# A joyous Visitation



## Don.riney (Mar 24, 2016)

It was a historic night in North Texas as many of the Brothers of Arlington Lodge 438 as well as some from other area Lodges were welcomed for a visit to a local Prince Hall Lodge, New Day Lodge 655.

Brother Cotton, the Worshipful Master, and all the Brethren of New Day 655  were warm and gracious in receiving us. As the current Master of Arlington Lodge 438 I was invited to sit in the East with the past masters of New Day Lodge.

It was truly wonderful to be able to sit in an open lodge with Masons of another jurisdiction and enjoy the fellowship of good men.

As Psalms 133 says "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity"





IMG_2287b by Zachary Haston, on Flickr


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## Ripcord22A (Mar 24, 2016)

thats great!  1st PH ive seen where the bros arent dressed to the nines!  very cool WB!


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## dfreybur (Mar 24, 2016)

jdmadsenCraterlake211 said:


> thats great!  1st PH ive seen where the bros arent dressed to the nines!  very cool WB!



I noticed that too.  I still have my gloves in my briefcase from having visited PHA lodges in the past!


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## Don.riney (Mar 24, 2016)

We are still getting to know each other here in Texas. As far as I know this is the second large scale visit to a PH lodge since the compact of Amenity was approved by both Grand Lodges. The first was in the Austin Area when Round Rock Lodge visited Lyons Jr Lodge. Lyons Jr lodge reciprocated the visit in March. 

The Brothers at New Day dressed in their Slacks and Polo's to try to make us more comfortable and we made sure and dressed up for the visit. We kinda forgot to ask each other about mode of Dress after the Visit was approved through Both grand Lodges and voted upon by New Day


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## Bloke (Mar 24, 2016)

Where is the double like button (we should start and acronym for that - WITDLB !)
They say a picture tells a thousand words - I leaned in close and looked at the smiles - they speak volumes..


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## acjohnson53 (Mar 24, 2016)

Great to see Brothers doing the darn thing as Master Mason, Dress code "come as you are"...


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## tldubb (Mar 24, 2016)

Wish my jurisdiction would allow us to have a dress down meeting once or twice a year.

Beautiful seeing mosaic of color and brotherhood.


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## acjohnson53 (Mar 24, 2016)

them gloves are part of the attire...got to have those....


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## MRichard (Mar 30, 2016)

Don.riney said:


> We are still getting to know each other here in Texas. As far as I know this is the second large scale visit to a PH lodge since the compact of Amenity was approved by both Grand Lodges. The first was in the Austin Area when Round Rock Lodge visited Lyons Jr Lodge. Lyons Jr lodge reciprocated the visit in March.



Holland #1 (GLOT) visited Magnolia #3 (PHA) sometime in August 2015 and then it was reciprocated in September 2015.


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## Don.riney (Mar 30, 2016)

I had thought I saw one posted some where last fall but could not find it. Thank you for the correction!


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## relapse98 (Apr 27, 2016)

I'm gonna piggyback on your post. Last night, New Braunfels #1109 made a visit to the stated meeting of Star Tom Lodge #100 in San Antonio (1 of 7 Prince Hall lodges in SA). We had a great visit and I believe they are now taking the steps necessary to make a return visit to our lodge. I'll be WM next year and I plan on us making a visit, probably around this same time of the year, and hopefully it can become at least an annual visit. Next time I'll have some gloves.. when in Rome...

We noticed a whole lot of similarities between the lodges last night and feel like Star Tom is the brother lodge of New Braunfels:
1) Both lodge buildings were formerly Jehovah's Witness halls.
2) Both mortgages were retired within the recent past.
3) The dues for each lodge are within $3 of each other.
4) We celebrated our 100 year anniversary on Dec, 8 2015 and they will be celebrating their 100 year anniversary on July 21.

I hope the visitation process can become a bit cleaner. Its somewhat ridiculous how long it takes to go through the steps.


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## Kenneth NC Mason (Apr 27, 2016)

If I remember right

In Texas don't y'all basically have to contact the grand secretary to visit each lodge ??

In Nc it isn't that complicated. We simply inform the DDGM we wish to visit one of their lodges, they give us the masters contact info and then we visit 


Sent from my iPhone using My Freemasonry Pro


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## dfreybur (Apr 27, 2016)

relapse98 said:


> Next time I'll have some gloves.. when in Rome...



Yep.  My gloves are still in my briefcase from my last visit 3 years ago.



> I hope the visitation process can become a bit cleaner. Its somewhat ridiculous how long it takes to go through the steps.



Any interest in submitting legislation to switch the recognition to "full recognition with all of the traditional features"?  If I want to visit a lodge in jurisdiction X I don't need to fill out a form and put it through vote in both lodges routed through both Grand Secretaries.


