Communicator Nov-Dec 2017

Volume 64, No. 06

November- December 2017

Two Constitutions - pg 7

The Rite Helps

ELS&L

Shirts for Sale

pg 2

pg 6

pg 10

2 Seattle Scottish Rite

Scottish Rite Communicator

Seattle Scottish Rite 3

News from the Personal Representative

Scottish Rite

Valley of Seattle

www.seattle-scottishrite.org

A O

s we enjoy the blustery weather of the fall months in the Pacific Northwest, we are reminded that we very fortunate in not encountering the extremes of the weather, that the world and the other parts of our country are experiencing. ur 32o degree will held on November 4th,starting at 10 AM. This will be final terminal degree for the class of 2016, after which they will received their caps as Scottish Rite of the 32nd degree. We are looking forward to their involvement with us in the activities of the Seattle Valley meetings and degrees. ovember 12 has also been designated by the House of Temple, as Scottish Rite Day. We will be planning an open house for the members and friends of the Seattle Valley from 12-3 PM with hors d’oeuvres and coffee, tea, and soda. ince our last Communicator we had our September and October, with Brother Bob Dearborn being elected our Valley at the September meeting. Our Feast of Tishri in October was an outstanding success in the table lodge format, with our new members giving the toasts. Based upon the post meeting comments by the brethren we will plan on having similar meeting(s) this

SCOTTISH RITE OFFICERS Ill. Ronald A. Seale, 33° Sovereign Grand Commander Ill. Alvin W. Jorgensen, 33° S:.G:.I:.G:, Orient of Washington Ill. Sat Tashiro, 33° Personal Rep. of S:.G:.I:.G:. pr@seattle-scottishrite.org Daniel Southerland, 32° General Secretary Communicator Editor secretary@seattle-scottishrite.org Ill. Brian Thomas, 33° Treasurer Tom Lamb, 32° KCCH Almoner PRESIDING OFFICERS Richard Brzustowicz 32° KCCH Master of Kadosh, Consistory Jud Chapin, 32° KCCH Commander, Council of Kadosh Jack Stewart, 32° KCCH Wise Master, Chapter of Rose Croix Bob Guild, 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., Seattle, WA 98133-6213.

Notable Quotes

N S

To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.

Brother Suger “Ray” Robinson To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society Brother Theodore Roosevelt Better to keep a good concience with an empty purse, than to get a bad opinion of myself , with a full one.

Brother David Crockett To talk well and elequently is a very great art, but an elequently great one is to know when to stop.

Brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own mind.

Brother Franklin D. Roosevelt

coming year. s we come to the close of another year, we have our November meeting which will be our annual Red, White and Blue Honor Night on 22 November, with the focus on those who have achieved the milestone of 50 years as Scottish Rite Masons. The business portion of the meeting will be the election of 2018 officers and the presentation of the 2018 budget.

The meeting will be hosted by the Consistory, and recognized as the Feast of Consistory evening.. nother special meeting will be held on Friday, 1 December where the 29° and the 31° will be presented. The 29° is the degree associated with the Knights of St. Andrew, while the 31° is called the Egyptian degree, with overtones during the time of the Pharaohs. All members of the Class of 2017 are especially invited to attend. We will have a complimentary dinner for those attending, and will start at 7 PM. s we end this year, it is important that our members put forth their energies in attracting new Master Masons into our Scottish Rite, and our valley, in particular. Please invite those who may not be members to attend our Friends Night in early January. The dinner will be complimentary to our friends with a brief program on the happenings at the House of Temple, and the status of the VMAP program. ur two clubs, one in the South-end of King County meeting at Verity Lodge, and the other in the Eastside meeting at the Eastside Masonic Center (ESMC), located at 8561 Willows Road in Redmond, have resumed their labors with meeting(s) scheduled in the fall, will soon be joined by a third club, to be called the West Seattle Scottish Rite Club, meeting at Southgate Masonic Center The members of the Southside Scottish Rite Club meet in Verity Masonic Center in Kent. Brother Joe Marll can be contacted for information on upcoming meetings and topics at josephmarll@gmail.com. They cover a range of topics at their meetings, ranging from Master Craftsman to undertaking the performance of hitherto rarely performed degrees each year to our new class. he Eastside Scottish Rite Club (ESRC) meeting will be held at the aforementioned ESMC in Redmond, Please contact Dean Markley, secretary of the ESRC, wdeanm@gmail.com for upcoming dates and the respective programs. ll Scottish Rite members of the Seattle Valley receive the Communicator, but may miss the fellowship with their fellow members within the valley and find the difficult-travel-miles to-and-from our Shoreline building a major problem. For these members, you are invited to attend one of the clubs in your area. Your attendance at the club meetings is tantamount to attending our stated meetings. or those who are able to attend our meetings at the Shoreline Valley facility, you are always welcome to our pre- and post-meeting fellowship time together. This is becoming the highlight of our time together. ou are reminded that the Rite Care of Washington will henceforth be known as Early Life, Speech and Language, with a new logo, and reference to its early beginning by the Scottish Rite. Please drop by and see the upgraded facilities.

