Funeral Ritual certification

[Glen Cook]

Wow, this is quite interesting to me. I've never witnessed ANY ritual being performed by anything other than memorization. To be honest, it saddens me a little.

On a personal note, observing the funeral ritual after my grandfather passed away is what made me want to become a Mason. I haven't yet started the work for it, but I would very much like to.

Any number of lodges and haute grades perform it from the written word. If the end goal is to communicate the meaning of the ritual, one can argue that it doesn't matter, other than managing a book during a floor work or, as in a Free Gardeners meeting last night, it is a reallllllly wee book.

It is strange to me, though, that one has to be certified as being able to read. Maybe it's a Californian thing. .

 

[GKA]

The district inspector, who provided the instruction told us that we should use a book, it makes it more significant to the family

 

[GKA]

Any number of lodges and haute grades perform it from the written word. If the end goal is to communicate the meaning of the ritual, one can argue that it doesn't matter, other than managing a book during a floor work or, as in a Free Gardeners meeting last night, it is a reallllllly wee book.

It is strange to me, though, that one has to be certified as being able to read. Maybe it's a Californian thing. .

Brothers got some teeth

 

[hanzosbm]

The district inspector, who provided the instruction told us that we should use a book, it makes it more significant to the family

Interesting. Can you expand on this a bit? I'm not trying to argue, but I would think it would be more significant seeing that the brothers went through the effort of memorizing rather than just reading it from a book.

 

[Glen Cook]

Interesting. Can you expand on this a bit? I'm not trying to argue, but I would think it would be more significant seeing that the brothers went through the effort of memorizing rather than just reading it from a book.

Unless they are part of the Masonic family, many people don't really know that it is memorized--until it is done poorly. Given the importance of the public ceremony and the duty owed, I would rather see it delivered well by reading, than stumbled through. It can be difficult to do, as it may well not be in the usual environment in which we deliver our ritual, i.e., a church or cemetery.

 

[hanzosbm]

Okay, I can respect that. So if I'm understanding correctly, the thought is that it's better to read it clearly from a book than do a poor job from memorization?

 

[Glen Cook]

Okay, I can respect that. So if I'm understanding correctly, the thought is that it's better to read it clearly from a book than do a poor job from memorization?

Oh, yeah. It is cringe worthy. An exception n my jurisdiction: if you do it for a PGM, it better be memorized.

 

[hanzosbm]

Although I'll be affiliating with a lodge here in California, I haven't observed any of their ritual work. That being said, in Kentucky, the WM does almost the entirety of the 3 degrees. In my opinion, it really ought to be broken up more to make it more manageable. I've never been WM, but I can just imagine at my installation being told "Congrats! By the way, you'll need to memorize these 150 pages. Better do it soon too, we've got some degrees next week."

 

[Glen Cook]

Although I'll be affiliating with a lodge here in California, I haven't observed any of their ritual work. That being said, in Kentucky, the WM does almost the entirety of the 3 degrees. In my opinion, it really ought to be broken up more to make it more manageable. I've never been WM, but I can just imagine at my installation being told "Congrats! By the way, you'll need to memorize these 150 pages. Better do it soon too, we've got some degrees next week."

Ah, that's the benefit of certification requirements for a master. It is also why in some of the higher degrees it is memorized. The high degrees of the Rectified Rite are the longest presiding officer pieces I've ever seen. We even break it up for reading. I know of no jurisdiction which does it from memory.