Copper Board
Volume 14 Issue 11 Dec 2013 Visit us on the web: http://www.whitemountain3.org |
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Happy Birthday Brad Busler Darrly Dalley Ralph Gerhardt James Mills James Webb
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Masonic Birthday Stan Gibson(63) Bruce Maxwell(46)
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Masonic Deaths
To all Americans who have given the supreme sacrifice for our Country. |
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Dec Schedule 14th 9am – Pancake Breakfast 10am – Lodge Stated Meeting 11am – Installation of Officers 12pm – Lunch 1:30pm – Chapter #7 R.A.M |
Jan Schedule 11th 9am – Pancake Breakfast 10am – Lodge Stated Meeting 12pm – Lunch 1:30pm – Chapter #7 R.A.M
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Sickness and Distress Jerry DuBois Jim Gibson |
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Meeting Calendar 2013/2014
CONGRATULATIONS to the NEW OFFICERS for 2014 |
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2014 Officers Worshipful Master Timothy Humphrey(928-425-8120) Senior Warden Forrest Hammer(928-425-4516) Junior Warden Bill Greenen, KYCH (480-510-4241) (bg_mason@yahoo.com) Secretary Paul Dore' Sr, KYCH (928-425-2891 ) pauldoresr@cox.net Treasurer Scott Teichrow, PM (928-425-8293) rsteichrow@yahoo.com Senior Deacon Earl Warner PM(928-425-7715) jwew98@yahoo.com Junior Deacon Jim Rasmussen Chaplain Ralph Gerhardt, PM Marshall Harold Benjamin, PM Tyler Fred Marquardt, PM
Trustees: Rodney Burden, 2018 Forrest Hammer, 2017 Timothy Humphrey, 2016 Harold Benjamin, PM, 2015 Ralph Gerhardt, PM, 2014
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Committees Public Schools - Ed Warner Widows - Ed Warner Education – Bill Greenen By-Laws – Paul Dore' Sr. Membership - WB. Doug Skowron Community Events - Art Salcido Highway Cleanup – Tim Humphrey Trestleboard – Bill Greenen |
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Secretary's Desk Last month's News: - Poinsettia will be purchased for the widows next month - Boy Scouts completed clean up of the cemetery. - Clothe a Child will be held Sunday December 15th at Bealls Store 8 AM ( 12 to 15th children will be clothed. The Teacher is Ruth Johnson. Help from our members is requested.
FROM THE HIGH PRIEST Globe Chapter No. 7 RAM Time to start practicing for the Most Excellent Master Degree to be given at the 2014 Four Corner's Festival on Oct 4th 2014
Want to be a Royal Arch Mason? Contact Ed Warner. |
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Something to Think About
In England the position of the altars in Masonic craft lodges can vary quite a bit from one locale to another. Some altars are positioned peculiarly close to the Worshipful Master's pedestal in the East of the lodge room. On the Continent of Europe, the Holy Bible or what is referred to as the Volume of the Sacred Law, may often be found on the Master's pedestal. Depending upon the amount of space available, this arrangement can justify the absence of a more centralized altar.
The
ritual (as in the specific rite practiced) and thus the
furniture of a lodge of Masons in the United States is much
more rigorously standardized by the administration of the
various state Grand Lodge. This is not the case
elsewhere, especially not in England or Scotland where
each lodge is afforded its individual autonomy to carry on its
own traditions with regards to the ritual. The procedures
involving movement and presentation are generally unregulated.
Lodges under the Scottish Constitution are often
distinguished by their own tartan pattern, and this creates a
beautiful diversity of regalia. This sense of independence in
Scottish lodges can be further observed in the fact that
the Grand Lodge did not attempt to issue a Book of
Constitution until 100 years had passed since its founding
in 1736. Its first 'Constitutions' (issued in 1836) did
not contain any prescription as to regalia and lodge
layout and for the most part was legendary.
The
oldest lodges had been in existence without a Grand Lodge
for some hundreds of years prior to 1736. These
lodges are generally dubbed as 'Time Immemorial' lodges, and
their warrants (with the exception of those chartered by Mother
Lodge Kilwinning No. 0, generally consist of an old handwritten
copy of the Ancient Charges. This is also the case in
Ireland and England. The sovereign power is the lodge -
not the Grand Lodge as such.
Lodge of Edinburgh
(Mary's Chapel No. 1) have occasionally altered their
procedures since their founding in 1598. They
adopted what one might term to be an English mode of
configuring their lodge room. It may be reasoned
that their geographical proximity has something to do with this
influence.
It has been argued that the actual layout in
a lodge room is more or less dictated by the 'geography'
of the room and the convenience of the placement. There is
a very old lodge that meets in a tiny room down by a
harbour on the east coast of Scotland, and they do not
have an altar because the room is so small. The Holy
Bible is placed on a chair near to the Bible-bearer (an
office which does not appear in English lodges).
I
would argue that the central placement of the altar is an
intuitive process, but what verifiable evidence is there that
it may be so? It is only conjecture, and it could be
argued that the placement of the altar in the East with the
Master is more conformable to the craft lodge's Catholic
beginnings in the bosom of the church as guild and craft
societies preserving mystery plays in imitation of the liturgy
of the Latin Missal. Yes, some ancient initiatory rites
used centrally-located altars, but is that any reason to
assume that Freemasonry employed the same underlying
principles regarding lodge room layouts? None of the
earliest known Scottish catechisms (from 1696 onwards)
mention altars used in the ceremonies. The only
references to the Holy Bible's positioning is in connection
with the emblematic position the candidate assumed in holding
the Holy Bible while taking his oath. Admittedly, there is
nothing about the bible being placed on and supported by
an altar.
The designs drawn on the floors were the
proto-types of the modern day tracing boards. They showed
diagrammatically summaries of the teachings incorporated
in the ceremonials, but none of the early French
exposures which give copious details of the ceremonies
used in England in the early 1740s mention altars or show
altars in the copies of their tracing boards contained
therein.
Can it be fathomed that the placement is due to convenience and not entirely owed to a purposely symbolic motive? One can discern a great deal of emphasis on the centrality of the altar as being intuitive. In the context of Scotland or England and the influence of the Roman Catholic and Anglican church, the placement of the altar in the east in an institution born in the bosom of the church, could equally be considered to be intuitive. Now, if Stuart and Jacobite supporting lodges burned their records and whatever was designed upon the floor was washed off, how are we to really know definitively that there was no meaning behind the placement of the altar. It seems to me there is meaning in everything and every placement of every piece of furniture, every movement, and every image used.