My Year In The Grand West

Receiving an invite from RWBro Maher Eid, I attended a Past Master's night at Scarboro Lodge on Monday - the first I had ever attended - which was held at Chisholm Temple, aka the East Toronto Masonic Temple, sadly now sold and many lodges have found new accommodations. It was a meeting very well attended, in addition to our DDGM, RWBro Gil Carreiro, with many Board members present, as well as quite a few Past Grand Senior Wardens, including RWBro Andrew McLelland, RWBro Terry Van Horne, RWBro Dale Graham, MWBro Ron Groshaw and RWBro Maher Eid, who sat in the East as the WM for the 2nd degree team. MWBro. Donald A. Campbell was Master of Scarboro Lodge in 1987, prior to being elected and installed and invested as the Grand Master in 2013. Currently WBro David McDonnell is the Master of the Lodge.

Birch Cliff Lodge and The Beaches Lodge (my Mother Lodge) have enjoyed a long history together - from the early days of "East Toronto" - having once shared the same temple on Balsam at Queen in which they met for over five decades, before each moved to the new temple in Scarborough in the early 1960s. On Friday evening, Birch Cliff No 612 members proudly held a reception for RWBro Peter Sialtsis, who since the forming of their lodge is their first from among them to be elected to the Board of General Purposes at Grand Lodge. Peter is a truly wonderful Mason - and sets a great example for our young Masons - and who sits on Grand Lodge committees providing his expertise in the realm of law, and is also a very active and knowledgeable member of many concordant bodies, and known throughout our Jurisdiction for his superlative ritual work. His parents attended the reception, as did many other friends and family members, not to mention Masons who have known Peter and his contri

On October 22, I sat in the West and helped the Senior Wardens of Ontario District pass a candidate to the second degree - a first for me as Grand Senior Warden. It was a truly wonderful evening to sit in the Oshawa Temple, amidst so much history, given the building's association and origins with VWBro Colonel Sam McLaughlin. I also had the pleasure of meeting two brothers - RWBro Grant Parnell (the DDGM) and Bro Beau Reine - who each worked with and know my brother while at OPG nearby... see the Picture. McLaughlin, fyi, was born on September 8th, 1871 in the hamlet of Enniskillen, Ontario. At the age of 16 he began working for his father's company, the McLaughlin Carriage Works, which his father started in 1867. At one point in time, the McLaughlin Carriage Works was the largest manufacturer of horse drawn carriages in the British Empire, according to MasonryToday.com; McLaughlin was a member of Cedar Lodge No. 270. In 1907, McLaughlin, with the help of William Durant o

Last Saturday, after first meeting WBro Frank Grant in the morning at his residence - a member of the Craft who is 102 years old, and who served in the Merchant Marines in WW2, and who received his 60 Year Service Pin - we travelled into the Ottawa Valley to visit Renfrew Lodge No 122. On this occasion the lodge was honouring three of its members with their Long Service Awards and 50 Year pins: RWBro Jack Ledger, WBro Donald Brydges and Bro Harold Daber were each properly presented and congratulated by the lodge and then greeted personally by the Grand Master, as well as the Grand Junior Warden, Grand Registrar and me. The lodge opened and then closed upon greeting their visitors, and then admitted guests, including many family members and friends, who were not only quite happy to sit inside a lodge room, but also to offer such very appropriate and generous remarks. At the Festive Board, afterwards, I was able to provide the response to the traditional Toast to The Visitors. It wa

After a lovely drive across highways through sunny weather, my wife and I arrived at the Holiday Inn in Kanata in the late afternoon, and soon thereafter departed along with the GJW and his wife to Bytown Lodge No 721 in Westboro. Along with the Grand Master, we were to participate, sitting in our respective chairs, in a Rededication and Recommitment ceremony, as the lodge was celebrating its 50th anniversary. Bytown Lodge, a proud Cornerstone lodge, is very active in Ottawa District 2, and after the ceremony they'd also planned a very special 6-course dinner. It was sold out. Bytown Lodge was formed in the late 60s primarily by former servicemen retiring from the Armed Forces, led by WBro Joe Johnston and RWBro Jim Heffel, with the help of Acacia Lodge who sponsored their application at Grand Lodge, and was constituted in October 11, 1969. A year later, in 1970, the Ottawa District, having grown to 30 lodges, soon was split into two: Ottawa 1 and Ottawa 2, as it remains today.

