Scottish Rite Developments

At a Scottish Rite meeting in late September, the Illustrious George R. Adams, announced his intent to step down as Deputy for the Supreme Council for the Valley of Washington, D.C., on October 1, 2005. Following his announcement the Sovereign Grand Commander, the Illustrious Ronald S. Seale, appointed MWB Leonard Proden, current Grand Master of D.C., to fill the vacancy thus created.

At the Biennial Session of the Supreme Council which was convened during the week of October 3rd, MWB Proden was thus privileged, as Grand Master and as the Deputy for the Valley of the District of Columbia, to welcome the members of the Supreme Council to Washington D.C. In his remarks MWB Proden called attention to the issues of the day in the following address:

Sovereign Grand Commander Members of the Supreme Council My Brethren All

Good Morning. Welcome to Washington, D.C., our Nation’s Capital, the locale of your House of the Temple, and the Mecca of those who revere freedom, from pole to pole and ocean to ocean, the world around. Washington is a Masonic city. It was conceived by Masons, surveyed by Masons, planned by Masons, developed by Masons, and thus far, thank God, preserved by Masons who, in times of prosperity or peril, have always been able to rise to the challenges of the day. This is your city, and mine, my brethren and guests; let us therefore look on it with pride, satisfaction, and appreciation. Moreover, let us resolve, as we do so, to honor our past, build on our heritage, and pass the fruits of our Masonic labor, unsullied and unimpaired, to generations that are yet to come.

Yesterday I hope you visited the Octagon Museum at 1799 New York Avenue, N.W. and were able to spend some time examining the exhibit currently on display in that very elegant setting. Entitled “The Initiated Eye: Secrets, Symbols, Freemasonry, and the Architecture of Washington, D.C.,” the exhibit is a part of a Masonic effort, supported by the Supreme Council, to share our rich Masonic heritage with those who live here and with those who come to visit our Nation’s Capital. Comprised of 21 original paintings, rendered by artist Peter Waddell, Staff Report

it graphically depicts the role that Masonry, in the yesterday of time, played in the development of a city that we like to think is a dependable “Lighthouse of Freedom,” on which the stressed and distressed of the entire world are focused.

It is to the appreciation of the vision to which our forefathers responded that I hope this exhibit will serve. Even in times of adversity they were able to perceive opportunity and give meaning, civic and fraternal, to Masonic life in their day. It is my prayer that each Grand Master here today will recognize our obligation to mankind, especially at This is your city, and mine, this unparallel time in my brethren and guests; let history, when the us therefore look on it with world at large is fraught with uncerpride, satisfaction, and tainty and danger. appreciation. Moreover, let Never has there been a us resolve, as we do so, to greater need for people to understand and to honor our past, build on our live by the principles heritage, and pass the fruits of Freemasonry. And of our Masonic labor, never has civilization be so challenged in so unsullied and unimpaired, many places and in so to generations that are yet many ways as it is now to come. in the religious, economic, military, and political arenas of the world, where there is a pervasive thirst for understanding, temperance, toleration, truth, and justice.

Such yearnings, immense though they may be, are universal in appeal; reasonable in scope; and achievable, at least in part, given the good will of men who able and willing to share the fruits of abundance, material and spiritual, with which they have been so well blessed. It is my hope and that of every current Grand Master that we, the Masons of this day, will recognize the challenge of this day and hour, and be ever mindful that we are obligated, by word and deed, to not only respond to the claims that

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