Christopher L. Hodapp's Blog, page 53

Writing Your Own Lodge's History

Over the weekend I flew back to Indianapolis to preside over the winter meeting of the Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research. We had an outstanding meeting, and I presented my recent research about the Army/Navy Masonic Service Centers during World War II that were set up in some 90 large Masonic temples around the country. Encouraged by then-Senator and PGM of Missouri, Harry S Truman and organized as a national movement by Carl Claudy and the Masonic Service Association, these were similar to...

The Stonecutter

One thing always leads to another, and connections are funny things. While I was back in Indianapolis over the weekend I came across this unusual artifact we uncovered from a long-forgotten storage locker in the downtown Temple. I've never seen a sculpture quite like it, and it has the look of something from the 1930s or so. Then my friend David Hosler posted this old Chinese folk tale today on Facebook that I first read many, many years ago and had forgotten about. It was popularized in the...

Colorado's Ghost Town Lodge

The rich heritage of America Freemasonry as it expanded westward throughout the 19th century can still be found carefully preserved around the country - usually in unusual places. There is a great story today on the Colorado Public Radio website about Colorado's historic Nevada Lodge No. 4, which still operates as a working lodge today in the ghost town of Nevadaville.

From ' Why Freemasons Still Lurk In The Ghost Town Of Nevadaville, Colorado' by Natasha Watts:

If you take exit 243 off...

SRRS 2020 Bonus Book: 'Daniel Parker's Masonic Tablet'

The new bonus book from the Scottish Rite Research Society should be in mailboxes by now, and a fascinating piece of work it is, too. Once again, Arturo De Hoyos has resurrected a unique, fascinating and little-known book from the past - this time with the assistance of Daniel Gardiner, the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Montana.
The book is Daniel Parker’s Masonic Tablet, originally printed in 1822. And if you have any interest in the development of Masonic "Blue Lodge" Craft...

Virginia Lodge Pays Off Local School Lunch Debt

For at least two centuries, local Freemasons were regularly seen as an integral part of the  communities in which they resided. But after the dawn of the 21st century, that image has drifted out of the public "common knowledge" that used to bind cities and towns together in civic participation. That doesn't mean your local lodge can't get back on your town's radar - not by a long shot. 

In case you are under he misapprehension that I'm arguing for plundering your treasury, "making a...

'Laudable Pursuit' New Audio Book Edition

The brethren who create the Whence Came You? podcast, WCY Media, have just announced that Laudable Pursuit by the Knights of the North is now available as an audio book through Audible.com for $6.95 (or free with 30-day trial of the Audible.com service).

Originally released online in 2004 and in its final form in 2006, Laudable Pursuit has become something of a textbook over the last decade and a half on how to attempt to change the course of Freemasonry. Countless lodges around...

"The Dawn of a New Era is Approaching."

'In regard to the condition of Masonry in our state, I think it can be said that the dawn of a new era is approaching. It is true that the decrease in membership for some time past has been greater apparently than it ought to have been. Knowing as we do that heretofore Masonry has been too easy of access, that numbers and not members have been sought, that quantity instead of quality has been desired, that Masonry has been too cheap and common, that "cash" instead of character was the...

Merry Christmas From the Road

Please accept my apologies for the long gap in posts this month. We've literally been on the road since the first weekend in December.
Instead of staying home with Alice to help pack for California, load the trailer, scream at our now-you-see-them/now-you-don't kitchen remodeling contractors, and deal with our new and certifiably insane 13 week old puppy at 3am, I flitted off to York, Pennsylvania to speak at the 150th anniversary of Zaredatha-White Rose Lodge 451 on...

Meet Alec from Shriners Hospitals

This being "Giving Tuesday" today, here is the perfect story to highlight.
Last Sunday, the CBS program Sunday Morning did a special and lengthy profile of Shriners Hospitals' TV spokes-kid, 17-year old Alec Cabacungan. It seems like most Americans recognize Alec from the last five years' worth of commercials he's appeared in, which is no mean feat in the fractured media age in which we find ourselves. Onscreen, he's outgoing, personable, totally genuine, and absolutely memorable. 

The...

Cornerstone Stolen from Phoenix, Arizona Lodge

Have you seen this cornerstone? Because it's missing.
It seems that exterior displays of the square and compasses within reachable height are occasionally attractive to the destructive-minded miscreant. 

For reasons known only to himself, a thief bashed out and made off with the 1963 cornerstone of Paradise Valley Lodge No. 61 in Phoenix, Arizona earlier this month. 

That temple is now the home of the combined Paradise Valley Silver Trowel No. 29. 

An unidentified white...