Sword and Trowel - April 2015

Sword & Trowel April 2015

1860 2015

Sword & Trowel April 2015 Volume 2 No. 11 Page 2

Table of Contents Grand Sessions ... 3 Itinerary ... 3 Hard Work & Dedication ... 4 Day at the Races ... 6 Twenty-Four Inch Gauge . 10 Ritual . 10 Far & Wide Communications . 11 CMMRF . 11 Scholarships . 11 Masonic Teachings . 12 Battalion and Belles Dinner . 13 Contact Information . 14

Illustrious Grand Master Cryptic Masons .. 14 Grand Recorder ........................................ 14 Editor ............. ......................................... 14 Website........... ......................................... 14

Grand Council Cryptic Masons Officers . 15 Grand York Rite Sessions (Forms) 16

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Grand.York.Rite.of.California/


Grand Sessions

Companions,

Grand York Rite Sessions are coming soon. The Double Tree Hotel in Bakersfield will be a very busy place

May 16th through May 20th.

Speaking for the Grand Assembly of the Grand Council, there will be much to consider on Monday morning,

May 18th. There are several resolutions to be considered that, if passed, will streamline the way our Councils do business. Also, with our Grand Treasurer and Grand Director of Ritual stepping aside next year, there

will be new companions to be elected to the officer corps along with the progressive line officers in our Grand

Council.

These are important discernments that can only be made at our Grand Assembly on May 18th. I strongly

encourage all voting members of our Grand Council, including the Illustrious Past Masters, to attend Grand

Sessions and participate in making these decisions.

The Grand York Rite Banquet on Sunday, May 17th will be special this year. Right Worshipful M. David

Perry, Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California will be representing Most Worshipful Russell

Charvonia, Grand Master of Masons, Grand Lodge of California. The exciting part is that Companion Perry

will be greeted as a Select Master by Gateway Council in Auburn on April 27th, just three weeks before the

banquet. This is a great opportunity, for those of you that can, to greet David not only as a Select Master in Auburn, but also as our Deputy Grand Master of Masons at the banquet in Bakersfield.

The time to register for Grand Sessions is now. The forms are attached to this issue of the Sword and

Trowel.

Sincerely and Fraternally, David Chesebro, Grand Master

Itinerary

For the latest schedule details: http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/council/calendar.html

http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/council/calendar.html


Hard Work & Dedication

Companions,

After traveling from south to north in our state with Illustrious Grand Master David this last month I am

encouraged with the Ritual we saw.

In Escondido we saw two degrees (Royal and Select Master), in Visalia an opening for a stated assembly and

at Golden Gate Race Track Outing a Royal Master degree. In all cases the Ritual was well done with no

books except for fill-ins for Companions who could not make the degrees. This shows hard work and dedication of all involved and Companion's with Pride in our Ritual. Our Ritual Staff lead by Illustrious Ken

Nagel, our Grand Director of Ritual, have worked long and hard to improve our ritual and the work we saw

recently shows us this hard work is paying off. The School of Instructions’ and the practices are how our

Ritual gets better but it the dedication of the Companions brings a breath of life to its meaning. This Ritual

is what makes our Craft special and raises it to a higher standard than other Fraternities. I thank the

Companions for making our long trips special with such wonderful degree work, keep up the hard work and your inspiring dedication.

These pictures are of Mark Crosby of Helix Council No. 58 and Mark Quinto, Jr. of San Diego Council No. 23.

Lee P. Whelan, William Price, David Chesebro, and Brett MacDonald


Fraternally, William E. Price KYCH Grand Principle Conductor of the Work


Day at the Races

What must one offer a sitting Most Illustrious Grand Master, a Most Illustrious Past Grand Master, a Right Illustrious Grand Principal Conductor of Work, and a Right Illustrious Grand Marshal North, to all attend your Council Royal Master degree conferral?

Good as our Oakland Council Royal Master Degree team is, after conferring fourteen Royal Master Degrees last year, this is no small undertaking.


