[General
]
17 September, 2008 06:00
New article in the Charleston Gazette
-
Who we are?
As an Internet Society the Masonic Crusade believes in the following:
1. Truth, Justice, and Tolerance are indispensable qualities of Leadership and Membership
2. Transparent, and open Government of Our Fraternity with Freedom of opinion and Equal participation by all
3. Education and Participation are essential for Harmonious and Equitable Brotherhood
4. Reformation of the Laws, and General Regulations to bring West Virginia Masonry into accord with modern Masonic Jurisprudence.
5. Insuring Preservation of the Ancient Landmarks, Customs and Usages of the Fraternity
6. Support of lawful legislative efforts to bring about positive change and growth in Our Fraternity.
contact us at masoniccrusade@gmail.com
calendar
recently...
- Exciting times!
- Site is Changeing!
- Big Changes in Pennsylvania
- Ruling issued in Grand Lodge of Ohio court case
- Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Virginia loses expulsion case
- On the eve of Grand Lodge
- Recent News
- Minnesota Grand Lodge
- For now we see in a mirror, darkly......
- News from the rest of the world.....
archives
- April 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
Categories
General [72]
01/10/2008, 04:19
When I was tired in 2003 here in Illinois, the discovery portion of the proceedings proved to be very illustrative of the perspective and behavior of the contesting parties. I drafted a thirty page complaint for my lawyer outlining the abuses and citing quotes from Past Masters in our Grand Lodge Proceedings, stare decisis renderings from various Illinois Masonic cases going back to 1842, etc. that grew to a trial book of nearly a thousand pages before we were finally granted our hearing. Under the watchful eye of our judicial arbitrator, Mike Coffield, my non-Mason attorney, requested the source documents from the Grand Master who variously claimed that the Grand Librarian could not locate the source documents and cited that various fires and other events left substantial portions of the Grand Lodge records vacant. At the time, we on the defense side found these subterfuges as amusing as they were annoying, as I had access to original documents and contemporary accounts for everything that I quoted and provided the court with footnotes and a bibliography for everything that was related to the case. Though under suspension, I made weekly trips to the library at the Scottish Rite Cathedral at 900 S. Dearborn Chicago and was given access to the separate room downstairs where books and records that had been removed from the shelves upstairs were stored.
We had a trial set for November that was cancelled without notice to the defense that angered the court. When we received our trial the following March, I had all of these source documents stacked up on and around the defense table. There were two essential reasons that the commissioners gave up and sided with our side. At the close of the first day, the prosecutors spent considerable time trying to hide a letter written by the offending Grand Master from the commissioners that, of course, we had handy in our trial book. When we broke fro the night, one of the judges who is a Past Grand Master simply called the Grand Master and asked if he had written such a letter and on the phone he not only admitted doing so, he explained his justification. The next day, the Prosecutors continued with their farce for another hour and we merely had to produce the letter in question. The other reason the trial ended as it did is that the commissioners probably did not want to have to go through all of the material I had with me. I hope PGM Haas has access to all that he needs to defend himself and the others.
With your Grand Lodge session a few days away, a political solution such as a change of Grand Line Officers followed by amnesty and restoration is your simplest recourse. But should the trial proceed; your Grand Lodge Officers should be reminded of their installation obligation to the civil magistrate and be of the mind not to be deficient of the appropriate and respectful candor that the old charge requires. Hopefully, PGM Haas is given a non-suspended Mason to act as librarian who will gather any documents necessary to his defense.
Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Senior Deacon – Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 – Crete, Illinois
PM – Arcadia Lodge No. 789 – Lansing, Illinois
01/10/2008, 18:00
i hope to here something soon from all you brethren regarding trial news and the goings on at grand lodge. on the floor as well as behind the scenes. i will be unable to attend this year, and i am DEPENDING on the good folks here to bring me the news. regrettably, my work has kept me away from lodge the last 2-3 meeting nights in a row and i am somewhat out of the loop as to the goings on, please keep me informed. i did hear a rumor that one of the lodges in the kanawha valley has accepted for initiation a young man of african descent. i didnt hear which lodge it was as i came in at the midpoint of a conversation, and didnt want to butt in.... any body know anything or care to comment??? S.
01/10/2008, 20:45
I am told it was a lodge in Hurricane. I don't know all the details. Perhaps RW Brother Lewis could inform us as that is his lodge.