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## relapse98 (Apr 27, 2016)

Kenneth NC Mason said:


> In Texas don't y'all basically have to contact the grand secretary to visit each lodge ??



Yep. After both Grand Lodges approved visitation, the Grand Secretaries met and the process they came up with is:

1) Visiting lodge decides what lodge to visit
2) Visiting lodge gets the name and number of all brothers that wish to make the visit. Once this list is made, no additions or subtractions can occur.
3) List is passed onto our Grand Secretary to the other Grand Secretary and down to the lodge we are visiting.
4) Approval is made the other way and comes back.

I think there are some informal steps in there, like the 2 lodges contacting each other, making sure its ok and when they are going to visit, etc.

Without knowing the back story, its ridiculous. Give us a process that can actually work in a reasonable fashion.


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## relapse98 (Apr 27, 2016)

dfreybur said:


> Any interest in submitting legislation to switch the recognition to "full recognition with all of the traditional features"?



I'm not even sure where one would need to go to modify that. My memory is hazy, but we voted on the acceptance of the recommendation of the committee on fraternal relations at the 2014 Annual Communication which set the process in motion to establish visitation guidelines. And the Grand Secretaries hammered out the process. But I don't think that is in the Law anywhere. Without it being there, I'm not sure what can be changed, know what I mean?


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## Bloke (Apr 27, 2016)

relapse98 said:


> Without knowing the back story, its ridiculous. Give us a process that can actually work in a reasonable fashion.



"Ridiculous" was there very word which came to my mind when reading that.... why such an incredible degree of control ? Why such a lot of work ?


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## Bill Lins (Apr 27, 2016)

dfreybur said:


> Any interest in submitting legislation to switch the recognition to "full recognition with all of the traditional features"?


Too late for consideration this next year- it needed to have been submitted to GLoTX by April 15th.


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## Bill Lins (Apr 27, 2016)

MRichard said:


> Holland #1 (GLOT) visited Magnolia #3 (PHA) sometime in August 2015 and then it was reciprocated in September 2015.


Actually, the first visit was by Logos #659, PHA, to Wharton #621, GLoTX in May of 2015. Wharton #621 then visited Logos #659 on 20 June, 2015.


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## Bill Lins (Apr 27, 2016)

tldubb said:


> Wish my jurisdiction would allow us to have a dress down meeting once or twice a year.


Why don't you submit a proposal to do just that?


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## relapse98 (Apr 28, 2016)




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## MarkR (Apr 28, 2016)

I once mentioned to the Grand Master of Prince Hall in Minnesota that I'd like to visit one of his lodges some day.  His response was "so, go! You don't need my permission!"  Of course, Minnesota is one of only a couple of states whose Grand Lodges allow plural membership between the jurisdictions.


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## Ripcord22A (Apr 28, 2016)

That is a gorgeous lodge room


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## dfreybur (Apr 28, 2016)

relapse98 said:


> I'm not even sure where one would need to go to modify that. My memory is hazy, but we voted on the acceptance of the recommendation of the committee on fraternal relations at the 2014 Annual Communication which set the process in motion to establish visitation guidelines. And the Grand Secretaries hammered out the process. But I don't think that is in the Law anywhere. Without it being there, I'm not sure what can be changed, know what I mean?



Proposed legislation does not always have to be about the law.  The process is the same as any other legislation.  Become a PM.  Write it up.  Sign it.  Send it in.  Deal with any discussion from the committee on jurisprudence and/or the Gr Sec office.  End up on the floor.  As Br Bill points out, next year as we're past the deadline for this year.

Worth the hassle?  Probably not worth going through all of that just to get rid of a form.  Especially since to do it for real we'd want to find Brothers in WMPHGLofTX to go through the same process so they drop the form as well.  If they continue to require the form dropping the requirement on our side only gets us half way there.


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## Bill Lins (Apr 28, 2016)

dfreybur said:


> If they continue to require the form dropping the requirement on our side only gets us half way there.


True, but the game can't begin until SOMEONE kicks the damn football!


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## relapse98 (Apr 29, 2016)

dfreybur said:


> Proposed legislation does not always have to be about the law.



Ah, you're right. I remember the one last year about requiring the Grand Secretary to send his email before the month so that lodges who had a stated meeting early in the month could read it to their members before everything happened. That was one that affected things not in the law.


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## dfreybur (Apr 29, 2016)

Bill_Lins77488 said:


> True, but the game can't begin until SOMEONE kicks the damn football!



In my case I'm going through the line.  For practical reasons my first kick is my first year as a PM.  We'll see how many years that is and whether this is near the top of my topic list by then.


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## Warrior1256 (Apr 29, 2016)

Don.riney said:


> We are still getting to know each other here in Texas. As far as I know this is the second large scale visit to a PH lodge since the compact of Amenity was approved by both Grand Lodges.


This is great!


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