GreatLandLight from the Grand Lodge Edition Spring 2019 Table of Contents Light from the Great Land The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of F. & A.M. of Alaska . 518 E. 14th Ave. No. 6 3. Don’t Believe the Hype Anchorage, AK 99501 M.W. John D. May Phone: (907) 561-1477 6. Before He Was a Mason... R.W. Charles Ward 2019 Officers of the Grand Lodge of Alaska M.W. John D. May • Grand Master 8. The Tyler’s Sword R.W. Norman K. Gutcher • Deputy Grand Master V.W. Nicholas Adair R.W. Joe C. Darnell • Senior Grand Warden R.W. Charles Ward • Junior Grand Warden 14. Building the Craft - Part 1 R.W. James D. Grubbs • Grand Treasurer R.W. Norman Gutcher R.W. Jerome P. Wasson • Grand Secretary 18. Do Rules & Regulations Submission Guidelines Constitute a Working Tool The following schedule will be followed this year to ensure of Masonry? that everyone has an opportunity to submit their items for W.B. John Barnett the benefit of Masonry in Alaska: Submittal Deadline • Publishing Date 21. Builder’s Creed June 1, 2019 • July 1, 2019 September 1, 2019 • October 1, 2019 22. Spiritual Chemistry December 1, 2019 • January 1, 2020 W.B. Paul Evermon II March 1, 2020 • April 1, 2020 25. Leading Brethren in Submit your articles in 12-point Times New Roman. Freemasonry Use the same typeface, or font, throughout the entire manuscript. Your manuscript should be single-spaced W.B. Dr. Lionel Boxer & throughout. No columns. All text should be flush left, W.B. Steve Lourey and do not justify the text. Do not use the space bar to achieve tabs or indents to align text. Do not use the 29. George Washington automatic hyphenation feature. The default, or “normal” Masonic Memorial style should be the only style used in your manuscript. V.W. Kevin Tennant For capitalization, hyphenation, use of numbers, punctuation, and other matters of style, follow Chicago 31. My 20th Anniversary style guidelines, current edition. as a Freemason Notes should be placed at the end of the article and W.B. Chris Hodapp double-spaced. The proposed title of the article and the name of the author should appear at the top left of page 35. Alaska Masonic one. For more information on Chicago style citation Events & Excursions guidelines, visit: 39. The Fez https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/ The First Shriners Hospital Contributions will be considered on the timeliness of Shriners International their receipt, the amount of editing required, and space available. 42. The Celestial Lodge Submit Articles to the Editor: R.W. Charles Ward Cover Provided by: Michelle Adair [email protected] ladybug.ak Photography Executive Editor: M.W. John D. May Apron by: Editor: R.W. Charles Ward The Craftsman’s Apron • Patrick Craddock Design and Layout: V.W. Nicholas E. Adair www.craftsmansapron.com Quality Assurance: R.W. Jerome P. Wasson 2 DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE Masonry Isn’t Dying Imagine your family bought a house, a fixer-upper with a lot of potential. One night, your family gets together with your neighbors for a dinner party. The evening is going well, everyone is enjoying themselves, and discussion ensues to form a homeowners’ association. You leave with feelings of elation of being a part of a wonderful neighborhood. The next day, you and your family begin plans to restore the home. A couple of weeks later you begin work on your new home. Not long into the work, an agent from the homeowners’ association comes over and tells you to stop work because it was not approved by the association. You submit your plans for your family’s dream home to the association, and they are promptly rejected. You make several attempts to get approval to restore the home without success. Finally, the homeowners’ association dictates to you an acceptable plan for restoring the home, but it falls extremely short of your’s and your by M.W. John D. May family’s expectations for the home. 3 Brethren, this story is an allegory for Masonic make positive differences in the world. It is a pure grand lodges, and to a lesser extent our blue lodges ideology that kindles the fire of the benevolent and appendant bodies. As an organization, our human spirit, through a course of instruction and priorities have strayed from the original design self-reflection for its practitioners to learn and to of Masonry. We have elevated the demands of the develop into men of great character. Masonry is organization over the Masonic journeys of our a way of life that harmoniously unites men and brethren, and, in the case of many, the weight of families from all backgrounds. Unfortunately, the organization has snuffed out Masonic Light. organizational matters have caused us to lost Our Masonic organizations are struggling for sight of this. three reasons: 1) we have