The MIGM David Chesbro would have to travel from Los Osos, near San Luis Obispo, to the Bay Area. Not a short distance. And how do you get his lovely wife Sarah to accompany him? The MIPGM Dick Williamson and lovely wife Judy live in Fairfield, and they love attending, so we’re OK there. The RIPCW Bill Price lives in San Mateo, a horse lover from old Bay Meadows days, he’s OK. The RIGMN Guy Chalmers lives in nearby Petaluma, and he’s always open to a good time, so he’s OK.


Here are some ideas:

1) Offer David & Sarah fame and fortune, 2) Tell them their close friends live in nearby Albany, so why not pay them a visit, & us as

well, 3) Let them know how fabulous Oakland Council really is, so how could they resist, 4) Invite them to a Royal Master Degree conferral at Golden Gate Fields, with Turf Club

entrance, full buffet lunch, racing and wagering, trackside viewing of races, group photo, and visit with an up and coming track star, Prince Charmant.

5) One of these options worked, guess which.


The same enticement also worked on forty adults and two children. Who would have guessed! The horses just sell themselves, especially our beautiful, precocious, and talented Prince. Golden Gate Fields always goes all out to please their visitors, as well.

Can you tell, from these photos, how well the degree was received, how delicious the buffet lunch was, and how they felt about meeting Prince? In one word, WONDERFUL.

Bud Warder, KYCH Oakland Council Recorder


Twenty-Four Inch Gauge

How to fit 36 hours’ worth of tasks into each day? I have not been able to find the answer. This time, it is beyond the Masonic Mysteries but there are outside factors that affecting me. I am probably not making much sense here – so let me be a bit less cryptic.

Right now, it is past 11:00pm, I am almost caught up entering the reservation data received thus far. I am about 100 man hours behind on a project for my regular vocation, which is increasing.

April has important dates for the Grand York Rite Sessions.

April 10th is the deadline to make your hotel reservation. This gets you the special room rate which is a savings over their regular room rate. It is very important to make your reservation

within the Grand York Rite block to meet our room night commitment and the thousands of dollars we receive in considerations from the hotel, like our meeting room for the sessions.

April 15th is when your Souvenir Program Ad submissions are due. This program has been very successful in helping defray the operating costs for the Grand York Rite Sessions. Have you noticed that there has not been an increase request of the 25 cent Sessions assessment since it was introduced?

April 18th is the deadline for your reservations to be postmarked to avoid the late fee and more importantly, allowing the time needed to prepare your packets and provide the hotel and others with the meal and event counts.

You may have noticed we have set up a single address to send in the registration and Ad forms: P.O. Box 402 Penryn, CA 95663-0402. And we have set up a phone number to reach the Ads, General and/or Reservations Chairmen: 844-4CA-GYRS. The forms are all available on the website: www.ca-gyrs.org

Thank you for making your submissions on time.

David Glass

Ritual

Concerns and thoughts about our beloved Freemasonry’s

We should be concerned that our ritual is not what it should be. We have a very serious problem! Our membership does not have the required interlineal fortitude to stay the course and spend the time to learn the work. Must we form Degree Teams in our districts Blue Lodge and York Rite? Our candidates deserve the very best and we are not giving them their money’s worth. I see disappointment in their faces and am afraid that we will lose them to other interests. We must have pride in our ritual and in all of Masonry. It starts in the Blue lodge; they are conferring degrees without any practices and not enough members of their own lodge to confer the work. What has happened to Masonic pride and self improvement? Officers’ coaches are appointed who are not doing their jobs just to have an Officers Coach; is this good for our Fraternity? Inspectors should be looking for the best ritualist with a great attitude toward the ritual not just fill a void. Ritual is done solely for the benefit of the candidate, not one’s ego.

We must improve our ritual however or with whatever it takes. It is not just in Blue Lodges it is in the Scottish Rite Valleys and York Rite Bodies throughout this state. We have bodies throughout this state where one member of a cast knows his part and everyone else reads them and they cannot even read them well. We have bodies that can barely open or close in York Rite. In the Scottish Rite Valleys they read the opening and the closing and that’s not acceptable

http://www.ca-gyrs.org/


either. York Rite reduced its problem by having Degree teams in the Departments, but is that really an answer?

