CHESAPEAKE SCOTTISH RITE CLUB
By: John W. Kinnier, 32°, KCCH, President

The Scottish Rite Clubs are open to all of Scottish Rite Masonic family, and provides further opportunities to enjoy fellowship with our colleagues in social settings.  New Scottish Rite members are particularly welcome, and are cordially invited to join the club and participate in our functions.

Several upcoming events are being planned.  We are attempting to arrange a Sunday matinee outing to a local Dinner Theater in March. The details are being developed, and we will send an announcement before the event.

Please mark Sunday, August 29th on your calendars.  We are again planning a trip to Ripken Stadium for an Aberdeen Ironbirds baseball game. We will enjoy a barbeque picnic in a reserved section in the stadium, and will have group seating for the game.  This was a much enjoyed outing last year, and we are looking forward to another fun-event this year.

If you have questions, or for more information, please call me, John Kinnier, 410-321-7235 or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

CHESAPEAKE CONSISTORY
By: Hon. Robert S. Yingling, Jr., 32°, KCCH - Master of Kadosh

As Winter slowly passes, we all are looking forward to Spring and all the newness it brings.  The year 2010 promises to be a special one for Scottish Rite Masonry.  We welcome our new Deputy of the Supreme Council, Ill. Marlin L. Mills, 33°, who will begin the year with many new members and 4 new leaders of the four lodges.  We look forward to his leadership, and pledge our support to keep the Valley of Baltimore vibrant and ever growing.

The Chesapeake Consistory has a full, strong line of active Masons who will work hard to make this year a successful one.  I thank each one of them and look forward to our participation leading up to the Spring Reunion Day, April 10, 2010.  Come out and see the good work done by a wonderful group of dedicated Scottish Rite Masons.

In closing, I want to take a minute to thank Ill. Hans R. Wilhelmsen, 33°, S.G.I.G. Emeritus, and his wonderful Lady Leah for all their hard work and thoughtful attention in making any visit to our Temple an extremely comfortable one.  Yes, we are a big family and we will miss you both!  Don’t stay away too long; we need you now as much as ever. 

I hope to see many of you leading up to the 32° conferral this Spring.

A NEW BEGINNING

By: Ill. Bennie G. Owens, 33° - Orient Personal Representative

As we start our spring season, we have just installed new officers in all of our Scottish Rite Bodies. We have a new leader in our Deputy for the Supreme Council, Illustrious Marlin Mills. We have had great leadership during the last eight years with Dr. Wilhelmsen, so it now behooves us to demonstrate that his leadership was sound and move forward with our new leader. It will take the extreme cooperation of every member of all five Valleys in the Orient of Maryland to make this transition smooth and, for the betterment of our Scottish Rite.

Each one of us needs to pledge our support to make our wonderful program continue to improve. As a Past Grand Master, I can assure you that it is difficult to walk away from all of that responsibility without the feeling that “if I could just have done so and so it would have been much better.” Such is the nature of our institution. Please help your new officers and new leader accomplish the most for our Rite that is possible.

I can not act for you, but with your help, we can accomplish much. We must put more effort in our support of our Director of Work and our several Degree Masters. They can only assign tasks and hold rehearsals, but the execution is up to the members of the cast. Now is the time to make improvement our primary goal. I do not mean to imply that we haven’t been doing these things, but we need to double our effort to make them even better. We should never be complacent about our work when just a little more effort can make it even better.

This does not only apply to our degree work, but to all phases of our Scottish Rite. We must improve planning. We must improve the distribution of work (or effort). We must involve more brothers in each phase of our activities. If we could but have a few more people working on any single project, it would proceed better and allow us the freedom to cover a brother when he is ill or has to work. We do a very good job of showing our new candidates the opportunities available, but maybe we should periodically review some of these opportunities with some of our older brothers who are not at present taking part in our activities. Maybe we should send questioners out to all of our members and ask them what they can do for our Rites today as their lives and obligations change. I know, that in my own case, the time and effort that I can devote to Scottish Rite has changed as my life has changed over the years.

There are so many opportunities in our Rite that there can be a small or great place for each member to act. We do not only need actors and directors, but we need some people to sweep the floor and sell popcorn to make the program go. So please, MY BROTHERS, make yourselves available for whatever large or small part you can do to be a player in this most interesting game. The more you learn and the more you participate, the greater interest you will have. Also, the more that you interact with your fellow MASONS, the more you will enjoy our great fraternity. Let this be a challenge for each of you. May our beautiful Rite and all of Freemasonry be better as we progress this year.

Maryland Scottish Rite has a new broom, every brother of the Rite needs to help push that broom. As the OLD BOSSUN used to say in the Navy we need a clean sweep down fore and aft. So let’s turn to for inspection and may our efforts make our gentle craft even more beautiful than it has been.

With this kind of effort we can show Hans Wilhelmsen how much we loved and appreciated him and demonstrate that same love for Marlin Mills.

Respectfully submitted,

Bennie G. Owens,

Orient Representative