created and embraced a hysteria and self-fulfilling prophecy over the As Grand Master, I am bound to the obligations decline in membership; 2) we have reacted of the office, but I am going to do my utmost with ineffective policies aimed at serving the to champion reforms in our jurisdiction. These organization while losing sight of the core mission efforts include: 1) establishing new policies that of Masonry; and, 3) we have not adapted our puts Masons, their families, and the original business models to ensure that our brethren and design of Masonry first; 2) redrafting the Alaska their families are able to enjoy quality Masonic Masonic Code to better support our lodges and experiences. remove ambiguity; and, 3) presenting new ways to conduct lodge meetings, deliver quality events, Masonry is a personal journey, grounded on and effectively manage the organization to faith, supported by our brethren and families, support our Masons, our families, and the noble which provides men with opportunities to learn art of Masonry. more about themselves, to think critically, and 4 and a champion of the human condition. The time has come for Masonry to lead again. Brethren, this is our new narrative. Second, I need your support. The reforms we need to accomplish can only be achieved when we work In order to achieve these ends, I ask two things together. We may not always agree with one from each of you. another, but we can put our minds together, develop a collaborative plan to move forward, First, don’t believe the hype that Masonry is and restore quality in our Masonic journeys. dying. This fallacy is killing us from the inside. Fraternal organizations are focused on numbers We have the ability to start a Masonic Renaissance, and need more members to sustain antiquated but we must realize this vision, make the business models. This narrative doesn’t support commitment, and have the fortitude to reclaim Masonry, and it drains the vitality from our our narrative. It is time for the Masonic Family Brotherhood. It’s time to reclaim our narrative to commit to working smarter and re-engage to focus on Masonry and restore quality to our ourselves to the original mission of Masonry. We Masonic experiences. are only accountable to ourselves, but we must commit to one path or the other. We either get Masonry is the world’s oldest and premier fraternal busy living life to the fullest and enjoying our organization. Unlike other fraternal organizations time in Masonry, or we get busy dying under the that have come and gone, Masonry remains a weight of the fallacies and the old narrative. I strong and viable force in the lives of the men that offer to each you this opportunity to take the lead have joined our ranks and embraced the Masonic to restore Masonry. experience. It is a journey of personal growth that builds character and nurtures the hearts and It is an esteemed honor to accept this solemn minds of men to the pursuit of nobler deeds, higher responsibility which has been entrusted to thoughts, and greater achievements. Our grand my care. I appreciate your brotherhood, your Masonic journeys are supported by an indivisible friendship, and your support. May the Great brotherhood of like-minded men. Masonry Architect of the Universe watch over us and bless provides good men with the tools to make them us in our undertakings. better men, better husbands, better fathers, better citizens, and exceptional human beings. Masonry was at the forefront of the enlightenment, the M.W. John D. May causes of liberty and representative government, Grand Master 5 Before he was a Mason He was a Man I want to thank the Brothers for placing their trust in me and electing me Junior Grand Warden. I will endeavor to re-earn, or in some cases earn, that trust every day. One of the reasons I put my name forward was to help Alaska Masons ‒ me included ‒ answer the question: What should we offer the man who knocks on our doors? A ritualized initiatic experience. Friendship. Social opportunities. Tools to improve himself as a husband, father and a man, if he chooses to use them. An ideal lodge offers all of these things in balance. What the exact mixture is depends on the Lodge. There is no exact recipe for the ideal Lodge, certainly not one that can be ordained from on high. However, there are some things we should not offer. Meetings loaded with mundane business items and little else. A forum for professional networking. Cliques. Tolerance for ungentlemanly conduct. When we wonder why our brothers aren’t coming to lodge, the first question we should ask is which lodge experience are we offering? Are we offering a unique experience that can’t be replicated — not at the bar, not on TV, not on the Internet? Do men leave Lodge feeling better about themselves by R.W.