They have increased their square area considerably and have a dedicated area for the speech therapy. Under the direction of Angelique Leone, its new director, growth of the organization is evident throughout the state.

A A A O T A F Y

Fraternally, Sat Tashiro 33° Personal Representative of the S.G.I.G.

4 Seattle Scottish Rite

Seattle Scottish Rite 5

2017 Class enjoy their Degrees

T

he change of season is upon us again. Fall is in the air as we see the leaves turn color. For many of us this is a time to reflect on the passing of time. You know, that product we never have enough of. I have had the distinct honor to be your General Secretary for Seattle Valley for almost a year and I feel I have so much more to learn in this great office I have been fortunat to hold. With this said I would like to send deep thanks to all who help me with the tasks we face. I wont list them but start at the top and all the way, you are all exemplify greatness. Thank you!

I

have been talking with brothers about the ways to get better interest in the Scottish Rite as of late to grow our fraternity and today I read the Valley of Spokane’s latest bulitin. In there is the addition from their General Secretary Randy Guel 32° KCCH. He attended this years Honors weekend and was able to talk with many great brothers. One theme kept coming up “Passion”.

To paraphrase Brother Randy, we always wonder how we can make our valleys grow and more vibrant and maybe the answer is so simple as to be more Passionate within ourselves. Get more involved within the valley and speak out with those who are interested in the Scottish Rite. Get involved with the degrees, pick a part and have fun with it, help with the stage crew, attend the conferals, enroll in the Master Craftsman Classes, com eto the state Meetings or throw your name in to fill a line officer position. When you became a Mason, one question that was always asked of you was “What do you desire/” Yor reply was “More Light” Scottish Rite gives you that oppertunity and it is yours for the taking. I believe if we do this we will grow as brothers will see our passion.

W all.

e have sure been busy in the valley. We had an excellent 30° conferral and looking forward to our 32° on Nov. 4th. Our Feast of Tishri in October was another great time being had by

Y

ou are seeing some small changes to your center as we go. The new seating area in the entry lobby to start. We have always been proud of our center as a place to come together for the good of our fraternity and it will just get better as we go. Make sure you ask about the great things coming and as always suggestions are welcome.

N

ovember stated will be our elections and budget for the next year so you will want to be here for this. We look forward to seeing you all here. May you all be blessed this holiday season and I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and a Very Merry Christmas.

Fraternally, Dan Southerland, 32° General Secretary

Welcome to Seattle Valley, Brothers

6 Seattle Scottish Rite

Seattle Scottish Rite 7

WHATS NEW AT eARLY lIFE SPEECH & LANGUAGE

Two Constitutions

by Norman L. Hoff 33°°

Save the dates with Early Life Speech & Language!

Early Life Speech & Language participates in Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday this November.

Save these dates: November 24th – Black Friday: This is a great time to shop online for great sales while earning money to give back to Early Life Speech & Language. If you shop on amazon, through Amazon Smile, a portion of your dollars spent will come back to Early Life Speech & Language. https:// smile.amazon.com/ November 27th – Cyber Monday: This is a day to promote online shopping and every time you shop with Amazon Smile and chose Early Life Speech & Language as your charity of choice, a portion of your purchase comes back to Early Life Speech & Language. https://smile.amazon. com/ November 28th – Giving Tuesday: It is a movement to create an international day of giving at the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season. http://earlylifespeech.org/ Support/Donate

Brethren, I suspect that there are a few things about our Scottish Rite that you might have wondered about – why we are organized as we are, or why we have different bodies meeting at seemingly random intervals throughout the year.

You might wonder why we have the strange sounding titles for the many officers occupying the stations and places at our Bodies’ meetings. More importantly, you might wonder if there is something similar to our Virginia Grand Lodge’s Methodical Digest with the rules and regulations written down to guide us on the proper governance of our Scottish Rite.

