January has lived up to its tradition as a very busy time for our Lodge. We are off to a fast start, and February will certainly follow suit.
As you can see, we will have a full schedule of fraternal visits to the Lodges of Masonic District 1A. As is our tradition, these four visits are scheduled to match up with our District Deputy Grand Master's official reception at each of the Lodges. These visits are even more meaningful this year as the DDGM is our own Right Worshipful Frank Rosser Dunaway, Jr. Please join us for as many of the visits as you can.
We will confer the Fellowcraft Degree at our first Stated Communication in February. My plan is to confer at least one of each of the degrees at Stated Communications this year. I hope that many of you who have not had the chance to see degree work for some time will enjoy this opportunity and will take the time to come out and show your support for our candidates. They will surely benefit from the chance to interact with a broader cross section of our members. Please note: the Stated Communication will open as always at 7:30pm; however, we will open an Entered Apprentice Lodge at 6:00pm to receive the catechism return. The Stewards will serve the meal following that at 6:45pm.
At our second Stated Communication we will hear a talk by our Junior Warden, Bro. Bob Watkins, on the history and meaning of the Lodge of Sorrow. We will also practice for the main event of February - receiving Most Worshipful John Randall Quinley, Grand Master of Masons in Virginia, on his official visit to Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 for its 203rd annual celebration of the birthday of our Illustrious Brother George Washington.
The George Washington Birthday Celebration will be held on Saturday, February 26 this year, with events as shown in the schedule. I hope you and your lady will join us for the festivities. This is always a special occasion, and I know that you will really enjoy Bro. Jim Rees' talk regarding how contemporary society views the importance and contributions of George Washington. As the recent District 1A/1B/54 reception of the Grand Master proved, you are in for a treat in being in the company of MW Quinley. Please contact me or any of our officers for tickets.
Please note the "Newspage" section in this edition. I hope to make this a regular feature that will keep us informed about our members as well as featuring our DeMolays and Job's Daughters. For this to work, we obviously will need "news." Please write, call or email me with news of significant happenings in your lives and those of your family members. If you have Masonic events you would like to spread the word on, include those as well.
I hope you are enjoying a safe winter. Please come out and join us in Lodge. As always, if you have transportation needs, contact our Transportation Chairman, Bro. Bob Tidwell.
Sincerely and fraternally,
Jesse T. McMahan
Worshipful Master
| Day | Time | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 02/01/2005 | 11:00 am | FRATERNAL VISIT TO: Skidmore Daylight Lodge No. 237 |
| Tue 02/08/2005 | 7:20 pm | FRATERNAL VISIT TO: Henry Knox Field Lodge No, 349 |
| Thu 02/10/2005 | 6:00 pm 7:30 pm |
CALLED COMMUNICATION: EA Catechism Return STATED COMMUNICATION: Conferral of Fellowcraft Degree (See Master's Message) |
| Wed 02/16/2004 | 7:30 pm | FRATERNAL VISIT TO: John Blair Lodge No. 187 |
| Thu 02/17/2004 | 7:30 pm | FRATERNAL VISIT TO: Andrew Jackson Lodge No. 120 |
| Thu 02/24/2005 | 7:30 pm | STATED COMMUNICATION: Bro. Bob Watkins: The Lodge of Sorrow Masonic Birthdays Practice for Receiving the Grand Master on the 26th |
| Sat 02/26/2004 | 8:15 am 9:30 am 3:00 pm 4:00 pm 6:00 pm |
Wreath Laying at Mount Vernon Reception at Collingwood Library and Museum Tour of the Torpedo Factory Art Center and Shopping In Old Town For the Ladies Stated Communication: Official Visit of the Grand Master Dinner: Reservation Required - Donation of $25 per person Featured Speaker: Dr. James C. Rees, Executive Director, Historic Mount Vernon Dinner Entertainment: String Quartet |
| Mon 02/28/2005 | 7:00 pm | DISTRICT RITUAL SCHOOL: John Blair Lodge No. 187 |
STATED COMMUNICATIONS - The Stated Communications of this Lodge shall be held at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial (GWMNM), Alexandria, Virginia on the second and fourth Thursday of each month except the fourth Thursdays of November and December and for the additional Stated Communications for the observance of George Washington's birthday, June 24th for Saint John the Baptist Day and December 27th for the installation of officers on Saint John the Evangelist Day.
CALLED COMMUNICATIONS - Usually on Mondays as announced herein.
LODGE RITUAL SCHOOL - Will always occur the Sunday before a Monday Called Communication Degree at 7:00 PM, unless otherwise stated. Additional ritual schools will be announced herein when necessary.
