Beryl Jacobs 02/16/2000 05 yrs
Leonard Johnson P.M. 02/18/1995 10 yrs
Steve Racca 02/22/1995 10 yrs
Tom Mixon P.M. 02/09/1994 11 yrs
Mike Von Rosen 02/24/1993 12 yrs
Wayne Gilmore P.M. 02/12/1992 13 yrs
Thomas Wolfe 02/22/1991 14 yrs
Larry Chapoton 02/14/1973 32 yrs

LODGE NEWS

Condolences to Worshipful Eddie Bopp who’s blood brother Conrad Bopp died unexpectedly last month. Also under sick and distress Widow Thelma Kueck continues a very gradual improvement. Althea Gilmore, wife of Eldred, mother of Wayne has also been hospitalized recently as has Carol Jacobs, wife of Bro. Beryl. All, please get well soon.

ENDYMION OPEN HOUSE
This Saturday, February 5 is open house at the lodge for the big parade. This has proved to be one of our most fun events so grab your ice chest and get there early for a parking place. The grill will be lit incase you want to bar-be-que. Pot-luck food.

16th District News
So close and yet so far! The traveling gavel went to Albert Pike Lodge at the January 31 meeting but we closed the gap a little. Final results: Albert Pike 10, Etoile Polaire 8, Germania 8. Kosmos 6, Dante 5, Galilieo-Mazzini 4, Paul Schneidau 2, Perseverance 2, Cervantes 1 and Union 0. Germania is hosting the next meeting on March 31 and we have a good program planned. Grey Goudeau of Goudeau Hyde and Associates will give a short talk about bequeathments, 501c3’s, long term care and non-profit donations. Please make plans for the meeting “YOUR LODGE” is hosting.

Flexibility!
Always be flexible might be our mantra for 2005! With eight candidates and one FC ready to be raised we will have to be to keep up. We applied that flexibility at the January 26 th meeting, it was suppose to be a Master Mason degree but due to an unexpected crisis at our Fellowcrafts business he couldn’t be at the meeting. He did give us a three day heads up though which was enough time to notify the brethren that we would instead have a double EA degree. The degree came across with precision and we are proud to say that our two young brothers from Tulane, Chase Cockrell and Mark Dorsey, plus recently raised Wayne Plaisance, all participated in the degree and were excellent craftsmen. There were also many visitors from as far away as New York that were all put to work in the degree.

REFRESHMENTS  
At the first meeting after W. M. Reed Holmes took control he asked if any one would volunteer to bring a meal for the next meeting. One hand went up, that of newly raised Bro. Rob Tewis who being a New Orleans policeman would be working many long hours during Mardi Gras so he was told to wait until he could bring a meal when he could attend. Brothers, a meal doesn’t mean a 5 star, four course meal! Cold cuts, hot dogs and chili, store bought fried chicken or pizza will do. Ask any Past Master and chances are he will tell you that the biggest pain was getting or preparing meals on top of everything else he has to do. Please consider supplying a meal for a meeting, you don’t have to pick a date now just give W.M. Holmes (or me) a call and tell him you will be good for a meal during the year. If you don’t cook, have a wife or girlfriend to cook, volunteer to pick up some refreshments before a meeting.

~k.kueck

TRESTLE BOARD

Saturday, February 5 – Endymion Open house

Wednesday, February 9, 7:00 p.m. – double EA degree

Wednesday, February 23, 7:00 p.m. – Master Mason Degree

Wednesday, March 9, 7:00 p.m. double EA degree

Thursday, March 31 – 7:30 – p.m. 16th district @ Germania

Wednesday, April 13 – 7:00 official visit by Grand Master

Wednesday, September 28 – 7:00 official visit Worthy Grand Matron

November 12 – Germanfest 2005

MESSAGE FROM THE EAST

Brothers the Installation dinner was a huge success.  We had 38 attendees, which included all the elected , some appointed officers & two surprises were Bro. Bill Shotts from Denver Lodge # 5 and the GSW. Rt. W. Bro "Chip" Borne. Our Secretary’s Mom, Thelma Kueck came, which was a surprise considering how ill she had been. Glenn Cupit, brought five guests. Some brothers who haven't been out in a long time, but promised to come out again were Andrew Kessler, William Ohler, Robert & Garland Rebouche.