After a rather hectic day, filled with surprises, I ended up in the East - coming in before the DDGM, per protocol at an Official Visit, for the first time - at Doric Lodge on Thursday. The Beaches Lodge won the Travelling Gavel, and that was a long time coming. The day had started with a meeting in the morning downtown with a group of researchers who require a business plan for their AI app in the Healthcare industry, and leaving there, 90 minutes later, I went to visit an old colleague to discuss some of his opportunities peeping up over the horizon, and from there I walked up the road on a now-blustery fall day to see my doctor. A few days prior, during Thanksgiving, I was felled by a great pain, an abdominal cramping in the stomach, which rotated to a pain in my lower back, and returning to my front - for several days - and on Holiday Monday, I told family members I would see a doctor to ascertain the cause. So, on Tuesday I duly called the doctor's office only to find out h

Last night I visited my illustrious brethren of the Toronto Valley in order to relax and watch the 4th Degree - the Secret Master - and to say hello to friends from other districts as well. At the conclusion is a reading from Albert Pike, who wrote: "Of the Freemasonry of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the true definition is this: 'An advance toward the Light; a constant endeavour, in all its degrees, to exalt the Divine that is in man, in his reason and moral sense, and to make it dominant over the human, earthly and material in his nature, his passions and his sensual appetites.' " The 4th is the first of the degrees in the Lodge of Perfection and, according to their website, these degrees, the 4th through 14th, are called Ineffable Degrees because their principal purpose is the investigation and contemplation of the ineffable name of Deity.

The other night I visited Mimosa Lodge No 576 in Toronto East District that these days meets in Aurora - and, wow, what an impressive temple: a converted church, complete with paintings adorning the walls; apparently several by the same artist who painted the scrolls in Zeradatha Lodge. This was the annual Installation of the WM and Investiture of his officers, and I, for the first time since being invested, sat in the West during the ceremony, while MWBro Don Campbell was the IM. The temple was originally constructed in 1877 as a Methodist Episcopal Church and was purchased in 1885 by The Rising Sun Lodge, which has continued to own and occupy the premises since that time. The walls of the Lodge Sanctuary are graced by four magnificent paintings installed in the early 1900's to illustrate the Four Proper Objects of a Mason's daily life - Prayer, Labour, Refreshment, and Sleep. The first is a mural "Prayer", approximately seven feet square on the "East"

Last night, my mother lodge, The Beaches Lodge No 473 held a wonderful reception for me at York Temple, and also invested VWBro Robert Jewell (who was at my initiation in 2005) with his regalia as Assistant Grand Organist. The lodge was opened at 7pm, and visitors were admitted shortly thereafter, and after being afforded Grand Honours, lodge was closed in order to bring in the guests of the evening, which included my wife, Arlene, and our sons William and Richard. My eldest son Eric was already in lodge as SW, and he welcomed Michaela to also sit in the North with their two children Olivia and Ayven.  Several of my brethren in lodge were asked to provide a synopsis of their relationship with me and share a few of their experiences along the way. WBro Christian Giles spoke about our first day in lodge, and some of our subsequent ventures around the world, and the impact of Freemasonry we have enjoyed together, WBro Russ Richardson regaled us with stories from our days in the music i

Last night I met up with my sidekick our GJW, RWBro Mark Kapitan, at Hwy 6 and the 401 near Guelph, after taking 2 hours to get there, in order to then drive together into Waterloo (where I attended WLU from 1978 to 1981) to join the Grand Master on his visit to  Waterloo Lodge No 539 . The brethren, led by MWBro David Cameron, were investing VWBro David Churchill who was appointed Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies in July, and also attending and receiving recognition was Grand Director of Ceremonies, RWBro Dan Graham. What was unique in this visit was noticing upon their walls an encased gavel, and upon closer inspection finding out it was the historic and well-known Kipling Gavel, a gavel given to WBro Snow in 1934, along with a personal and signed note. Also on the wall was an old copy of My Mother Lodge, a poem written by Kipling when he was in India and attended lodge there as a young man. Courtesy of W Bro David Findlay, in 1972 "Waterloo Lodge joined with three ot

On the 1st, I attended the annual Installation and Investiture of the Officers for Canada Lodge, which currently meets in Whitby, and watched as WBro Craig Woods was installed in the Chair of King Solomon. My friend RWBro Dean Bergerson was the Installing Master, and IPM WBro Bill McKeown proudly invested his son Simon as the Inner Guard. It was also a special night for WBro Ed Russell, as he was invested and Senior Warden - and I had some fun with him at the end of the night in the West. As well, it was nice to see Bro Doug Lauder visiting - he was initiated into Freemasonry as a member of The Beaches Lodge (and he still is a member) but he moved eastbound to Courtice and, due to a fortuitous meeting of Heritage Lodge in Orono a few months ago, he has now affiliated with Orono Lodge, now in line to become JW, and was travelling to Whitby on this evening with WBro Steve Spence who was on the Installing Board. A wonderful night spent with old friends.