Those of you who have completed, or are working your way through the Master Craftsman course have had some exposure to some of the governing documents of our Rite, but unless you have taken the time to find and read them, you may not yet have a full understanding of our organization. Tonight, we will talk about our Southern Jurisdiction’s, “Law of the Rite”.

Our “Law” is stated in several basic documents. Perhaps the one we are most aware of is titled “Statutes of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree”. The Statutes have defined and governed the functioning of our Rite since 1859 when, as the newly elected Sovereign Grand Commander, Illustrious Albert Pike called a meeting of the Supreme Council to consider and approve his completely reworked Statutes. Today, the Statutes are updated typically on a biennial basis concurrently with the meeting of the Supreme Council. The current Statutes were revised and approved in August 2011, and we would expect an update to result this month when the Supreme Council meets again.

The Statutes are posted at scottishrite.org and you should each take a look at the Statutes just to have a better understanding of what they contain. Spend some time with Article XV. This is where you’ll find “Regulations Governing the Subordinate Bodies”.

Remember: Every M.M. License plate purchased helps our Early Life Speech & Language Clinics

Article XXI of the Statutes states: “These Statutes, with the Regulations of 1762, the Grand Constitutions of 1786, as published by this Supreme Council, except as herein modified together with the edicts and decisions of the Supreme Council, and the unwritten principles and Landmarks of Freemasonry constitute the law of the Rite in the jurisdiction of this Supreme Council

8 Seattle Scottish Rite

So we have two Constitutions plus the Statutes – along with the normal Masonic caveat of edicts and decisions as well as the broader, and not commonly defined, Landmarks. The two Constitutions are the part I want to focus on for a bit, tonight. These documents are the Constitutions and Regulations of 1762 and the Grand Constitutions of 1786. Albert Pike later published copies of the two documents based on transcriptions from earlier manuscripts, in a single publication titled The Grand Constitutions of Freemasonry; Ancient and Accepted Rite.

You can find a copy in our Library, or you may prefer to purchase a copy of your own from the scottishrite.org bookstore.

The CONSTITUTIONS AND REGULATIONS OF 1762 were supposedly transmitted to Etienne (Stephen) Morin’s from the Grand Orient of Berlin, Paris, and Bordeaux in 1762. The document names him The Very Illustrious and Very Puissant Prince Etienne, Grand Inspector of all the Regular Lodges in the New World. This document provides the basis for Morin’s Order of the Royal Secret that is accepted as the parent of our current Scottish Rite.

The Constitutions and Regulations of 1762 has 35 Articles addressing qualifications for initiation, a listing of the degrees, the Order’s organizational structure, Officers and their roles, protocol, and other such material as would be required to establish the operational and administrative guidance for an organization. The Constitution of 1762 described an Order composed of 25 degrees. The 25 Degrees were defined in 7 Classes with a specific 81-month timeline for their conferral.

• 1st Class, 3 Degrees; 15 month schedule:

1. Entered Apprentice (3 mos to attain degree)

2. Fellow of the Craft (5 mos from EA to FC)

3. Master Mason (7 mos from prior degree) • 2nd Class; 5 degrees; 21 month schedule:

4. Secret Master (3 mos)

5. Perfect Master (3 mos)

6. Confidential Secretary (3 mos)

7. Provost and Judge (5 mos)

8. Intendant of the Buildings (7 mos) • 3rd Class; 3 degrees; 7 month schedule:

9. Elect of the 9 (3 mos)

10. Elect of the 15 (3 mos)

11. Illustrious Elect, Chief of the

12 Tribes (1 mos) • 4th Class; 3 degrees; 5 month schedule:

12. Grand Master Architect (1 mos)

13. Knight of the Royal Arch (3 mos)

14. Grand Elect Antient, Perfect Master or Perfection (1 mos) • 5th Class; 4 degrees; 6 month schedule:

15. Knight of the East, or of the Sword (1 mos)

16. Prince of Jerusalem (1 mos)

17. Knight of the East and West (3 mos)

18. Knight of Rose Croix (1 mos)

• 6th Class; 4 degrees; 12 month schedule:

19. Grand Pontif or Master ad vitam (3 mos)

20. Grand Patriarch Noachite (3 mos)

21. Master of the Key of Masonry (3 mos) 22. Prince of Libanus or Royal Axe (3 mos) • 7th Class; 3 degrees; 15 month schedule:

23. Sovereign Prince Adept (5 mos)

24. Illustrious Knight Commander of White & Black Eagle (5 mos)

25. Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret (5 mos)

Seattle Scottish Rite 9

To implement the Order defined by the 1762 Constitution, Morin deputized Henry Franken in Kingston, Jamaica to confer the Order’s degrees in the West Indies and North America. Morin died soon there after, but Franken then deputized others to begin Bodies and the Order spread somewhat tenuously, sporadically, and generally, unsuccessfully – probably due to the more pressing matters that must have dominated the thoughts of Masons during the period of the American Revolution.

