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Both lodges in which I do funeral work have a "go box" stored in the prep room which contains all the paraphrenalia needed to conduct a Masonic funeral, and in it we keep a small supply of aprons suitable for funeral use. A brother is issued his lambskin apron when he receives his EA degree and...

Freemasonry is one of those organizations that principally meet face to face, and most Masonic lectures are taught/learned that way... So you are likely fishing in the wrong pond.

Starting my 3rd year in it...

The current List of Lodges - Masonic does not list any recognized lodges in Dubai. Dubai is one of those Arabic countries where Freemasonry is outlawed in many places. There may be a few sojourning individuals here and there, but no recognized lodges.

There's a beautiful biography out there in the used book market by Allen Roberts, "Brother Truman". I have my copy in my little library, and bought a copy for our lodge library as well. It's a good read, and I've probably learned more Masonry from Brother Truman than I have from Albert Pike ;-)

Straightening up an old file cabinet a few weeks ago, I came across a set of the old original handwritten record books from the 1800s... I found the record of initiation and membership of one of our more notable past members. This young Brother, an Army and Civil War veteran, was raised to the...

Things are finally cooling off. The Grand Lodge of Arkansas has reconciled with the Shrine, and as of about two years ago, the Shrine is once again a recognized organization. We have had a sizable purge within the ranks of past grand masters, and the election of some more progressive grand...

Allen Roberts' book, "House Undivided" is a good start in Civil War history; a follow-on "House Reunited" describes the Reconstruction period. Michael Halloran's "The Better Angels of Our Nature" is a good, more recent update. Bullock describes the effect of Masonry during the Revolution in...

As Brother Glen said, it would depend on the rules in your grand jurisdiction. Typically, to leave your Lodge, you would need to either demit or withdraw. Until then you stay on their books and would continue to receive an annual dues statement. If you fail to pay dues for a two-year period...

I've done both... through the Order of the Temple in the Commandery, and the 32nd degree in the AASR. I like them both, and learned a great deal from both of them. If I were forced to choose between one or the other, I would stay with the AASR, not only for the deep fellowship I've found...

About once a week, or at least every other week or so... My home lodge keeps me pretty busy, but we have a pretty good cluster of lodges around the community, and I go over to help with practice nights and degrees on a pretty regular basis...

The Scottish Rite does this with their Reunions... But it's a different game in the blue lodge. In many, if not most jurisdictions you are restricted to obligating no more than 1 candidate at a time. This gets you into the realm of the "one-day classes," and in my experience, the candidate...

True... Most other states, except maybe South Carolina appear to have turned a blind eye to the situation. I probably would not have stirred the pot again either, save that upon being elevated to Senior Warden a couple of weeks ago, I had a bit of a sit-down with the incoming grand master...

For our brothers from other states who are both Master Masons and Shriners who are visiting or moving to Arkansas, the matter gets Complicated. As part of our Master Mason obligation, we made certain promises about sitting or participating in clandestine organizations and holding masonic...

Yes. AASR conducts reunions, at the end of which you go in as an MM, and come out as a 32nd degree Master of the Royal Secret. Reunions can be as short as a single day, where you receive the 6 "essential" degrees, but 2 to 3-day sessions are the usual. I am not sure how the NMJ handle...

Ours go mostly through a 2 or 3-day reunion, where the degrees are put on sequentially. You only only get about a dozen of the degrees over the two days, but the essentials are there to get you to the 32nd, and you're handed a copy of "Bridge to Light" as you go out the door, to fill in the...

Having gone through a whole lot of that, the first thing I recommend to all of our new brethren is to get your feet firmly planted and feel comfortable in your blue lodge before you run out to any of the appendant bodies. Now, this past year, I conferred one fellow's MM on Monday night, and he...

Our newly-minted MM should already have a mentor who has been seeing his through his degrees, helping with his proficiency lectures, coaching, advising, and helping him get involved with a sample of the activities ongoing in the lodge, and traveling with him to neighboring lodges to help him...

AASR is set up by state as "Orients;" the local/community organizations are known as "Valleys." Each Valley has four subordinate bodies: the Lodge of Perfection, the Chapter of Knights Rose Croix, the Council of Knights Kadosh, and the Consistory of Masters of the Royal Secret. Monthly...

Hopefully St. Peter won't tell him to take an old cold 'tater, and wait...