The Master Craftsman Program, a Masonic Education correspondence program developed and sponsored by the Supreme Council, was introduced to the Southern Jurisdiction in March 2008. Since then, it has grown to over 4,000 participants from all over the world and spawned a follow-on program (Master Craftsman II) and a new study group initiative meant to foster more interaction and fraternalism within the program. So far, the highest concentrations of participants in the Master Craftsman Program are both in the west: in the Orients of Washington and Utah. While both states are large in geographic terms, in population and membership terms, these states are very different—one small, the other large
How can ordinary people make a difference in the future? How can we do things which will outlive us?—5°, Perfect Master What is the difference between anger and outrage? Are there circumstances in which outrage is morally justified? Can one serve as a peacemaker while feeling outraged? What is the role of the peacemaker?—6°, Confidential Secretary We live together in society. We are members of a civil community. Humans are social creatures. We are not meant to live alone and in isolation. Yet, with so much hatred and conflict in the world, it is easy to want to live away from all the torment and disillusionment. Why is this not a good solution? How do we reconcile the ideas of individualism
(L. to r.) AMD, HRAKTP, Grand College of Rites, Society of Blue Friars, Knight Masons, KYCH You might think this was Thomas Smith Webb, who organized and regularized the American York Rite, but he primarily “edited” what already existed. Most Masonic Rites and Degrees have appeared anonymously with vague “time immemorial” traditions. An example of this is the Master Mason Degree which did not exist in 1717 when the premier Grand Lodge was formed in London, but is briefly mentioned in a lodge minute in 1725, and appears fully-formed in 1730 in Samuel Prichard’s Masonry Dissected. We know who the founders of the first Supreme Council were in 1801 in Charleston, South Carolina, and we know they
