R.W. KEVIN L. BARNEY, DEPUTY GRAND MASTER

To my Bothers, I am humbled and proud to serve as your Deputy Grand Master. I offer my most sincere thank you for your dedication and determination that you have shown in these challenging times. We are all frustrated with the change of lifestyles due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, particularly with the Delta and Omicron variants of the COVID-19 virus now progressing. I know that many of you have a fervent desire to return to your Lodges.

These past two years have created challenges that none of us could have predicated or expected. However, we still have a ways to go until we come back to some sense of normalcy. In the meantime, we need to continue following the direction of the Grand Master and his COVID-19 Reintegration Plan.

Trying to decide the contents of this address has not been easy. I had hoped to give you some insight into my Masonic philosophy and the direction I think we should be going. However, with the ground constantly shifting under our feet, particularly over the last 24 months, it has been difficult to say the least.

We must look at and consider the positives that have come forward as a result of dealing with this pandemic. For one, we have become increasingly aware of the importance of maintaining contact with one another. As a result, we have instituted an innovated path of communication. We are now meeting virtually not only conduct the business of the lodges, but, at the very least, to put eyes on one another. This pandemic has given us an opportunity to stop and reflected on who we are as Master Masons and how we conduct business. History will judge how well we have used this opportunity.

My Brothers, the level of enthusiasm amongst the craft is very high to return to our “labor.” It is my hope that in the days to come, we maintain that enthusiasm with for fame but greatness, because greatness is determined by service. Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.” Prince Hall Freemasonry has given me much – far more than I have given in return. Masonry has helped guide me in my life’s choices and has given me a strong desire to serve, not only my brothers and sisters, but the community in which I live.

Like Martin Luther King, I too have a dream. I dream of a fraternity that has members so inspired as to make Lodge meetings a priority, they would never be inclined to demit. I dream of a fraternity that cultivates and improves the minds of its members, which would encourage more free-thinking men to seek admission. I dream of a fraternity that does such a tremendous good for its communities and the people that live in them that the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland and its Jurisdictions becomes that beacon of light on the hill for all to see and emulate.

General Thanks

respect to moving forward and accepting the proposals of the long and short term goals of the Grand Lodge Strategic Plan. This Strategic Plan will aid and expand our programs to improve the public perception of this institution and ultimately assist in improving the experience for of all of its members.

Martin Luther King was noted saying, “Everyone has the power for greatness, not

To the Most Worshipful Grand Master Noel C. Osborne Sr., I would like to express my most sincere and personal thanks for your dedication to this craft and your confidence in me. I am sure I speak for the entire Jurisdiction in extending to you, and Sister Adele, our hopes and prayers for a successful administration. I personally wish and we humbly pray that your future will be marked with Peace, Love and Good Health. I look forward to working with you over the next three years.

Thank You, to those of you who have so freely given of your talents by coming forward to serve in the various Grand offices, I look forward to working with you, I know we can have productive and rewarding year. To all the members of this Grand Jurisdiction, Thank You for the encouragement and pledges of support you have provided – My hope is that at the end of this term I will not be found wanting.

Finally, but by no means last, Thank You to my best friend and partner– Caroline. You have never wavered in your support and encouragement especially over the last fifteen months. What you have endured over the years truly is worthy of Sainthood. Thank you most sincerely, I Love you.

Conclusion

Brethren, in conclusion, I would like for us to return for a few moments to June 21, 1866 and reflect on the challenges our predecessors faced and overcame to create this Grand Jurisdiction. I would like to borrow the words of our first Grand Master, MWB William H. Davies and I quote;

“Let us now look upward and take courage; let the ruling ambition of every Master of a lodge be, not who can show the largest roll of membership, but who can boast of the best men, men who fully appreciate and live up to the principles of

Masonry, brotherly love, relief and truth.”

“Remember brethren, that our subordinate lodges will advance in numbers and usefulness as they advance in morality; and their strength and influence will depend more on their moral character than their numbers ….. The conferring of degrees does not make Masons, knowledge of the sublime principles upon which Masonry is founded, knowledge of the moral obligations, which it enjoins, and the practical duties which it inculcates are absolutely requisite to form the true and accomplished Mason”. End of quote.

It has been said that the mantle of leadership rests heavily on the shoulders of him who wears it and after reflecting on the commitment and contributions of my predecessors that point becomes apparent. The Craft in Nova Scotia has been well served since that meeting of June 21, 1866 and I now give you my commitment that I will do my utmost to devote my attention to the tasks at hand.

Brethren, there is work to be done, let us with one accord move forward.

Respectfully & Fraternally, R.W. Master Kevin L. Barney, 33° Deputy Grand Master M.W. Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Maryland

Thus it follows, if we do not work on ourselves successfully we will never know what conscious love is. How can anyone, purely emotive and full of passions, jealousy and suspicions, experience conscious love? So to give birth to conscious love we must eliminate these elements.

This matter about destroying, discarding or eliminating psychological defects is radical in order to awaken consciousness.Multiple aggregates of a subjective type (let us call them ‘I’s) particularize and give their characteristic feature to our passions.Comprehension and elimination are indispensable in order to discard all of that variety of subjective elements which constitute the ego, the myself, the itself.

Fraternal Twins same mother two different fathers. Abel was the son of Adam and Cain was the son of the angel Samael who road on the back of the serpent. Cain created mechanical works while Abel created works within natural law. Cain slew Abel for control over Abel’s woman. Cain is the ego and Abel is willpower. The woman is the soul of man. We fight this battle daily and internally. It’s funny that when you kill your brother, you and your offspring come under protection of God and you receive a Mark and by this mark no one can bring you harm. You see in this, that Cain’s offspring are actually sparks of the divine.

The Cain in us “lower nature or lower Chakras”; represented sometimes by the “Serpent” does not always like this. He can be related to the ego or the intellect. Being a “tiller of the soil” has nothing to do with farming. The soil is the soil of consciousness. Cain has a rightful and important place in us and in our expression of spiritual ideas. However, the Cain method cannot and does not have the capacity to give life to or expression to Reality. It seeks to till the soil of consciousness with human desires. It seeks personal glory and satisfaction from outer accomplishment.

Rejection of Cain’s offering does not mean rejection of the ego. It does not mean that God rejects us as human beings. It only means that the great spiritual realities of life cannot be achieved through personal effort alone, they cannot be achieved just by tilling the soil of consciousness. The Cain side of our nature is often impatient and jealous.

If you kill the desire to forgive, Cain kills Abel.

- R.W. A. S. Vaughans, Sr. 33°