Sunday, March 30, 2008

Allegan EA


Allegan may be having problems with its officers, but it is having no problem getting new candidates. Saturday they initiated two EAs, a father and son.

Tim and I drove up and had breakfast before the degree. As Tim is our Junior Warden, I pointed out that the reason Allegan is getting all the new candidates is because of the great food they serve before the degree.

Tim and I took our familiar roles as Stewards, and I blew the second Steward line during the first time through the degree. All that came to mind was the FC degree line. The second time through I got it right.

Other than that the ritual went extremely well. The master of that lodge, Mike, is young, but an outstanding ritualist. Watching him work is intimidating, as his performance as Master may be the main reason that a lodge which has every reason to crumble, is instead thriving. The Senior Warden was confident, unprompted and letter perfect, as was James, acting as Junior Warden. The Secretary has a larger role during the first degree and Mark did a great acting job. Clare, the Senior Deacon, was again instructive to watch and performed superbly. Tim led our procession and worked as a combination of Marshall and Senior Steward.

We ran late, and I had commitments with my family (my wife was actuall in the parking lot wating for me for an hour), so I could not stay for the lectures. But it was great to be part of the ritual, and watch really good ritualists work.

As a side note, I have never memorized well. I can learn, but when it comes to rote learning, I suck. It took me three days to learn one line. And even that was shaky. And I read it out loud every hour, copied it by hand, then created a one-letter-key. As SD on the Fellowcraft degree, I practiced three times in lodge, watched as Steward during the degree, and read the ritual every single day in order to make sure I had my role down. It took three weeks.

So I really admire someone new to a role performing it well. Congratulations to Allegan, and I hope we are fortunate enough to get some EA work this year.

2 comments:

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