YOUTH MEETINGS AT GWMNM - Alexandria-Washington Chapter, International Order of DeMolay, meets the first and third Sundays at 2:00 pm in the North Lodge Room. Bethel No. 22, International Order Jobs Daughters, meets the first and third Sundays at 6:00 pm in the North Lodge Room.
All the very best to our Birthday Masons. Note the 10 Brothers with 50 or more years as Masons! Special greetings and best wishes to them. I will try to list birthdays every month. Apologies to the January Brethren for being late with the notice. If you see a Brother here who you know has not been to Lodge in some time, please give him a call and remind him to come - we would love to celebrate with him in person.
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Job's Daughters:
The area Masonic Youth groups started the year with a wonderful show of sympathy and support for a Brother DeMolay, Dale Breeden, by holding a benefit dance in his honor. Dale is a Brother with Herndon DeMolay who was badly injured in a car accident at the end of last year. The dance raised money to defer some of the costs associated with his hospitalization. Although the dance was put together in a short period of time, I understand that there was a good showing of youth from the area.
On January 8, Bethel 22 held their 112th Semiannual Installation of Officers. The retiring Honored Queen and current Miss Congeniality of Virginia, Miss Stacey L Hampton, presided. A large number of the core Officers were installed filling 14 of the 19 positions within the Bethel. Miramanee Cox, PHQ, was installed as Honored Queen and is serving her third term in this office. At the dance afterwards even Washington was seen to get up and dance (someone pushed the button on the animatronics). The dance was a huge, and loud, success, and I think it is good that the Memorial has the cobwebs shaken from its dusty corners once in a while.
During the month of February the ladies of the Bethel will be attending several Grand Visitations and co-hosting their own on February 26 in Arlington. A Grand Visitation is a special meeting where one or more Bethels are visited by the Grand Guardian and Associate Grand Guardian of Virginia. The girls perform a special ceremony to honor these 'Grand' visitors in addition to 'showing off' their regular ritual work. All Master Masons are welcomed to attend any of the ladies' events. Their calendar can be found online at: http://calendar.yahoo.com/vabethel22. Their current website is: http://www.mastermason.com/bethel22va. They meet twice a month on the 1st and 3rd Sundays at 6pm in the North Lodge Room at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. A special note regarding the February 6th meeting: The meeting will be moved up to 4pm in honor of the Superbowl that evening.
Do please plan to attend one of the meetings. You will find the energy and enthusiasm most impressive, and the members of the Bethel are always very happy to see our interest in their activities.
Demolay:
The DeMolays (with help from the Jobies) had a very successful Christmas Tree sale for 2004. Sales, activity, and proceeds to the youth groups were way up. They sold out a week early, even given some pretty harsh weather conditions. Those of you who were unable to help as adult members of the team really missed out on a lot of fun - especially Dad Mertz' nuke BBQ setup for hot dogs!
The new Master Councilor is C. J. Mrozek, and he has a busy term planned out including DeMolay Week on March 13-19; and in April the Northern Region Institution, performing the DeMolay Degree at Masons' Night, and celebrating the 41st anniversary of the Chapter. The young men really enjoy seeing us at their meetings which are on the 1st and 3rd Sundays at 2pm in the North Lodge Room. Give them your support please.
At our first Stated in January the Lodge recognized the dedication of our two key "E-Masons" - Rt. Wor. Jack Canard and Wor. Jim Stevenson. As all of us who are on the internet know, these two Brothers keep us all networked and informed - Jack with his great website (www.aw22.com) and ListServs and Jim with the official AW22 website (www.aw22.org). Jack and Jim devote countless hours of their personal time on these projects, and we owe them a great deal. Thank them personally when you see them.
At that same meeting our DDGM, Rt. Wor. Frank Dunaway, presented the John Power Stokes award for the Masonic Year 2003 to our Lodge. The Worshipful Master for that year, Wor. Bro. Jim Stevenson, accepted on our behalf. This award recognizes those Lodges that contribute over $25 per member to the Masonic Home of Virginia. The Lodge should be rightfully proud of our support for this great institution. Please remember to contribute as much as you can again this year!
There have been reports of our Junior Past Master, Frank Skwirut, being sighted on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Frank left the day after our installation of officers for a much deserved month-long vacation in Brazil visiting his family. He has surfaced periodically on email enthusiastically rubbing it in that his weather is just slightly better than ours in the DC area! We look forward to his safe return.
Brethren, one of the largest expenses our Lodge incurs each year is the printing and mailing of the Trestleboard. Wor. Jim Stevenson has the electronic version up on the Lodge website before any of us can receive it via snail-mail. Would those of you who are on the internet be willing to forego a printed copy in favor of on line viewing? If so, please email me and let me know, and we will stop mailing your copy. Thanks so much for your consideration; the Lodge's finances are improving thanks to the dues increase, but every little bit helps.