Wednesday, Allegan had a fellowcraft degree. Allegan has had a tough time with membership recently, actually losing their Junior Warden, but we all pitched in, and passed the brother with the best ritual we could give him.
Five of us from South Haven, including James, participated in Allegan's degree. I enjoyed the irony of our Junior Warden, Tim, taking the Senior Steward position, with James taking the Junior Warden Position -- James has been sitting in as JW in Allegan during their business meetings and practices. Two superb ritualists from our lodge, Dick and AB, gave the lectures. AB is our Marshall, and Allegan hasn't practiced with one, but once their SD got used to it, the floor work went from good to great. I can't stress enough how crucial a Marshall is during the ritual, even though he is considered "optional". I was the other Steward, allowing me to observe the SD closely.
It was good in so many ways:
- I got another practice for our Fellowcraft degree -- which is next Tuesday, and I was able to observe the things I liked that the Allegan SD did.
- It is a wonderful feeling knowing that you've helped give a Brother the best ritual you can.
- It also feels good to help out a brother lodge in need.
Our lodge does not allow books during degrees or meetings (unless you've been unexpectedly asked to sit in an unfamiliar chair), and I understand why. As someone once remarked: "It is no fun to memorize all that ritual only to have some guy with his book open making sure you don't miss a word".
When I do ritual, I do it slowly. There are a variety of reasons for this -- mostly to do with my storage retrieval capacity -- but when Dick saw me doing that during practice, he told me he liked it because it lets the candidate hear the words. It also slows the ritual down to a more solemn pace. And while the SD gets ordered about to and fro, he does get to control the pace of the floor work, and quite a bit of the ritual.
On a side note, our SD last year did not use his staff during the opening of the lodge, nor do many of the other SD's I have observed. However, the SD at Allegan does use his staff during the lodge opening, and I like it. Our WM doesn't care, so I'm going to do it that way.
Does your SD use a staff to open lodge?
15 comments:
I'm surprised your Deacons don't use rods during ceremonial purposes. The rod (staff, wand, whatever you want to call it) gives the Deacon freedom of the Lodge to go whereever he wants (eg. pass in front of the WM).
If the Stewards are escorting candidates, they also carry their rods.
All my Lodges also require the SD to carry their rod when taking the ballot box around.
However, I'd caution against arbitrarily changing your Lodges ritual because you think something looks cool.
http://justamason.blogspot.com
Justa,
We do carry our rods during rituals and when escorting candidates -- don't get me wrong. I was just talking about opening and closing lodge.
I see, Royce.
Anyway, yes, in the two Lodges I belong to which use the American style of ritual, the Deacons (well, the J.D. doesn't do that much) carry rods. The only time it doesn't happen is in a bit of floorwork that appears unique to my jurisdiction where the WM, SW and Deacons communicate something from W. to E. in the open and in the reverse in the close. It's difficult holding a rod and giving signs. :)
I was at a Prince Hall meeting today and likewise, their Deacons carry rods at all times in the opening/closing.
http://justamason.blogspot.com
Staffs or rods and wands are not the same thing....for one thing the wand is about 10 inches long.
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