, its pacific spirit, and its promise of a future greater than its past.
10 S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e
Messages Happy Birthday!
Congratulations from all your Scottish Rite Brethren To our members over 90 who have reached a very important birthday!
May
June
Martin Grossmann 05/24/1923 Louis Sackett 05/16/1927 John Cohn 05/29/1927 Leo Smyth 05/14/1928 Richard Mc Knight 05/01/1930 Stephen Dowell 05/31/1930 Gerald Graham 05/03/1931 Robert Speer 05/11/1931 Dale Cowman 05/13/1932 Clifford Quimby 05/26/1932 Allen Feris 05/30/1932 Robert W. Wilson 05/31/1932
Donald Manion 06/08/1920 Douglas Edlich 06/18/1923 Arthur Phelps 06/03/1925 Paul Jensen 06/03/1931 Charles Abbey 06/18/1931 Elvin Mix 06/22/1931 Gene Garthwaite 06/23/1931 Robert Caldwell 06/27/1932
S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e 11
www.seattle-scottishrite.org
MONTH TIME EVENT May 7
8:00 am
KSA Meeting
May 7 9:00 am ExCom May 17 7:30 pm Stated Meeting (6:30 Dinner) May 31 7:00 pm Eastside S.R. Club (Zoom) June 4
8:00 am
KSA Meeting
June 4 9:00 am Excom June 25 June 28
10:00 am
Rose Croix Degrees Conferral
7:00 pm
Eastside S.R. Club (Zoom)
All dates are subject to change
Jackets $40.00 looks great
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry 1207 N 152nd St. Shoreline, WA 98133-6247
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