Everyone was given a "rubber Ducky" at their eating place and a plastic egg, four of which contained a slip of paper declaring them a door prize "winner". Several of the Worshipful Masters Eastern star friends showed including W, Bro. Dennis Duplantis who is a first time WM of Level Lodge. After a short welcome The Worshipful Master introduced his officers and asked that they introduced their ladies. A short prayer given by W. Bro Warren Hawthorne and the meal was served, which was delicious as always. The door prizes were given to the winners and everyone parted to colder weather than when they arrived

Starting with our next meeting, the 26th Jan, we are going to try something different.  We will open the lodge at our by-law prescribed time of 7PM attend to some business, but prior to handling the main business of the evening , a degree, or visit of a dignitary, we will eat.   Instead of making this the final thing we do.  I have found through personal experience that eating a heavy meal after eight or nine PM is not good for the digestion. 

If you haven't been to lodge in a while, come join us.

FOR THE WIDOWS OF GERMANIA : I've set up a committee of one (so far) to contact you.  We want you to know that Germania lodge has not forgotten your pass service. W. Bro, Warren Hawthorne or I will be contacting you in the near future. 

~Reed Holmes, PM/WM

I am just wondering, how is the question, "Has he made the proficiency in the preceding degree?", answered truthfully (if proficiency has, obviously, to be waived for the "class")?  Relatedly, again, I am wondering, how many Masons who went through these classes, in the past, manage to move up the officer line (if, in fact, they did) without having given the MM degree and earn their proficiency cards?  Also, if only just for statistics purposes, does anyone keep track how many of the folks who went through these classes ever come back to the Lodge? 

Sincerely and fraternally,  

A. M. LIGAYA (N66AL)
Information Management and Enterprise Services
Commander, U. S. Pacific Fleet

Julian Rees Investigates a Disturbing Practice Now Becoming Common

There is a growing practice in the United States of so-called 'Grand Master One-Day Classes'. Each State has its own Grand Lodge, and in many jurisdictions a composite initiation, passing and raising is being practiced in which all three degrees are conferred in one day on many candidates, in some cases thousands of them. One unhappy lodge in Connecticut, which declined to participate in this bizarre routine had its Warrant summarily withdrawn.

The practice is one whereby the Grand Master of a Masonic jurisdiction in the United States requests lodges under his jurisdiction not to carry out individual initiations in their own lodges, but to send all their candidates to the Grand Lodge for a mass initiation, passing and raising. What actually happens is that a group of candidates, numbering anything from a few dozen to several thousand, have all three-degree ceremonies conducted in front of them, with one candidate acting as a 'sample'. The remainder are then deemed to have had the degrees conferred on them. And all this in one day. It is a process wittily described by one member of a  New York lodge as a 'Moonie initiation', by others as 'all the way in a day', and by a non-mason in this country with a heavy sense of irony as 'drive-through Freemasonry'.

When the Grand Lodge of New York held their first one-day classes on 29 March this year, despite the upbeat publicity afterwards generated by the Grand Lodge itself, observers were less enthusiastic. One official participant was pressed into service to mentor two candidates. On being asked which lodge they were from, these two hapless candidates had no idea. The work was 'of the lowest quality, highly disorganized and generally unrecognizable as Masonic ritual,' reported this observer. 'It was characterized as a poor rehearsal witnessed by 500 eavesdroppers and cowans. After passing through this, the "newly-made brothers" were subjected to a very long and boring film apparently about the Grand Lodge's retirement community in Utica , New York . This provoked the only spirited response, when the film was cut short since so many expressed irritation by it.' 

Opposition to the classes:

Yet there is no shortage of tacit opposition. There are many brethren in New York who find this practice very distasteful and are not at all happy with the way this matter has been pushed through, apparently without wide consultation. There are also genuine grassroots concerns about how their Grand Lodge is now viewed by European Grand Lodges, with fears being expressed about the possibility of de-recognition. There are signs that the United Grand Lodge of England is a little less than happy with the situation. And in  Germany , one senior Grand Lodge Officer of the Grand Lodge AFAM said 'Wherever this practice is mentioned, it is met with gales of laughter and incredulous head-shaking.' In addition, the catechism traditionally learned by a candidate as a means of advancement to the next degree has been waived in the case of Grand Master Classes. This has already led to some adverse comment amongst grassroots American Freemasons, who view with dismay the dropout rate, estimated by some American observers as 86 percent.

