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Post by middlepillar on Nov 16, 2004 14:12:09 GMT
I am DC in my Lodge and one of the guys at LOI last night made the comment 'its not in the book'. Which if I had a pound for everytime........ This got me thinking of a thread I wanted to start on the TFL forum but never got around to it.
We are (or should be) proud of our Mother Lodge, and I am sure we all have different bits of ritual that you dont see very often, I would find it interesting to know any 'quirky' working your Lodges have and more importantly if you know the reason for them!
I will give you two in my Lodge;
When our Lodge is closed The JW always leaves his column alone, he does not put it up, I was told many years ago that this is because the Lodge is closed and not 'called off'. In my Lodge we only change the JW Column at 'calling off & on'.
Another thing we do is in the Passing ceremony (this applies to the Raising as well) when the SW addresses the WM saying "WM I present to you Bro....a candidate properly prepared to be Passed to the 2nd Degree" The SW salutes with the EA sign as does the SD when being addressed by the SW "Bro.SD you will instruct....." In a Raising ceremony the FC sign is used. The reason for this was explained to me that at this point the Candidate had not said he was prepared to take a further obligation or had taken the obligation therefore he should not observe any of the 2nd Degree salutes/signs.
By the way I am not saying my Lodge does it the right way, it is just our way and the reasons why.
So does your Lodge do anything slightly different to the norm?
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Post by Trinityman on Nov 16, 2004 14:29:15 GMT
middlepillar
Vive la difference! - that's what I say.
I won't make any comment on the two examples you give - suffice it to say that they are there and presumably have always been there.
What a boring place it would be if we were all the same
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Post by waynecowley on Nov 17, 2004 7:33:51 GMT
Couldn't agree more and, personally, I would agree with middlepillar's logic relating to the signs used - though in my lodge the candidate is turned and probably wouldn't see what sign the SW is holding anyway. The SD does not salute in my lodge when carrying his wand so that is not an issue for us.
However, we have been having a similar discussion locally relating to the position in which brethren stand to order in the 3rd degree - in my lodge we hold the sign of F, in others they hold the penal sign of the 3rd. I believe that my lodge's stance is more logical in the same way as middlepillar's lodge but other look at us as though we are daft
Wayne
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Post by middlepillar on Nov 17, 2004 22:13:24 GMT
This is an interesting 'peculiarity' which is sort of in keeping with 'The Gloves are off thread';
In my Mother Lodge we do not present a Brother with White Gloves until he is Raised.
I will print out the ritual which goes with 'our' peculiarity;
"To complete your Master Masons attire, I present you with a pair of gloves. In ancient times an operative brother, when at labour, wore leather gloves to protect his hands from the lime in the cement. You as a speculative mason, should always wear white gloves as emblems of purity, that your hands may be spotless when you uncover them to take a fresh obligation or renew an old one".
This is taken from 'The Director of Ceremonies, His Duties & Responsibilities.' by Algernon Rose (1932).
I always warn our new EA's and FC's to take a pair of white gloves when visiting because most Lodges (to my knowledge ours is the only one that has this peculiarity) want you to wear White Gloves no matter.
Again this is something that our Lodge has always done, and when I was an FC I remember visiting a Lodge and being given a right B...ock..g! (It wasn't my fault Guv honest!).
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Post by taylorsman on Nov 18, 2004 6:57:40 GMT
I have always loved the differences, even within what is nominally the same Ritual, performed from Lodge to Lodge and am totally against any attempt be this from UGLE or PGMs to standardise Ritual and Practices into a uniform "One Size Fits All".
Also. I usally have a spare pair of white gloves and a spare black tie in my case for anyone who may forget his.
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Post by waynecowley on Nov 18, 2004 7:12:22 GMT
Also. I usally have a spare pair of white gloves and a spare black tie in my case for anyone who may forget his. So do I, after my first vist as an FC and having to find someone with a spare pair of gloves (FCs do not wear them in my lodge) I resolved never to put a guest in that position if I could help it Wayne
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Post by Trinityman on Nov 18, 2004 20:14:07 GMT
One of the things we do differently is the knocks. When the lodge is closed we only give one knock - right at the beginning of the opening, and after the SW has declared it closed. We follow this logic through the degrees as well, so when the SW declares a MMs lodge duly closed he will give FC knocks as he lowers the pillar. Makes sense to me
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sarge
Member
peace and harmony
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Post by sarge on Nov 18, 2004 21:36:24 GMT
at a couple uf lodges in our area,after thepast masters and visiting masters have been welcome, thr W.M.gets up from his chair,walks down to the body of the lodge and personally shakes the hand and welcomes each visiting EA,FC & MM personally. A nice gesture sarge
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Post by whistler on Nov 18, 2004 22:32:00 GMT
at a couple uf lodges in our area,after thepast masters and visiting masters have been welcome, thr W.M.gets up from his chair,walks down to the body of the lodge and personally shakes the hand and welcomes each visiting EA,FC & MM personally. A nice gesture sarge This is another Interesting Difference... Our visitors are escorted by the D.C. to their places before the lodge is opened - After the lodge is Opened the W.M. from the chair welcomes the visitors. The Master would not leave the chair. With a very few specific exceptions, Neither the Master, or the Wardens chairs may be vacant after the lodge is opened. If they need to leave the chair, they must be replaced by Bro of suitable qualification even if for a couple on minutes
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staffs
Administrator
Staffs
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Post by staffs on Nov 19, 2004 20:02:09 GMT
Double click the thumbnail to see image
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ruffashlar
Member
Lodge Milncroft No. 1515 (GLoS), Govanhill Royal Arch Chapter 523 (S.G.R.A.C.S.)
