We know in a perfect world, a lodge officer would have 6 years to prepare on his journey to the East. What happens in the real world?? My first office in Lodge was Junior Warden, although I had unofficially sat in the JD chair a couple of times prior. Squirrels,,,,,FEEL FREE TO RUN AMUCK ABOUT THIS THREAD
HA HA. OK so No one I've had in my Lodge has been in that quick of a jump. I'm JD skipped SS that's it. The current WM of a neighboring Lodge was in the same boat. He was in Masonry for about a year before he decided to join line and ended up in the South.
You need the start silently repeating every line of the Opening & closing of the Lodge. Get a WM's workbook and learn the duties of the WM, SW & JW. ... Get a copy of your GL Code and read the duties and powers of the WM; the sections regarding Candidates, balloting; and reports to the GL. Should the WM & SW not be present at a regular Lodge meeting, it will be YOUR duty to sit in the East to open & close the Lodge. You need to be able to do that now, or be able to appoint a PM per GL Code to so (this varies). Learning the Opening & Closing is not really hard, but you do need to, sitting by yourself, open & close doing each Officer's part complete.
I bounced around and filled chairs as needed . But I agree with Edwmax , learn the opening and closing though I would hope all officers (at the very least ) would learn it as it is not hard . I sat in the mornings in my living room with a cup of coffee and learned it fairly quickly after I was first Raised .
Neither the opening nor the closing are in the Tennessee Craftsman (the lodge manual all newly raised MMs are given). Although I do not know of any other ritual aids produced by the GL, that doesn't mean they aren't there. I have only ever seen the same little blue book I have being used during degrees by the officers.
Edwmax, these are all excellent suggestions, and I fully recommend them as well. (I'm currently SW and can do all chairs, as well as most of the degrees.....although I haven't sat in the East for a 3rd degree, or SD the second part (winding staircase) of the second degree)
What do the Brothers do that have no written ritual..... makes learning the chairs on your own a bit tougher....
They must seek out (or be offered) help. Our ritual is in 2 letter cipher. I went to my mentor many times in the past, and will many times in the future (I still have some lectures and much of the second section of the 3rd degree to memorize).
You either have to watch it enough to memorize it, or ask a brother who knows for help. I think the reasoning is similar to the reasoning behind not giving candidates a written or even cyphered lecture, but making them learn it solely from a teacher.
A Lodge of Instruction with the learned Brothers. They are usually pretty willing since the more Brothers who learn the ritual, the less they have to work! lol
Very true....but in reality, that is not always possible....LOI is minimally once a year....not every brother can attend...I was curious if even though they are mouth to ear....is there an official copy just for clarification.....How do you know Lodge A is doing the same thing as Lodge B???
In WI the Grand Lodge maintains an accurate copy of ritual and it is the District Deputies and District Lecturers that are responsible to make sure that everyone is on the same page. And check your regs, see if it says that you can't have LOI's more often Get your proficiency experts and ask them for a series of monthly LOI's as part of a campaign to get more Brothers better with the ritual.
We have the ritual in cipher form.....I like the idea of monthly get togethers to work on proficiency...
Ask some other Brothers if they even want to get together informally to study the ritual. We aren't restricted (at least here) to only studying the ritual in the lodge itself. As long as there are no cowans.
A neighboring lodge, about 2 1/2 months ago, contacted me with a great idea. The Master wants to have LOI every other month on a different night than their regular communication. I helped with the EA degree LOI about 6 weeks ago - they did a EA degree 2 weeks ago and did very well, they did have other practices during the month also. In the next week or so they want to do a FC LOI and a FC degree. They are doing well as a lodge even though they have 29 members on the role and 13 live out of state. An interesting tidbit about this lodge, the WM is the county sheriff and the JS is the police chief. Nothing like having the law on your side.
Your not telling me people actually get together and practice this stuff are ya?????....Hmmmmm.......