I see this in the York Rite bodies, Chapters, Councils and Commanderies; in Scottish Rite bodies, Lodges, and Consistories. Where will it stop? I understand a last minute substitute reading a part but someone who does not think enough of himself or have enough pride in themselves to learn the part should at least be able to read it fluently. What has happened to pride in our ritual? Heads of Scottish Rite Bodies through the state serve 12 months and do not bother to either learn opening and closing or even read it fluently but just muddle through it. Where is the pride in our Fraternity?

Old timers have a mini practice between sections of a degree so that the work gets done and who plays the candidates? Work is repeated because someone forgets their part, never apologize or repeat the work. If you leave out that part, keep going the candidates does not know the difference until you point it out to him; then he wonders why am I doing this? Why are they using me for their practice? Make sure that the cast is prepared for the degree and everyone knows where they are to be, what they are to do, when they are to do it. Let’s improve the Ritual throughout this Fraternity.

Far & Wide Communications

Communications is vital for York Rite Masonry as Communications is vital for any entity, and is the key to

any success. Those seeking further light in Masonry; those seeking further information about us; those just “reading”; publications are an attempt to disseminate information. Become a part of this

activity, resolve to act and resolve to become involved.

1) Disseminate “Encompasser”, a quarterly publication by Grand York Rite of California, far & wide

throughout your York Rite Bodies;

2) Disseminate “Workman”, a monthly publication by Grand Chapter Royal Arch Masons of California, far & wide throughout your York Rite Bodies;

3) Disseminate “Sword & Trowel”, a monthly publication by Grand Council Cryptic Masons of California,

far & wide throughout your York Rite Bodies;

4) Disseminate Grand York Rite, a Facebook Web Page, far & wide throughout your York Rite Bodies; &

5) Disseminate Grand York Rite Web Site, Grand York Rite of California Web Site, far & wide throughout

your York Rite Bodies.

CMMRF

Companions please think about Cryptic Masons Medical Research Foundation. Our Charity (Cryptic

Masons Medical Research Foundation) can really use your support with Dollars. Please send all

donations to me, so that I may process the proper receipts and mail all donations to Cryptic Masons Medical

Research Foundation in Nashville, Indiana. Please take a few minutes and think about our charity.

Fred J. ‘Tiny’ Potter, MIPGM Chairman, CMMRF (California)

345 Otono Ct.

Camarillo, CA 93012-6822

http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/encompasser_issues.html

http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/royalarch/GHP_Newsletter.html

http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/council/bulletin.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Grand.York.Rite.of.California/

http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/

http://www.cmmrf.org/

http://www.cmmrf.org/


Scholarships

Companions, your children, grandchildren, & for some, great-grandchildren may receive financial help for attending school. After opening up Scholarship Center website, have them go to bottom of page & find the

Scholarship Manual in (PDF format – 450KB) to download.

There they will find instructions for filling out the forms.

This is the link which will take you to the public Grand Lodge web page on scholarships. All the information

you need should be right there. This is a complete manual that you can download that talk about all of the scholarships available from the California Masonic Foundation as well as the Scottish Rite, York Rite,

Eastern Star, High Twelve, DeMolay, Job’s Daughters, & Rainbow for Girls.

Masonic Teachings

THE MASTER’S WORD: The principal theme of Ancient Craft Masonry is the search for the Word. Throughout all the symbolism of Masonry, from the first to the last degree, the search for the Word has been considered a symbolic expression of the search after truth. The attainment of truth has always been acknowledged to be the great object and design of all Masonic labor. Devine truth, the knowledge of God, concealed in the True Word, is the reward of every Mason who has faithfully completed the task. It is, in short, the “Master’s Wages”.

In the Master Mason Degree, set during the construction of King Solomon’s Temple around 1000 B.C., we learn that the Master’s Word has been lost, and a substitute word had to be used until future ages should find out the True Word. King Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in 586 B.C. But, 52 years later, Cyrus, King of Persia, allowed the Jews to rebuild their temple.

