Shriner's Night At Pringles Park

May 28, 2009
7:00 PM

Your West Tennessee Diamond Jazz and surrounding are Shriner's Clubs are teaming up to offer everyone a night of fun and excitement at Pringles Park!

The Shriner's Club will be entertaining some very special guests, while also reigniting community awareness of the clubs humanitarian efforts. We are looking forward to hosting a great night for the Shriner's Club and their special guests.

General Admission tickets will be sold for a special rate of $1. The Shriner's Club will be donating these tickets to the guests of their choice. A Shriner's representative and a special guest will throw out the ceremonial First Pitch. The Shriner's Club will be acknowledged for their charitable efforts throughout the night via Scoreboard and PA Announcements.

Also available at Pringles Park:

$1 Hotdogs $1 Fountain Drinks $1 Draft Beer $1 Popcorn

The Revolutionary Masons

The recent Tea Parties across the nation advocating the return to traditional values and principles (I dare say Masonic values and principles) bring to mind the lead up to the original one in Boston on December 16, 1773. The following are some excerpts from "Freemasons In The American Revolution" by Charles S. Lobingier:

"At the outbreak of the Revolution, Masonic Lodges in America were few and feeble. The oldest of them had existed less that half a century and the membership was exceedingly small. But what was lacking in members was more than supplied in quality. The Freemasons of that period included the flower of colonial citizenship and their very fewness was a source of strength. In a small lodge all could know and trust each other. Hence it is not strange that some of these colonial lodges became the centers of revolutionary thought.

Foremost among these was the Lodge of St. Andrew at Boston. Founded in 1756 and chartered by the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1760, it began its career independent of English influence and just in time to share in the opening scenes of the war for independence. Joseph Warren was its Master, and on its rolls were the names of John Hancock, and James Otis and many others who are now recognized as the leading characters of that eventful epoch. And almost every important movement in the patriotic cause in Boston, preceding and precipitating the Revolution, may be traced back directly or indirectly to St. Andrew's Lodge.

The famous "Sons of Liberty," organized in 1765 to resist the enforcement of the Stamp Act, were but an offshoot of this Lodge, and was also the "North End Caucus" to which was committed the execution of some of the most daring plans of the patriots. Both of these organizations met at the Green Dragon Tavern which was owned and occupied by St. Andrew's Lodge, and the members of the latter were leaders in the former. It was at this tavern that the historic Boston Tea Party was planned by Warren, (Paul) Revere and other members of St. Andrew's. The records of the lodge disclose that on the evening after the tea-laden ships arrived in Boston harbor there was an adjournment on account of small attendance and the secretary adds the significant note that "consignees of tea took the brethren's time." The minutes of December 16, 1773, the date of the tea party, show that the lodge was again adjourned until the next evening. Its members were among that band of enthusiasts who had boarded the ships and were rapidly heaving the obnoxious tea into the waters of Boston Harbor.

In the days that followed it was Paul Revere of St. Andrew's Lodge who earned the title of :The Patriotic Mercury" or "The Messenger of the Revolution."

Centennial Lodge #491 Detroyed By Fire

At approximately 8:30 pm last night (4/8/2009) the Centennial Lodge #491 of Erwin, TN was destroyed by fire. Lodge #45 can sympathize with their loss. We suffered a similar fate in 1979 when the Jackson Lodge #45 building on Baltimore Street in Jackson was destroyed by a fire.
Please keep the Brothers of Lodge #491 in your thoughts and prayers.

Lodge #45 RIFA Shelving Project

The project to build shelving for RIFA in Jackson, TN got underway in earnest today, Saturday April 4th. Brothers Jeff McLemore, WM and Mike Stanton, SW worked on the shelving unit in the shop of Brother Mike Winslow, Sec. The unit was completed and is now ready for delivery to RIFA. This was a community outreach project of Jackson Lodge #45.

The Regional Inter-Faith Association (RIFA) was incorporated in 1976 as a join effort between local leaders and area churches to support local ministries and clergy groups in identifying the needs of people, securing resources, and providing programs to meet those needs.

Through RIFA's ministries, the faith community can work together more effectively to help those in need. Collectively they can meet needs in the community that would be impossible for a single church or organization.

