First E.A. In The South

Thursday night marked the fist Stated Communication with yours truly sitting in the South and I hit the ground running with an Entered Apprentice degree. Although I fall short of my fellow blogger, and Junior Warden, Traveling Man from Movable Jewel's immediate step up night as Worshipful Master in his first E.A. degree, I think it went pretty well except for my refering to the hour of refreshment as "HIGH NOON" which received a hearty laugh from all present.

Speaking of all present it was quite a night at Old St. John's.

I was the first one to arrive and began to set up the wonderful dinner prepared by my lovely wife for the Brethren. The candidate for the evenings conferral was already there and ready to go. This degree was primarily orchestrated by myself in the time since our installation and that evening. I dont know if it was the satisfaction of putting this degree together or the excitement of sitting in the Junior Wardens chair for my first full meeting, but from the time I arived there was a buzz in the air. As the usual Brothers started to show up, I went up stairs to the lodge room to set up for the degree. This went well with the help of a couple of my Brothers and when I went back downstairs I was very pleased to see a room full of men eating and conversing around the meal prepared by Mrs. Jr. Warden. On top of that there were some interested men around my age there to learn more about my lodge, sitting down and conversing with the Brethren! We even had an Entered Apprentice from the other lodge in my city there to watch the degree from the sidelines. I can say, without a doubt for the first time, that the average age of everyone gathered was a full couple of decades younger than had been gathered at Old St. John's in quite a while.

Our outlook as a lodge is getting much brighter.

During the meeting petitions were being turned in and investigations were being voted on. How exciting. The degree went great and afterward the fellowship was also. Our newest Brother hung around and was very greatful for the degree we gave him. He is a welcome addition to the craft and will, I have no doubt, be a contributing member to my lodge.

We are scheduled to do another E.A. degree in two weeks which will also be our annual inspection which I am a little nervous but also really excited about.

Speaking of excitement, my dear friend who I have mentioned before on this blog, called me last night to let me know that he has deceided to petition my lodge for the mysteries of Freemasonry. He will be the first man to bear my name as recommender on his petition and it will be with great honor that I hand it over to the lodge.

There is much work to be done!