It is quite clear that the practice of Grand Master Classes is accountant-driven. The Grand Lodge of New York for example has seen its membership fall off dramatically over the past forty to fifty years. 'Since the heyday of Freemasonry in the 1950s', said the New York Times on Sunday 13 January this year, 'membership has plummeted. Statewide, membership now stands at about 65,000, down from a peak of over 300,000 in 1958.' At the same time, not surprisingly, the average age of lodge members has been increasing. The annual expenditure from the Grand Lodge over the same period has not diminished. There is as much call on Masonic funds for retirement homes and other charitable commitments as there ever was, and this leads to pressure for a more vigorous recruitment drive to shore up the income side of the equation.

A recent survey indicated that this is a spreading contagion - thirty-five States have adopted the practice, with only sixteen not yet doing so. Interestingly, some of the southern states, which are traditionally held to be conservative in outlook, have held firm against the practice. The trend seems to have been set by the District of Columbia , which first held a Grand Master One-Day Class in 1992, and has done so every year since then. In that State, the format consists of conferring the first degree on a Friday evening and the second and third the following day. Here, the class sizes are about 75, a pinprick compared to the State of Ohio , where 6,800 men had all three degrees conferred on them in one day. The numbers game has caught on here, with New York vowing to outdo Ohio , and trying for a record of 8,000 in one day. One commentator said 'Where will this end? Will Illinois next say it can do 10,000? Will New Jersey bid 15,000?' In the event New York were only able to field 2,100 candidates at their first attempt on 29 March this year.

There is however some light at the end of this particular tunnel. There is resistance in many States to the idea; Kansas is one such. And in Pennsylvania , where a dispensation had been given for up to five candidates to have all three degrees conferred on them on the same day, the move has not proved popular. However the Grand Master of Pennsylvania, in common with other Grand Masters across the country does have the right to make a man a mason 'at sight'. The most high-profile example of this is New York , where the Grand Master, Carl Fitje, intends to bestow this privilege on the Governor of the State of New York . The Grand Master's own comments on their website indicate that he 'will exercise one of the prerogatives of a Grand Master, and make Governor George E. Pataki a 'Mason at Sight' in accordance with New York Masonic Law.

The Pro Grand Master, Lord Northampton, has said of these one-day classes:

"This means we could get 'fast track' masons in our lodges a day after they have been through all three degrees, with no respect for all the things we hold so dear and which cement the Brotherhood. It also has the potential to do enormous harm to the Craft's reputation, because those who never attend after their first and only meeting are bound to ridicule the fact that they have been coerced into joining an organization which has taken their money and taught them nothing lasting."

Problems to come?

This whole issue throws into sharp focus the difference between the ethos of Freemasonry in Europe , and that in America . While European Freemasonry is not slow to engage in philanthropic works and to extend relief in cases of suffering, Freemasonry remains first and foremost a very personal endeavor, with important lessons to be learned from the ritual in terms of moral and spiritual growth. In America it seems that the most important image is the one that Masons present of themselves to the non-Masonic world. In Connecticut , for instance, ninety mirrors have been distributed, one to each lodge, with the inscription 'Take a good look at yourself: you're somebody's

impression of Freemasonry.' Hence the Masonic image is first and foremost a civic and social one, where one's duties as a mason seem to be bound up with local affairs, national affairs and even with patriotism in its deepest sense.

Germania Lodge No. 46, F. & A. M.
4415 Bienville Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70119
Chartered: April 18, 1844
Lodge Phone 504-482-4080
Meets: 2nd & 4th Wednesdays 7:00 P.M.

Worshipful Master Reed Holmes (504) 454-6666

Senior Warden Henry Thibodaux (504) 279-8162 • Junior Warden Nial Hartnett 504-237-7393

Secretary Klaus J. Kueck, P.M. (504) 737-6767 • Treasurer Ric Bell, P.M. (504) 828-2574