Greetings, Brethren,

I just had the pleasure of visiting Fidelity Lodge #20 F&AM PHA in Washington, D.C. for a stated meeting and 2nd degree. The brothers there treated me extremely well, and their work was very impressive. They meet at the Grand Lodge building, where 25 lodges and 15 OES chapters meet, so you can find a Masonic meeting at that building nearly every night.

Continue reading April and May and the beauties of visitation

It’s only mid-February, but we’ve already got a packed schedule coming up in March:

Mar 2    1st degree

Mar 9    Stated meeting and Eureka challenge

Mar 16  Past Master’s night and St. Patrick’s day dinner

Mar 23  Stated meeting

Mar 30  Visit to LaGrange Lodge for 3rd degree

With the promise of more degree work in April, including 3rd degrees.

Season’s Greetings to members of Berwyn Lodge and visitors to our web site!

Berwyn Lodge will celebrate St. John’s Day by visiting Christ Lutheran Evangelical Church at 607 Harvard St, Oak Park, IL (at Harvard and East) at 10:30 am on Sunday December 27.

Our next special meeting will be Jan 5, 2010. We will practice for our upcoming third degree in February.

And Bro. Secretary has asked me to let you know that dues cards will be sent out as soon as he’s back in the U.S. after his second foot operation.

This time of the year is one in which we can all celebrate the coming of Light. I wish you all the best of the season and a very happy new year.

– Alan

Greetings All, this is you favorite Berwyn newsy, Silence Dogood again. Well October is almost over and I hope everyone has a Spoooooky Costume and ready to Trick and/or Treat.

This has been a busy month at Berwyn, a First Degree and a Second Degree, we are really moving along, as well as the fact that, the Annual Grand Lodge Meeting was this month. As I am sure you all know, the Grand Lodge Meeting is utilized to discuss new Bylaws, the current State of Masonry in Illinois, and this time around to ring in a new Grand Master.
Continue reading October Temple Topics

On September 1, I and six other members of Berwyn Lodge had the pleasure of visiting a Stated Meeting of Hiram Lodge #14 PHA F&AM at the Prince Hall Masonic Temple in Chicago. Bro. Milan Gracanin, Berwyn’s Chaplain, provided this report:

Yesterday some of us from Berwyn Lodge were privileged to visit Hiram Lodge of Prince Hall Masonry. For those of you who do not know Prince Hall masonry is primarily African-American membership. The lodge we visited was very impressive. It is located in a very old stone building and is on the third floor with a view of downtown. The temple itself has a large ballroom like black and white finished floor. There is also very ornate ceiling and wall work to view.

What was the difference you may be asking between Prince Hall meetings and ours? Well for one their floorwork is very military like. It is very technical and their is a lot of stomping which I thought was very good. Also when the chaplain prays the Junior and Senior stewards form a Arch over the chaplain while they walk back and forth from the alter. They also sing after the prayer a song similar to our closing tune. Their knocking of the gavels is also very fast vs. ours. Aside from that everything seemed very similar to what we do.

The lodge was very hospitable to us. The meeting itself took over 2 hours! (Very long indeed compared to what we are used to.) However it was worth the wait, we were lucky enough to indulge on their dinner which consisted of chicken wings and potato wedges. The wings were delicious as evident by within a short time all the food was gone.

To end the night we all exchanged info and vowed to keep in touch. Hiram Lodge also presented us with gifts and Worshipful Alan a Prince Hall Masonic video. We invited the Prince Hall brothers to our first degree night coming soon. Hopefully they will be able to attend. All in all a very rewarding experience.

I am also happy to report email from our MW Grand Master Daniel C. Yandel and our RW DDGM Vyts Paukstys commending Berwyn Lodge for its program of lodge visitations and opportunities to expose our members to new vistas of Masonry.