This new temple, commonly called the Second Temple, is the setting for the Royal Arch Degree, where the True Word is found, and restored to the faithful Masons. So, how was the True Word preserved those 500 years so that we can find it? The Royal Master and Select Master Degrees close the circle of Ancient Craft Masonry, providing us a model of foresight and precautionary action, so that all good Masons can understand the goal which we should seek.

* Volume 2, Issue 5 Fall, 2012 The Cryptic Freemason

http://www.freemason.org/scholarshipCenter/index.htm


Battalion and Belles Dinner

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2015

BURLINGAME LODGE No. 400 145 PARK RD.

BURLINGAME, CA

Salad, Baked Chicken, Pesto Pasta, Garlic Bread Wine Available

6:00pm

$12.00 each

B&B Medallions DJ Music and Dancing

Great Food

Great Company Great Cause

Wear your Purple Become a member of the Purple Family - become a Purple People Eater

Most everyone has some purple clothes


Contact Information

Illustrious Grand Master Cryptic Masons: Most Illustrious Companion,

David L. Chesebro, KYGCH

Grand Master Cryptic Masons of California

(805) 459-2618

Grand Recorder: Ken Hope

11428 E. Artesia Blvd, #13

Artesia, CA 90701-3872 (562) 924-6500 (W)

(562) 484-1611(C)

Editor: Richard E. Thornton

(209) 747-9518 (C)

Website:

Grand York Rite of California

Note: Hyperlinks or links to other pages or web sites are prevalent throughout the document.

Please notice the reference “Sword and Trowel; if you run your mouse over these names you will see “Ctrl +

Click to follow link”. These are valid links to York Rite information.

Have you gone to our Grand Council website lately? www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/ Do you know

that there you can find rosters of officers, forms that you need, and a complete copy of the

Officers Guide. The Officers guide helps you plan and know what is expected you.

mailto:[email protected]




http://www.yorkriteofcalifornia.org/council/bulletin.html



Grand Council Cryptic Masons Officers

We, the officers of Grand Council of Cryptic Masons, are here to assist you, Please call upon us.

154th MOST ILLUSTRIOUS GRAND MASTER

David L. Chesebro, KYGCH & Sarah

San Luis Obispo Council No. 38 C.M.

DEPUTY GRAND MASTER

Brett A. MacDonald & Donna

Shekinah Council No. 35 C.M.

GRAND PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR OF THE WORK

William E. Price & Janet

California Council No. 2 C.M.

GRAND TREASURER

Frederick J. “Tiny” Potter, MIPGM & Donna Ventura Council No. 15 C.M.

GRAND RECORDER

Kenneth G. Hope, HMIPGM & Sonny Shekinah Council No. 35 C.M.

GRAND DIRECTOR OF RITUAL

Kenneth G. Nagel & Kathy

San Jose Council No. 20 C.M.

GRAND CHAPLAIN (North)

Richard A. Wilson & Kitty

Sacramento Council No. 1 C.M.

GRAND CHAPLAIN (South)

Paul D. Erickson & JoAnn

San Luis Obispo Council No. 38 C.M.

GRAND CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD

Lee P. Whelan & Teresa

Riverside Council No. 59 C.M.

GRAND CONDUCTOR OF THE COUNCIL William S. Dann & Anne

Pacific Council No. 37 C.M.

GRAND STEWARD Eduardo Estrada & Natasha

Omega Council No. 11 C.M.

GRAND SENTINEL

Robert A. Morrison & Pauline Butte Council No. 50 C.M.

GRAND ORATOR

William J. Miklos III & Angelica Amador Council No. 31 C.M.

GRAND MARSHAL (North)

Guy M. Chalmers & Jeanne

Redwood Empire Council No. 46 C.M.

GRAND MARSHAL (South)

Rees W. Padfield & Elaine

Ventura Council No. 15 C.M.

GRAND SOLOIST

K. Mark Harris

Oakland Council No. 12 C.M.

GRAND MUSICIAN

John A. Gonsalves & Saralu

Shasta Council No. 6 C.M.

GRAND BIBLE BEARER Richard J. Jolley & Carol

Sierra Nevada Council No. 44 C.M.

GRAND STANDARD BEARER David P. Glass & Kathy

Gateway Council No. 13 C.M.























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Sword and Trowel - April 2015