MM Topic Same things, different terms

Bob Franks

Past District Deputy Grand Lecturer
I just noticed Wind use a term I'd not heard: Special (vs Stated Communication).
It got me to thinking about how different jurisdictions use various terms for the same things:

NC says Emergent Communication
MA says Special Communication

NC says Lecturer, IN says Ritualist (I think...)

NC says The Code, SC says Ahiram Rhiezon (sp?)

Lecture of the Fellow Craft Degree (get ready for a long list)
Second Degree Lecture
Winding Staircase Lecture
Middle Chamber Lecture
Three Five Seven Lecture
Senior Deacon's Lecture

It just amazes me that there is so much variation in terms, just in my country derived from 13 colonies!

What are some variations you have noticed in your travels?

S&F
 

arcxjo

Goat Jockey
In PA, regular monthly meetings are "Stated Meetings", whereas degree work meetings on different nights are "Extra Meetings", and "Special Meetings" are anything else (Special Meetings are rare; I've only ever seen one, when the GM came to visit our lodge).

Our GL Constitution is, like SC's, called the Ahiman Rezon. That was the title of the original Antients' GL Constitution and is supposed to be Hebrew for "A help to a Brother", but from my own limited knowledge of Hebrew, is totally not (although "Ahim" apparently means "Brothers", and "Rezon" "Thinness", according to Google Translate).

I think we're one of the few, if not only, states where our subordinate lodges have a Pursuivant, who does what I take it an "Inner Guard" does in others.
 

edwmax

Active Member
goomba said:
In AL there are stated and called (so say special) meetings.​

Same in Florida.
Same in Georgia. Stated or regular meeting include Lodge business. A call or special meeting is for special purpose and can not include business.
 

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
Wisconsin: Special meetings for any meeting not a regular or stated meeting are for business.
In Wisconsin (F&AM), WM is addressed as such, in Illinois (AF&AM) his is addressed as W.
 

Ashlar2006

Masonic Mafia
We use a Monitor (ritual)
Winding Staircase lecture
Stated and Called meetings
Coded ritual is called "Turkey Tracks" , because it is the first letter or two of each word and looks like a bunch of bird tracks .
 

Duncan1574

Lodge Chaplain & arms dealer
We too have a multi-letter cipher. GL just came out with a new version in a bigger size and spiral bound.
 

Windrider

Plus-sized tuxedo model
In our Officers' Cipher, the second section of the second degree is called "The Senior Deacon's Middle Chamber Lecture". No dodging that one for the SD :)

We actually have three kinds of meetings:

Stated - the regular business meetings in our bylaws.
Special - a meeting for degree work only not during either other type of meeting.
Called - a business meeting for a specific purpose. For example, we might have a Called communication to vote to help a distressed brother financially in a emergency.
 

Bob Franks

Past District Deputy Grand Lecturer
We use a Monitor (ritual)
Winding Staircase lecture
Stated and Called meetings
Coded ritual is called "Turkey Tracks" , because it is the first letter or two of each word and looks like a bunch of bird tracks .
In NC (AF&AM)-
Our Coded Ritual is called the Official Standard of the Work, usually referred to as the "OSW."
Our plain language monitor is The Manual of the Lodge, by Charles Bahnson, usually referred to as the "Bahnson manual."

Our Emergent Communications are any meeting other than Stated Communications, but can only contain business stated in the notification, i.e., conferring a degree, receiving the Grand Master, or the like. If we open early for a Stated Comm. to confer a degree, the business of the lodge must be delayed until the scheduled time of the Stated Communication.

S&F
 
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