Well, by the time this article makes it to you, I can only imagine the kind of winter it’ll be. However, with the 2nd half of the Masonic year upon us hopefully also means that the Lodges are working through another round of degrees. With degrees come ritual practices. My Brothers I strongly encourage you to have more than one rehearsal for all your ritual work. One practice should be reading the ritual and working through the floor work. This means reading out loud in Lodge the italics part of the ritual book. Many of the Brothers present at the practice can learn, or re-learn what this important part of the ritual is. When you get to the second practice, you should be fine tuning your ritual and working on finding out what words you’re missing and omitting from your memorized work. It should be at this practice that you have all your ritual memorized. If you’re having your first practice the same week as the actual degree and not all are proficient, there’s a good possibility that the degree will not come off as good as it should. Remember, there’s 2 points to the ritual. The lessons that need to be thought to the candidate, and how we make ourselves better men and Masons by working through and executing exceptional ritual. It would also be a good idea to have the conductors present at your practices. If this can’t be done, spend some time with the Brothers that will be the conductor before the degree and discuss the important parts with them.
Brothers, I’ve added some names to the Degree Assistance Pool lately. If you’re interested in being on the list and can perform certain ritual on short notice, please let me know and I’ll put you down. For those Lodges that may not be able to fill all the degree parts, please contact me and I can provide names and numbers for those parts for which I have listed on the Degree team. Thanks to those that have stepped up for this innovative already.
Remember in keeping with the Grand Lodge edict, a degree from each Lodge needs to be observed during each Masonic year. There are still have some Lodges that need to have a degree observed. Please contact me with any upcoming degrees, or if you need to exemplify a degree for this purpose.
My Brothers, keep warm this winter, and remember ritual is what makes Masons, good ritual makes Masons better.
VW Edward J Sinay Jr. AGL