RIFA has built a credible reputation by combining funds from many area churches, individuals and business sources to provide efficient, effective and unduplicated services for people with the most critical and basic human needs. RIFA is governed by a Board of Directors and depends on the generous support of over 1,000 volunteers annually.

“A Vacation From My Destiny”

Courtesy of Brother Tom Lewis:

I’ve heard a lot of brothers say why they don’t like to go to Grand Lodge – the sniping, politicking, styling and profiling, etc. And it is a little expensive with the travel and accommodations, eating out and all. But for me it’s priceless for the chance to see brothers in other Lodges that I wouldn’t ordinarily see all together in one place. Especially when I go back to Tennessee and see people I knew when I was a young man and Mason that I never see otherwise now that I live in another state. Sharing time with men who showed me how to live as a man and Mason, and sharing accomplishments that they made possible through their mentoring is one of the gifts Masonry offers. And it does my heart good once a year to hear the ritual done he way I remember it done in my home Lodge 30 years ago, so when “Tennessee Ritual” supplants “South Carolina Ritual” in my South Carolina Lodge recitations, at least it’s correct “Tennessee Ritual” that’s creeping in.

At Grand Lodge you get to share opinions and ideas with like-minded men in peace and harmony. You get to spend time with brothers that are just as “deep into” Masonry as you are who make you feel you may not be quite as odd as some of the brothers back home (and your wife) think. You get to sit down and share meals with brothers you never would’ve met otherwise. Sometimes someone gets elected Junior Grand Warden that you shared a table at dinner with the night before, who because of the shared time is someone you know instead of some well-connected brother you can barely see from the back of the hall. You hear stories of dedication to the craft and local successes – of men who’ve been their Lodge secretary for over 50 years and donations of large amounts of money to worthy charities. And sometimes, in the midst of all the reports of sundry committees, you get to hear a story that grabs you and brings into focus why many of us do Masonry. Such is the story of Brother Charles:

The Grand Master started the story, but was overcome with emotion and asked the Secretary of the Johnson City Lodge involved to take up the story. Charles had been in the military and when he got out, he decided to pursue two goals: to become a nurse and become a Mason. He petitioned a Lodge and took his Entered Apprentice degree in California, and started his nursing training which brought him to Johnson City Tennessee. He had already applied and gotten permission for the Lodge in Johnson City to put on his Fellowcraft and Master Mason degrees as “courtesy work”. Then life threw Charles a 90 mph curve ball. It was discovered Charles had prostate cancer that had already metastasized into his bone marrow. His chances of survival were nil. Charles was out of options and out of time. His greatest wish was to die a Master Mason and to have a Masonic funeral, but his condition precluded the normal process. He simply didn’t have 28 days to wait between the remaining degrees. Added to that, the pain medication just didn’t leave Charles the clarity of mind necessary to retain the memory work. That’s when the Tennessee Grand Lodge entered the story.

The Grand Master of Tennessee got with the Grand Master of California to get Charles a demit from the Lodge in California. The timing was right and the Lodge in California voted that night at their business meeting to grant the demit, and faxed the necessary paperwork to Tennessee. The Lodge in Johnson City voted two nights later to accept Charles by affiliation into their Lodge. Then Most Worshipful Grand Master Jerry Hanson traveled across the far corners of the state of Tennessee from Memphis to Johnson City to make Charles a “Mason at Sight” – one of the ageless prerogatives reserved for Grand Masters. A conference room at the VA Hospital in Johnson City was secured and while a hall-full of Masons and other well-wishers in wheelchairs waited outside the room, the Grand Master conferred the Fellowcraft and Master Mason degrees on Charles. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Brother Charles was presented with his white lambskin apron as well as a Masonic ring, both of which Charles requested to be buried wearing. Charles also requested that the Master of the Johnson City Lodge perform his Masonic funeral. Charles told the Grand Master:” You’ve given me a vacation from my destiny.” Thirteen days later Brother Charles’s feet too soon reached the end of life’s toilsome journey, and from his nerveless grasp dropped forever the working tools of life. But thanks to his brothers going the extra mile (or 400 miles) he had his dying wish fulfilled to stand before the throne of God as a Mason.

It’s true there is a certain amount of tedium in every meeting of every Grand Lodge. For me it is a small price to pay to hear from the participant’s stories that remind us why we’re proud to be Masons. Like that of Brother Charles.