Christopher L. Hodapp's Blog, page 53
February 9, 2020
Jay Hochberg Elected President of the Masonic Society
As Masonic Week kicked off on a Thursday night twelve years ago, a half-dozen of the shadowy 'Knights of the North' of Laudable Pursuit notoriety were hosted at a dinner at historic Gadsby's Tavern in Old Town by a group from Alexandria-Washington Lodge 22. Nearly everyone in that group was already well acquainted with each other from meeting electronically on a now-defunct Masonic discussion forum called MasonicLight, and the hot topic on everyone's lips the entire weekend was "Masonic...
February 8, 2020
Kamel Oussayef Named 110th Blue Friar
The 76th Consistory of the Society of Blue Friars was convened Friday at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia as part of Masonic Week. The Society of Blue Friars was founded in 1932 for the express purpose of recognizing outstanding Masonic authors throughout the world.
At the conclusion of last year's Consistory, Grand Abbot, Dr. S. Brent Morris, announced his retirement after serving for 15 years, naming Arturo de Hoyos as his successor. Friday's gathering was the...
February 5, 2020
Detroit Masonic Temple Online Tour
If you've never had the opportunity to travel to Detroit, Michigan and visit the Detroit Masonic Temple in person, or it's been a while since you've been there, you can now take a very detailed virtual online 3-D tour of its major facilities.
Visit the website at www.themasonic.com, click on 'facilities' and prepare to be dazzled at what the Masons of Detroit created in the 1920s. After almost a century, the Detroit Temple remains one of the most significant examples of Masonic architecture...
February 1, 2020
Moscow Museum Exhibits Soviet-era Masonic and Esoteric Art Through May
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow just opened a new exhibit of esoteric artwork from the Soviet period between 1905 and 1969.
Freemasonry was banned throughout the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and unknown numbers of Masons were imprisoned or murdered over their membership (real or alleged) all the way up into the 1970s at least. That makes this an especially fascinating (and poignant) exhibit of very rare artwork. The works on display largely came...
January 30, 2020
Screen Versions of 'Lost Symbol' and 'National Treasure 3' Advancing
Two high-profile, big money media projects of interest to Freemasons are inching closer to reality - and knowing Hollywood, they are spurring each other on in a race to see who gets in front of audience eyeballs first.
First up, NBC has now officially authorized and ordered a pilot film of Langdon, a new TV series initially based on Dan Brown's Masonic-themed 2009 mystery adventure novel The Lost Symbol . I reported this last June, but this announcement by NBC and Imagine...
January 29, 2020
Waco and Dayton Stress Community Roles Of Masonic Temples
After being on the road for almost two full months we've finally made our way home and I'm slowly catching up on some past stories that I missed.
The Waco Tribune-Herald highlighted the Grand Lodge of Texas' impressive headquarters in Waco back on January 11th. Their imposing granite Temple, built in 1948, was designed as a modernist depiction of Solomon's Temple on the exterior, based on then-current archeological theories of its style (which have varied wildly according to fantasies and...
January 25, 2020
Vegans, Vinyl and Masonic Aprons
"The lambskin, or white leather apron, is an emblem of innocence and the badge of a Mason..."So goes the Masonic description of the aprons we Freemasons wear in the rituals commonly used throughout North America and most of the world.
Like nearly everything else in Freemasonry, the white lambskin apron is symbolic of a pure, spotless and unblemished character to which we all aspire to achieve in our own lives. It comes from the Torah/Old Testament accounts of the Passover sacrifice of...
January 24, 2020
Help With Route 66 Masonic Sites This Week
We crossed from Arizona into New Mexico this afternoon on I-40 and the legendary "Mother Road" of Route 66. We crossed through downtown Santa Rosa, New Mexico late in the day and I spotted Liberty Lodge No. 51's Masonic hall from the 1940s right on the town square - a location that almost every early U.S. Masonic lodge once coveted, and far too many have fled in the last fifty years.
Masonic hall in Santa Rosa, NMSince we're staying along this historic route all the way eastward to St. Louis,...
January 21, 2020
2020 PSO Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, & Civil Society: Washington DC 6/5
The June 2020 PSO Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society will be in Washington, DC at the historic (and recently restored) Quaker Meetinghouse on Florida Street on Saturday, June 5th.
The Policy Studies Organization is the longstanding brainchild of Brother Paul Rich, and that organization has a very broad range of topics in which it fosters research and discussion. Of greatest interest to Masons, the PSO sponsors an international academic conference about...
2020 Masonic Society Annual Dinner & Meeting 2/7
"Homer, a man who called himself “you-know-who” just invited you to a secret “wink-wink” at the “you-know-what.”*
The Officers and the Board of Directors cordially invite you to attend The 2020 Annual Dinner and MeetingofThe Masonic Society
At Masonic Week 2020The Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National AirportArlington, Virginia
Friday Evening, February 7, 2020Gather at 6:45 PMDinner at 7:15 PM
Featured Speaker:WBro. Mark Tabbert “A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry” A...