01/10/2008, 22:00
I hope the Brethren are galvanized by the actions taken this year and speak their mind, even at the risk of their membership. We all know the jewels of a Master Mason. I ask all the Brethren around the world keeping up with this story to pray for the healing of the mistreated and defamed Brethren, and this Grand Lodge. I truly believe your thoughts, comments, and prayers give us strength.
We have received no agenda for this annual communication, but I hear several Brethren have stepped up to the plate on several key issues. I am proud of them!!
God bless P.G.M Haas, Past D.D.G.L. Richard Bosley, and P.M. Justin Blankenship for you have been dealt an unfair blow. Your fate now lies in the hands of your Brethren and I hope they have the "intestinal fortitude" to restore you to your rightful place among the brethren of West Virginia.
As the old saying goes" I will loan any man five dollars, it's worth it to see what kind of man he is"
Brothers Haas, Bosley, and Blankenship have given the craft their $5.00. I hope we return it to them.
If the Brethren of West Virginia let these three men down it will be the worst Masonic execution West Virginia has ever seen, and to think it all started with P.G.M. Haas’ ability to listen to the needs and concerns of the brethren and give them the opportunity for change…..
Don’t let the Baldwin-Felts detectives ruin this gentle craft.
P.S. I hear the G.L. attorney fees are nearing $40,000.00 Way to go Charlie !!!!!!!
02/10/2008, 17:06
brother r saunders, would you care to enlighten us on the stepping up to the plate, what the key issues are , and what action do you feel is about to be taken, or at least attempted. thanks for speaking up. i was thinking everyone from here was on a holiday. S.
02/10/2008, 20:48
I do not know the key issues by heart or in great detail, therefore, I will not comment on them any further other than to say that good and faithful servants of the craft have did their best to bring things to the table. The brethren need to attend if they want more detail....
02/10/2008, 21:02
Also I think that while this site plays a role in exposing abuses by our current leadership, this is not the only method being employed. Some have the patients of Ablalom in
2 Samuel: 13
04/10/2008, 06:27
As an interested Brother from another jurisdiction, the “West Virginia Case” as we have been referring to it has these elements as key issues. Principally, is West Virginia practicing Ancient Craft FreeMasonry?
A. If so, the “Rightful Grand Lodge” will consist of the sitting Masters and Wardens or their proxies with a Grand Master acting merely as an Administrator at the head.
B. Also, race can not be a factor to admit members, only the moral, mental and physical qualifications of the petitioner.
C. Does any Administrator have the right to “unmake a Mason at Sight” without a process that would include the Local Lodge the made him, or have him, or the “Rightfully” elected or appointed representatives of the Craft at Large in Session?
D. What, under the canopy of heaven, is “probation” status for a lodge except to diminish it in the eyesight and earshot of the other lodges? How does a lodge under such penalty meet and act? Can its members visit other lodges? What is the prescription for restoration?
E. How can “resolutions” stand past the administration of a particular Grand Line? In Ancient Craft FreeMasonry, we have Articles of Incorporation, and Coded By-Laws that are made permanent by an act of the Rightful Grand Lodge meeting in Congress. Dispensations, Consensus Opinions of Grand Line Officers, edicts or whatever anyone else names them are at most temporal decisions or expressions of opinion that last no longer than the current Administrator who made them. If a notion is to have any permanency, it must pass the ordeal of the ballot at Grand Lodge.
Without the proper expression of these conditions, the West Virginia Organization is some Club other than Ancient Craft Freemasonry and a relationship to it, if any, will need to be evaluated. Our Illinois Grand Lodge session is this Friday. Is there anything that we can do as we congregate our Representatives that will offer our Brother’s in West Virginia relief?
Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Senior Deacon – Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 – Crete, Illinois
PM – Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 – Lansing, Illinois
05/11/2008, 10:53
Please allow me to introduce myself; my name is Raymond Sean Walters. My racial and ethnic background is Scottish and Native American on my father’s side and African/ West Indian on my mother’s side. Here in America, that makes me Black, despite the genetic mix.
I am presently a member of Valley Hi Lodge #1407 AF&AM, located in San Antonio, Texas. It is chartered under the MW Grand Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons of Texas, and is located outside the west gate of Lackland Air Force Base. I have felt this was a large part of why I was accepted as a member. A large percentage of members of this particular lodge are retired or active duty military from different parts of the world.
For those who still may not understand, it is the recognized ‘white’ Grand Lodge in Texas that is recognized by England, Scotland & Ireland.
