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I favor all branches is my first level answer is "yes" as in either will be fine. My second level answer is my hitch was in the Navy so I favor the blue branches over the green branches. Coast Guard is blue, good to go. ;^) Both the Air Force and Marines span the blue/green worlds. In Navy...

Differences jurisdiction to jurisdiction are fun. Some scene that is added in one place, another scene that is deleted in another. Rod work ranges from complex and hard to learn in Illinois through ignored rods in Texas with examples everywhere in between. You name the section of ritual and...

Does this mean that African Lodge still exists and accepts remote petitions for affiliation? Sounds to me like a pride in heritage issue rather like the recent trend of brothers petitioning UGLE's Internet Lodge. Great idea both. Some PHA jurisdictions only allow a brother to be a member of...

My favorite position is candidate, but each of us only get to experience that once per degree in our lives. Included for completeness. My favorite pro-tem position is presenter at Table Lodge. Presenters are given a specific topic like the 4th furthermore or an open discourse. They talk on...

Initiation is definitely intended to trigger a spiritual phase transition. That's one of the reasons I deliberately avoided reading content of the degrees before I took those degrees. It's up to the brother to see it that way, though. Some do some don't. Raising is even more explicitly a...

Plenty of states have books with variations on the rules about them. I'm in a cipher state where the book is not permitted in the building, in a cipher state that does not allow the book open during any tiled meeting, and in a clear text state where one book is allowed to be open by the...

New church for you? If they have a problem with the plates you dodged a bullet by learning that early on. Move on to the next church down the block. Why give money to an organization that objects to organizations that teach morality and free thought? If it's been your church since before...

The Phylaxis society is a good example. They absolutely fill the same ecological niche. I have no idea if they hold a charter from a specific grand lodge, which is why lodges of research have the word "lodge" in their names. But that difference is a technicality compared to the complete...

Recognition is binary - yes or no. We need more options than that. We need criteria on which to base recognition. Regularity is floating point (percentage of adherence to landmarks) or ordinal (number of boxes checked in the list of landmarks). Regularity is how the UGLE can state that...

In the GLofTX the ball has been in our court since the Autumn 2013 quarterly communication of the MWPHGLofTX when they approved an invitation to change the recognition compact. It was too late to appear on the docket in December 2013. As such the report of the committee on fraternal relations...

Lodges of research are lodges that publish teaching material and are not allowed to confer degrees. Members must already be MMs. In science the golden standard is the peer reviewed journal article. Research, analysis and/or experimentation is conducted. The results are written and submitted...

An hour? Distance means different things to different people. When I lived in LA metro anyone who lived under an hour from work was considered lucky. For a few years while I was in the line the first time home, work and lodge were all that far from each other. It cut into my fellowship time...

As each religion has sacred writings, those are the holy scriptures for that religion.

Does this mean there will be a vote in December? I scanned the write up and did not see mention so it's clearly not among the GM's recommendations. I visit a lodge tonight so I'll see if they have a write-up that includes other legislation that has been submitted.

It is important to read the rules for your jurisdiction to know the difference between what the rules actually are, what brothers say they believe the rules to be and what happens at the ballot box. In at least two of my jurisdictions as long as you reveal any previous felony conviction you are...

Welcome to the family once adopted brother. Only 3 weeks to memorize your proficiency? Very cool. Don't rush yourself. Smell the roses.

Please understand that what makes a man a Mason and what drives a Mason to attend regularly for decades are two very different things. Regular attendance filters for those who value the fellowship. Read the complaints that Stated meetings consist of paying our bills then retiring to enjoy the...

This bit comes with further qualifications. Your political opinions don't matter and we have a landmark against discussing partisan politics in our assemblies. There are degrees of radical-ness. If you are radical enough that you can't or won't resist discussing politics you would disrupt the...

What brothers of what degree are needed for a lodge of that degree is described in one of the lectures. In my jurisdictions any brother of the degrees specified can fill those chairs pro-tem in any meeting but only an MM can be installed into any chair. If there's a brother who is doing well...

Tolerance is not acceptance. Tolerance is mutual peace. Tolerance is not agreement. Tolerance is agreeing to disagree. Tolerance is not acquiescence. Tolerance is working together. Tolerance is Masonic. I don't think the Grand Architect of the Universe is separate from my concept of the...