The Constitutions and Regulations of 1762 were followed by THE GRAND CONSTITUTIONS OF 1786.

While it supercedes the 1762 Constitutions, the new document states that all the previous Articles that “are not contrary to the present Ordinances, are preserved in force and shall be observed.” The Grand Constitutions also introduced a governing Supreme Council of 9 members. (97 years later Pike’s Statutes of 1859 would increase this number to today’s 33 members.) The Grand Constitutions also provide for two Supreme Councils in North America, two in South America, and one in each kingdom/nation elsewhere in the world.

The Grand Constitutions of 1786 has 18 Articles, and like its predecessor, it also defines the organization, degrees, handling of funds, and so on. The primary reason for its creation seems to have been to overcome the competition and confusion that existed among the many Rites and their numerous “high degrees.” [Read ‘King Frederick’s’ words from Grand Const., page 225.] • “…recent and urgent representations, which of late have been addressed to us, from every quarter, make evident to us the pressing necessity of opposing a strong barrier to that spirit of intolerance, sectarianism, schism and anarchy, which recent innovators are endeavoring to introduce among the brethren… Wherefore these reasons, and other inducements of not less weight, impel us to the connecting together and agglomerating into one body, the Art of Stone Masonry, all the RITES of the Scottish regimen…”

The Grand Constitutions of 1786 consolidated 8 competing Rites into one system of Thirty-three degrees - still in the previously established 7 Classes and subject to the previously “required delays”. These were the existing 25 degrees of the Order of the Royal Secret plus 8 more degrees taken from the competing Rites: The Grand Constitutions states: • “These Rites are those that are known as ‘The Ancient,’ ‘Heredom or Hairdom,’ ‘of the Orient of Kilwinning,’ ‘of St. Andrew,’ ‘of the Emperors of East and West,’ ‘of Princes of the Royal Secret’ or ‘of Perfection,’ of ‘Philosophy,’ and the most recent Rite of all, styled, ‘The Primitive.’ ” • The Constitutions go on to state, “We do declare them all to be now and henceforth conjoined and agglomerated into one single Order, which, professing the dogma and pure doctrines of the ancient Art of Stone-Masonry, embraces all the systems of the Scottish Rite, united under the title of The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.”

It’s interesting to note that while the new Constitution states that it was signed by King Frederick II of Prussia, many now assume this may not have been the fact. It is possible that Frederick’s authority might have been considered helpful and his name invoked to ease all that ‘conjoining and agglomerating’ from the other Rites.

So those are the two documents that created the early structure and governance of the Scottish Rite. Some future program can now deal with Pike’s 1859 Statutes that brought us to our modern Scottish Rite. The Handout shows the change of the seven classes of degrees from 1762 to 1786.

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!

November

December

Earl Conom 11/21/1921

Paul Russom 12/02/1918

Richard Speidel 11/11/1923

Joseph Haleva 12/19/1919

Clyde Filer 11/01/1924

Howard Haskel 12/31/1925

W. W. Cristoffersen 11/16/1924

Oliver Frederick 12/12/1927

William Maloney 11/16/1924 Charles Simonsen 11/08/1925 Floyd Klinkenberg 11/16/1927

S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e 11

C a l e n d a r

MONTH

TIME

www.seattle-scottishrite.org

EVENT

November 4th: 9:00 Excom Meeting November 4th: 10:30 32° Conferal for 2017 Class November: 21st 7:30 Stated meeting Election of Officers. Dinner 6:30 December: No Stated Meeting: Merry Christmas to all. * All events subject to change.

Brothers All If you are not recieving our emails or corispondance please let us know your current address and email. We are updating all our member info and want to hear from you all.

THANK YOU !

JAckets $45.00 Polo shirts are in! just $25.00 Follow us on Twitter! @SeaScottishRite

Scottish Rite of Freemasonry 1207 N 152nd St. Shoreline, WA 98133-6247

Periodicals Postage Paid USPS 485-660