Christopher L. Hodapp's Blog, page 36

Grand Lodge of Tennessee Votes for PHA Recognition – Then There Were Six

by Christopher Hodapp

Late this afternoon, Facebook lit up with the news that the assembled members of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee have just voted to extend recognition to the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee at their annual communication in Lebanon, Tennessee.
With this announcement, the map shrinks to just six remaining states in which joint recognition has not yet been achieved: Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Early information i...

NBC's Streamer Peacock Orders 'Dan Brown's Langdon' As Regular Series

by Christopher Hodapp

PeacockTV, NBC's new subscription streaming TV service, has announced that they have ordered the TV pilot based on Dan Brown's Masonic-themed thriller, The Lost Symbol, to be picked up as a continuing series, to be entitled Dan Brown's Langdon.

The pilot was initially planned to air on the NBC broadcast network, but now the series will be a flagship show for the Peacock pay streaming service.

The story line of the novel has been shifted to occur before The DaVinci Code and Ang...

Facebook Links Restored

by Christopher Hodapp

Earlier this month, Facebook decided with its infinite, artificial sagacity to declare this blog site to be spam, for some undisclosed reason. How they arrived at such a conclusion is beyond my feeble human comprehension, but the tangible result was that they erased a full decade of my posts on Facebook and prevented any new ones that linked here.
I'd like to take the opportunity to publicly thank Brother Nicholas Harvey for interceding on my behalf with the mysterious and na...

New Book: Almanac of American Freemasonry 1730-1774

by Christopher Hodapp

A fascinating new book has just been released that will be an invaluable tool for historians researching the pre-Revolutionary War days of Freemasonry in America. The Almanac of American Freemasonry 1730-1744 ($24.99 Lulu Press) was co-written by Mark Tabbert (Director of Collections at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial) and the late John 'Bo' Cline (Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Alaska, and Past President of the Masonic Society). The Foreword was pen...

Mille Regretez

by Christopher Hodapp

Deepest apologies for no updated stories here for the last couple of weeks. Alice and I are in the final deadline week for our new book project. 
Folks have asked what we're working on, and since Wiley has now put up the pre-sale listing on Amazon, there's no point being coy about it anymore.  RVs and Campers For Dummies  is due to be officially released on June 24th, 2021.
The Wiley Publishing folks operate a well-oiled machine, and they have a definitive working methodology fr...

GL New York's Jurisprudence Committee Weighs In

by Christopher Hodapp

The Grand Lodge of New York's Jurisprudence Committee has weighed in on the permissibility of Grand Master William Sardone's rescheduling of their annual meeting for 2021 due to statewide pandemic restrictions on large group meetings. 
Click the image above to enlarge.
Because the state of New York is permitting only small groups to assemble at this time, GM Sardone's announcement over the weekend detailed a plan to open their Annual Communication on May 3rd and officially rec...

Masonic Superhero Togs

by Christopher Hodapp

Think you might be the next Super Mason who can 'save Freemasonry'  with your super powers? Well, there's good news for the well-dressed fraternal savior. Can't be a dynamic superhero without a proper costume. 
  Personalized so it won't get mixed up with everybody else's.
You might consider it as your official Worshipful Master outfit or even officers' attire. Also suitable as pajamas to wear during boring stated meetings that put you to sleep. A...

New York's GM Responds To Open Letter About Annual Meeting

by Christopher Hodapp

New York Grand Master William Sardone has issued a lengthy response to an open letter posted last week by Grand Treasurer, Steven Adam Rubin. It is posted in its entirety (click images to enlarge):

Virtual Meetings: Open Letter To New York GM Circulated

by Christopher Hodapp

Grand lodges all across the country – and around the world – have struggled over the last 10 months with the problem of how to hold their constitutionally-required annual meetings and grand officer elections. Because of the COVID pandemic shutdowns and the fears of spreading the virus throughout Masonry's population of older at-risk members, the tradition of normally advancing officers at annual meetings has been short circuited. Some jurisdictions have held online Zoom annu...

UPDATED: Irony At Its Most Ironic-est

by Christopher Hodapp

NOTE: This story has been updated.
Like so many other groups all over the world, the annual Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America has been forced to drop its in-person meeting this year because of the COVID pandemic. I'm sure the brethren in Seattle, Washington who had been preparing to host this event for several years are greatly disappointed. But the event will go on. 
This year's COGMMNA will be an online event. So is the concurrent Conference of Grand Sec...