Over the past few days, we’ve learned that in some parts of Washington, the Past Master’s Degree is unknown. And that Brothers in those areas would like to try to revive it.
So, I’ve been talking with a local Brother or two, and we’ve decided that we want to start a traveling Degree team to confer this Degree.
We are thinking that our first trip would be over to northeast Washington, north of Spokane. We’d confer the Degree on some of the Past Masters there, and once they had it, they could turn it into a regular tradition in their area. I understand that a Lodge in that area discussed just that last night.
Here’s the thing…
I think that we need a minimum of six Masons to create a team, but ten would be better. Fifteen would be ideal.
So, if you are a Past Master in Washington State, who has received the Past Master’s Degree, or Secrets of the Chair, and would like to join us for a great road trip and weekend of Masonry, comment your willingness below. We’ll create the team from there.
This should be tremendous fun for everyone on the team, we’ll make it fun! It will also be a great thing that we can do for some of our Brothers!
I figure that we’ll need to spend some time working on the ritual, as I don’t doubt that it is performed with localized differences, and we’ll all need to be on the same page. We’ll also need to divide up roles, figure out whatever props we might want or need, and of course we’ll have to practice the Degree to ensure that our Brothers get a truly top notch experience. But, we can do all of that via Zoom, so distance shouldn’t be a problem at all.
If you want to participate, please just reach out by making a comment below.
If you know a Brother who might want to participate, please forward this post to him.
If we can get enough Masons to pull this off, it’s going to be great!
Having never received the Past Master degree I would be very interested in attending. Since I live on the far eastern side of the state here on the frontier, it would be great to welcome brothers to our neighborhood.
I've added your name to our list of potential candidates. I certainly hope that we can pull a great Degree team together and get over to your neck of the woods for a Conferral!
Well, I'd like to know about what time frame were you thinking about holding this degree? Depending on dates, I can be available as the JD and 3rd tester. Some lodges are also dark in July/Aug, that might pose a hurdle.
I am not sure how the degree you put on went, you might want to reach out to WB Joe Finnoti and/or MW Jim Kendall and see if he would be interested in running the degree, since they are the ones that are responsible for writing it.
Summertime ride over to eastern washington would be nice.
I'm not sure about the timeframe yet. The way I see it, the first order of business is to pull a team together, then go through the ritual to make sure that everyone is on the same page, figure out who is going to do what role, all of that. Then I figure we can schedule it with the Brothers, and after that of course, get some practice in.
I'm guessing late summer, early fall? But it depends on how quickly it can all be pulled together.
I believe that our Lewis Co. Degrees this year (using the ritual we have from W Finnoti and MW Kendall) were superb. They always seem to be as the Brothers here seem to really love the event, so work hard to pull off a great one. But in my (admittedly limited in this instance) travels to see/participate in this Degree, I have found that as with all Masonic Degrees, quality varies quite a lot based on who is doing it.
Agreed that we want to go over in the good weather to make the drive a good part of the experience! Summer, early fall would be best as we all know that when the very first snowflake falls, Western Washington Drivers find it their mission to crash!
We've now got 20 Masons interested in serving on the Degree team, and 5 Masons in 2 different parts of the State looking to bring the team in for some Degree conferrals. We're off to a great start!
Great idea!
High interest but regrettably low availability in the next four months or so.
Excellent! I'll add you to the Degree Team list. I hear the low availability in the near term, but worry not, this is a long term project.
Having never received the Past Master degree I would be very interested in attending. Since I live on the far eastern side of the state here on the frontier, it would be great to welcome brothers to our neighborhood.
That is awesome VW Brother!
I've added your name to our list of potential candidates. I certainly hope that we can pull a great Degree team together and get over to your neck of the woods for a Conferral!
You’ll love it!
I'm game! This is a fantastic idea
I bet you are...
Awesome! Stay tuned for more details!
Well, I'd like to know about what time frame were you thinking about holding this degree? Depending on dates, I can be available as the JD and 3rd tester. Some lodges are also dark in July/Aug, that might pose a hurdle.
I am not sure how the degree you put on went, you might want to reach out to WB Joe Finnoti and/or MW Jim Kendall and see if he would be interested in running the degree, since they are the ones that are responsible for writing it.
Summertime ride over to eastern washington would be nice.
I'm not sure about the timeframe yet. The way I see it, the first order of business is to pull a team together, then go through the ritual to make sure that everyone is on the same page, figure out who is going to do what role, all of that. Then I figure we can schedule it with the Brothers, and after that of course, get some practice in.
I'm guessing late summer, early fall? But it depends on how quickly it can all be pulled together.
I believe that our Lewis Co. Degrees this year (using the ritual we have from W Finnoti and MW Kendall) were superb. They always seem to be as the Brothers here seem to really love the event, so work hard to pull off a great one. But in my (admittedly limited in this instance) travels to see/participate in this Degree, I have found that as with all Masonic Degrees, quality varies quite a lot based on who is doing it.
Agreed that we want to go over in the good weather to make the drive a good part of the experience! Summer, early fall would be best as we all know that when the very first snowflake falls, Western Washington Drivers find it their mission to crash!
A bit of an update:
We've now got 20 Masons interested in serving on the Degree team, and 5 Masons in 2 different parts of the State looking to bring the team in for some Degree conferrals. We're off to a great start!