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Post by ruffashlar on Nov 22, 2004 7:32:26 GMT
So does your Lodge do anything slightly different to the norm?
How long have you got?
In Scotland it's not merely common but literally usual for each Lodge to have and perpetuate its own peculiar ways of doing just about everything. I've been to Lodges where, when all the members, visitors and Deputation stand to order, nearly every Lodge represented is making a different gesture. Sometimes the differences are so extreme that you do stare for a minute, wondering if it's you or them who's walked into the wrong meeting. "Oh sorry, this must be Elks, don't worry I'll just pop into the Masons next door" And that's among Lodges from the same Province.
In Glasgow, at the opening and closing of the Third, there's an extra sign that as far as I know they don't do anywhere else. I always feel slightly silly doing it. Dunno why: I'm already standing there in a pink frilly apron with rubber comedy breasts, you think I'd just take it all in my stride.
What's more, not only is the ritual different in Scotland (Goudielock and the Three Bears Oan The Flerr), it's generally different between Lodges, too. Even - don't laugh - between individuals. There are some variations, indeed quite substantial variations, about even supposedly standard items such as the Ob. Sometimes this is through oversight - I don't know how many times I've heard "To all these several parts and points..." reiterated more than once in the same speech - and sometimes the oversight becomes the observance. (And you would think it would be easy to remember which trouserleg to roll up.)
But oversight doesn't account for all of it, or even most of it. Variation is encouraged, but there is no innovation: these are the forms and customs as they've always been. There's less impulse to tut, because with so many variants current, there's no way of knowing which way is right. So we apply the proverb, "Do it how you were taught", and that's how we keep things interesting.
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Post by ingo on Nov 23, 2004 10:12:57 GMT
Whistler, you wrote: "This is another Interesting Difference... Our visitors are escorted by the D.C. to their places before the lodge is opened - After the lodge is Opened the W.M. from the chair welcomes the visitors. The Master would not leave the chair. With a very few specific exceptions, Neither the Master, or the Wardens chairs may be vacant after the lodge is opened. If they need to leave the chair, they must be replaced by Bro of suitable qualification even if for a couple on minutes" This is practically the same in my lodge! Well, we have been LDH in former times, too! Another difference, which has not been mentioned yet: Our rituals are attended by women. ;D
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Post by Proton on Dec 17, 2004 13:21:10 GMT
This week I, and a number of other brethren had the privilege of attending a meeting of the South Saxon Lodge No 311, in Lewes, Sussex. There, all those PMs experienced and participated in the Installed Masters Degree working.
The demonstration team from Adur Lodge undertook the ceremony of demonstrating this wonderful degree in full, which we as PMs all participated in.
At the festive board afterwards, the WM of Adur Lodge explained to us all that this degree is practised in only two Sussex lodges. Furthermore it was also stated that only seven lodges in the country (I assume the EC only) also practised this working.
From memory, some years ago I visited a Bristol lodge at their installation meeting. There the installation of the new master took place in an anteroom adjacent to the main lodge room, where a board of IMs was held. The lodge, while the WM was absent installing his successor was transferred to the authority of one of the Wardens. I believe that a similar format of the ritual took place.
However, Bristol working exists in manuscript form only! It takes something like three weeks to copy out the first second and third degrees! But if they made any mistakes in transcribing the information, I doubt that anyone would know the difference!
Proton ;D
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Agent J
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On a Mission from God...
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Post by Agent J on Dec 17, 2004 13:56:36 GMT
Yes, I believe from conversations with Brethren from the Bristol Lodge I recently visited that during the Installation, the Installing "team" leave the Lodge to an antechamber and then reappear with the newly-installed Master...
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Post by taylorsman on Dec 18, 2004 7:29:13 GMT
The Scots have a similar Installation where the Master Elect is taken off to "The Adjacent" for the Inner Workings.
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Post by mrmason on Dec 19, 2004 7:39:02 GMT
While Steve is correct in saying that the Master Elect is taken off to an adjacent room, in my lodge the brethren go off to the pub across the road while the ceremony of Installation is carried out in the Lodge room. After the new Master has been installed a bottle of whisky is then opened and everyone present gets a glass of the good stuff and toasts the new master. The Installing board is then closed and the Installing Tyler is sent across the road to bring the brethren back to the lodge room.
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Post by middlepillar on Dec 19, 2004 19:58:18 GMT
This is not a difference but it is something I have seen in a Surrey UGLE Lodge that has amazed me and has given me great hope for the future.
7 Entered apprentices in one meeting! (3 visitors and 4 members) In nearly 20 years I have never seen this many in one meeting. ;D
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Post by taylorsman on Dec 20, 2004 9:10:00 GMT
That is a great sign for the future I have to agree MP.
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