GRAND MASTER’S HOMECOMING
Grand Master’s Homecoming M
ost Worshipful Grand Master, Most Worshipful Past Grand Masters, Right Worshipful Grand Lodge Officers, Worshipful Masters, and brethren all. It is an extreme privilege for me to stand before you on this most special celebration for our Grand Master, for Mehr Lodge No. 90 and for the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.
George R. Adams,
PGM
As fate would have it, the winds of change blew over Iran and a ruthless gang of religious tyrants forced these Freemasons into exile. In many cases they were expelled under penalty of death if they returned to their homeland. Thus, these Freemasons found themselves isolated from their country with no place to practice their Masonry. Among those who were forced to leave their country and choose life in exile were MWB Christopher Sahakian, MWB Mansour Hatefi, and our Grand Master, Robert B. Heyat who came to America to find a new home. Like our ritual, these Persian Masons, who later became U.S. citizens, “traveled in foreign countries”, with no lodges to pay them their Master’s wages. Imagine if you will the emptiness of your life without the many blessings derived from your Masonic experience. I think you would agree that your life would be incomplete without the rich teachings and brotherly love that we share as Freemasons.
Tonight we pay homage to a very special brother, our Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Robert B. Heyat, 33º at his homecoming to Mehr Lodge No. 90. And as part of our celebration, we acknowledge with deep gratitude his tremendous contribution to the growth of Freemasonry in our jurisdiction since his arrival on the scene in the late 1980’s. It is good for Masons to review the chapters of their heritage. Like the ancient elders who sat around the ceremonial fire recounting tribal stories of past heroes, let us recount the story of a most important chapter in the history of our Grand Lodge, a history which began in a far away distant land… Iran. The story begins with a group of highly educated, Godfearing Freemasons who diligently practiced their Freemasonry in their Persian home. These Freemasons counted among their ranks very prominent individuals, authors, businessmen, leaders, including prime ministers , senators and justices of the Iranian supreme court, Robert’s father- a professor, an economist, and philosopher-poet, as well as MWB Robert B. Heyat. The Voice of Freemasonry
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The part of this story that relates to our Grand Lodge, began in the late 1980’s. With the decline in membership experienced across the board in Freemasonry, there were lodges in the District of Columbia that were struggling to survive. Faced with the need to find a home to practice their Craft, one solution to the problem seemed to be to have these Persian brethren join an existing local lodge in need of new members. This was tried, but for the most part it was an unsatisfactory solution. Without the cultural template of Persian Freemasonry, experienced in their homeland, it just wasn’t the same for these brethren. There was something missing from the formula for creating a bilingual lodge. The transplant into an existing D. C. lodge for the most part did not take. What was needed for our Iranian brethren was to have a lodge where they could practice their Freemasonry as it was experienced in their homeland, using the emulation ritual with which they were familiar and to be able to congregate using their own language. This is where most MWB Robert came on the scene with his vision and leadership. He recognized the need for a culturally diverse lodge operating in tandem with other lodges in the District of Columbia and at his own expense, and