Though I am somewhat content with my current membership, I am not completely satisfied. At present it is distance from my home lodge that hinders me. I presently reside in West Virginia, which the actions and comments from the previous two grand masters has made unequivocally clear that I nor any Black man is welcome in the Grand Lodge of West Virginia. For that matter, a Caucasian brother who had been a Prince Hall member while stationed abroad in the US military years ago was deemed unacceptable even though his current membership was in the Grand Lodge of Maryland and he demitted to West Virginia from another recognized Grand Lodge.
This is relevant to me in that I originally was a member of the Prince Hall side of the fraternity. My membership there was by accident, in that my attempts to petition mainstream lodges when of legal age to do so were thwarted by racism. I was directly told that due to my mother being Black, I would not be permitted to petition a regular lodge. At this point in my life, I was a husband, father, recent college graduate and a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force Reserve. Despite my personal and professional standing I was being told I wasn’t “good enough” simply because of my skin color. There was no other factor involved in their decision.
It was then that I learned of the Prince Hall side of the fraternity. I ended up petitioning a Prince Hall lodge North Carolina and placed under the tutelage of a Prince Hall mason who was a personal friend of my paternal grandfather, a white man who was an operative brick and stone mason just like the man and brother he sent me to be instructed by, who happened to be Black. My grandfather trusted my Masonic instruction to a Black man in America in whom he had the utmost confidence.
I worked at my profession, operative and speculative. I was required to learn everything that should be learned by an apprentice from a competent Master. And learn it I did. I learned it so well that I progressed extremely well as a Prince Hall mason. The only thing I wasn’t truly prepared for was the discrimination in the Black community toward one another. To me, it was bad enough to be discriminated against by other Americans, but by other Blacks in America was really incomprehendable.
Nonetheless I persevered until I was residing in Texas. After many years I had reached my personal limits of the abuse and mistreatment I would allow myself to accept at the hands of ‘white’ masons, many of whom didn’t strike me as having much Masonic knowledge, let alone a love of the several liberal arts & sciences, that we as Masons are taught to love and appreciate, and that my parents had instilled in me and my siblings from a young age.
I made my mind up that I would have to be accepted for the man that I AM! I petitioned Valley Hi and my petition was accepted. What I then learned was that I had to re-take all degrees since regular lodges don’t recognize Prince Hall. Though I thought this unusual, I, a Prince Hall mason who has been duly tried, and never denied, I was ready for whatever was thrown at me by anyone calling themselves a Free & Accepted Mason.
Relocation to another part of the country required that a lodge where I was be contacted to perform ‘courtesy work’. This was not a problem since I was in a jurisdiction that fraternal recognition existed, so a Black man in a ‘white’ lodge didn’t draw much attention.
Since that time I have relocated again and presently reside in West Virginia, where I am unable to visit lodges. I considered dimisson to the only lodge in West Virginia that examined me and permitted me to visit, but the action of the last two Grand Master’s concerned me greatly. I did not want to see that lodge, Wheeling Lodge #5, lose their charter or have some other negative action taken against them for allowing my presence.
There is currently a civil court case here in West Virginia against the Grand Lodge of West Virginia by PGM Frank Haas. He was summarily expelled my GM Charlie Montgomery without trial of any kind, for the offense of being an open-minded and decent man. I will gladly email anyone who requests a copy of the friend of the court brief submitted by the Grand Master of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of West Virginia in hopes of assisting GM Haas with his civil case.
The lessons learned by me have been many, but I say this from experience, a Masonic lodge is a Masonic lodge. I have sat in many lodges and given numerous lectures or other ritualistic work to candidates and instruction of brethren present. The ‘work’ is the same regardless of grand lodge jurisdiction. The thing that is different is what is in the heart of the brothers who make up any individual lodge. I can say all of this from my personal experience because in America, I have not only been a member of Prince Hall & mainstream lodges, I have visited and sat in Prince Hall & mainstream lodges.
I wish to thank my parents, grandparents on both sides of my family for giving me a healthy self-identity, and preparing me as best they could to deal with the world. I wish to thank the following Freemasons: Bro. Levi Gee, Jr. of Mount Airy, North Carolina, my first Masonic instructor outside of my immediate family.
I also wish to thank Bro. Joseph Walkes of the Phylaxis Society and Bro. Allen Roberts of the Philalethes Society. My many letters back and forth to these two distinguished masons would give me a fresh perspective or remind me of what was truly important.
26/12/2008, 17:16
hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
28/12/2008, 06:35
hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
lbssjxjwrklnjmrjwrtikkatkkqjwwxupgbhello
23/09/2009, 21:11
Blacks segregated from MS masonry and decided to for PH. Why in the hell when they segregated themselves should we let them back in?