Renfrew’s Masons celebrate 150 years -

First local master was Abel Dowswell

Celebrating 150 years. Ontario Masons District Chaplain Gordon Roberts provides an inspiring address during the September 2001 dedication of the Renfrew lodge’s new mosaic pavement. Renfrew Weekender

A few months ago the WM of my lodge asked me to put together an education piece for the lodge, no topic provided of course, but whatever I wish to talk about.  Now Im a bit of a fanatic for the craft, read all I can, take all the work that comes to me and spend countless hours memorizing the work for the oratory must be flawless or as close to as I can get!

For my topic I chose something that could well be an entire book, or certainly a large research paper.  That being said, and as it has turned out for me.  Expressing a concept which is I believe is not conveyable, it rightly gets stuck at the end of the pen!  Now when I give you the title of this paper you will perhaps understand where I am coming from on this.  A page and a half in, getting to the meat of things, and the thoughts and knowledge that are there simple will not come forth!

I've titled the paper, Secrets and Mysteries: Presence and Purpose of Symbols in Masonry.  The first part of the paper was quite easy to get out, as it focuses on asking the necessary questions and setting the concept of the Secrets of the craft. The Mysteries however, are elusive they can not be found literally in the work but in a personal understanding and as such are personal and cause writers block!  The purpose of this post itself is no more than a vain attempt to work that block out!

So how to convey it? How best to describe the eventual understanding that comes with the study and meditation on the work?  I say eventual understanding because that is what it is. The eventual path to wisdom, the elusive and mysterious concept that Solomon was so blessed with.  It can only be gleamed at for short periods of lucidness until it feels we are worthy of its embrace.

....

There, I think that helped.  I can go back to writing the paper and see what flows forth, sometimes the best thing to work out writers block is to write something different about what is blocking you!

There has been some discussion on this WWII epic(yet to be released) in the forums here, as well as some others that I frequent.

Set against a WWII backdrop on the Russian / Polish front, two enemy soldiers with a common bond through Freemasonry work together to stop an atrocity being committed by the Soviet intelligence service.  The movie is based off of actual events, although some of the movies history is highly debatable.

The official website for the movie is www.brotherswar.info and at this point doesn't have a release date, so I got in touch with the movie's producer and Masonic brother Tino Stuckman.  It is unfortunate, but the movie will not be going to theaters, it is scheduled however, to be released on TV and dvd in spring of 2009.  We don't have much of a wait!

This has to be a joke!  Im having a hard time wraping my head around this one...

[quote="http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/12/linux-on-a-potato.html"]

Prayer is an important part of the ritual in the Craft. The opening and closing of the degrees and ceremonies invoke prayer and guidance from God, the “Great Architect of the Universe. Beginning with an examination of the earliest Manuscripts of “Old Charges”, the Regis Poem Manuscript of 1390 A.D., shows that all lodge activities were begun with prayer to God.

An interesting bit of Canadian masonic history.   Found it HERE

The reader will recall that in 1605 Champlain, the French explorer, established the settlement of Port Royal on the west side of Annapolis Basin. This settlement was the predecessor of the more noted Port Royal and Annapolis Royal, built some miles to the northward, the scene of many sieges and history making events, including the organization of the first Masonic lodge on Canadian soil.

For those brethren in Ontario. The Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario offers a series of correspondence courses on Freemasonry. While I haven't done them myself, I'm told by brothers who have, that they are well worth the time and effort.

Upon completion of each course the brother will be presented with a certificate of achievement in lodge. When all four have been completed, the "Fellow of The College of Freemasonry" certificate is presented.

Each program costs only $20.00 to take, but, I'm told they are quite intensive. The four courses are:

Sometimes it's just easier to plagerize!!!  Original article can be found HERE!