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NEW MEMBERS

Yes, Germania Lodge has been busy! The following is a list of our newest members. Bro Donald Freeze, the degree captain, along with officers and members have been rehearsing and doing exceptional ritual work. Attendance is up and the degrees are most impressive. We now have 109 members!

• Joe Rybczyk or Joe Ashlar (his professional name) comes to us from the Grand Lodge of New York. He was raised there but fell in love with our city which he has adopted. He is a piano/keyboard player extraordinaire and is currently playing with the band Bonaramma. If you like trombones, great keyboard playing, lots of energy and great music don’t miss seeing them. He wants to work the chairs in our lodge and is extremely excited about being a member of Germania, especially because of it being a Scottish Rite Lodge and the natural fit he feels with his comrades at Germania.
• I have known Ritchie Parker since he was two years old. He and Bro. Patrick Kueck, my son, were child hood pals. He asked me for a petition at Oktoberfest 2007 and recently completed his Master Mason degree which was a double with Louis Odenwald. To sit in the East for the degree was like raising my 2 nd son and it’s hard to express the pride and love I feel for this young man/brother.
• Louis Odenwald was Bro. Patrick Kueck’s Boy Scout troop leader and was a troop leader for many years. He took a little longer to receive his Master Mason degree but persevered and is now a proud member.
• Bro. Elie Dancour comes to us from Paris France and is in medical school here in New Orleans. It was difficult for him with all the studying to learn the catechism but he did and he gives thanks to Bro. David Brassieur for coaching him. We feel he will be a great doctor and a great Mason.
• Bro. Bill Axtman’s father and uncle were masons and at 72 Bill thought he might be just a little too old. He asked me about Masonry and I told him I remembered raising a 79 year old. This was all he needed to hear. He asked for a petition and was raised at the last meeting along with Elie. He is an instant hit with our young “biker brothers” as he raced motorcycles when he was a young man. He is a very young 72! He said he didn’t think he could have completed his journey without the help of his coach Bro. Eldred Gilmore H.P.M.

Welcome all new brothers to our lodge. We are proud of all of you and hope you are able to attend frequently and if your travels take you away form our great city and lodge you will always remain a member and spread the knowledge and light of “The Scottish Rite Blue Lodges” and Germania #46. -kkueck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Sibboleth" - Good & Wholesome Instruction from the East: sent in by W.M. Cupit "It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath." Aeschylus Quote   "Eggs and oaths are easily broken." Danish Proverb The allegories of Freemasonry, just as the stories and parables in the Great Light of Masonry, contain so much to study; the deeper the Masonic Student goes in study the more one finds to learn.     I would suspect that every Freemason remembers the story as it is told in the 2°, and in the book of Judges, about how Jephthah and his army defeated the Ammonites, and then how it came to be that he found it necessary to do battle with the Ephraimites, and defeated them too. This story is also significant to members of the Order of the Eastern Star. The story of Jephthah (pronounced Jef-thuh) can be found in the Great Light of Masonry in Judges 11 & 12: It is an interesting story, with some important lessons to be learned from the story: Verse 11:1 says that Jephthah was a 'mighty warrior,' but the commentary from the NJPS translation tells us that Jephthah is remembered, because of his vow, in a negative light. The giving of an oath referring to one coming out of his house suggests a human rather than an animal sacrifice. Vows, even hastily and ill thought out vows, were taken very seriously in biblical times; Jephthah and his daughter understood this, and that is why it is understood that Jephthah could not retract what he said. However, some Bible Scholars maintain that Jephthah's daughter was not actually killed.   The battle with the Ephraimites was a battle Jephthah waged against his own people and the difference between the pronunciations between sibboleth instead of shibboleth reflected a difference of dialect within the same language spoken by both sides in the battle.   The number 'forty and two thousand and its meaning is widely discussed. Freemasons will talk of that number meaning either 42,000 or 2,040, but the translations newer than the Authorized Version [King James] says 42,000 instead of forty and two thousand. In talking with some clergy I got some interesting information; they all tended to agree that the number isn't all that important for the following reasons: In wars it isn't always that easy to determine the actual number of warriors killed, and this was even more the case in Old Testament times: The number forty they agreed had a metaphysical meaning of completeness, and one of them offered that 42,000 involves multiples of 4 and also of 7; Seven has a metaphysical meaning of fullness, so his interpretation of the 42,000 is that the Masonic or Bible Student wouldn't need to think of that number as literal, but as meaning that it represents a fully complete victory, with nothing more to do.      In modern times the word 'shibboleth' is used to indicate a password or other safety devise; it's used as part of the English language as such. Sometimes a Mason will hear it used and wonder if the speaker is a Masonic or Bible student, but using the word in a speech only means that the word has become a part of the English language. Author Jonathan Kirsh, in one of his books, recounts a story about World War II in which Dutch Resistance Fighters were able to cull out Nazi infiltrators who couldn't pronounce a particular Dutch Name. The Dutch may have used two names to detect Nazi infiltrators; one name is spelled "Scheveningen," the other is spelled " 'S-Gravenhage," which is the Dutch name and pronunciation of a town in the Netherlands, which is known as "The Hague." In any event the Dutch had one Pronunciation and the Germans another, so this word [s] was used as a 'shibboleth' to detect the enemy in modern warfare. This, it seems to me, is a good example of how two different peoples inherently pronounced a word differently so as to divulge their identity.   From the Great Light of Masonry: "On seeing her, he rent his clothes and said, 'Alas my daughter! You have brought me low; you have become my troubler! For I have uttered a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract." Judges 1`:35 NJPS "When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands, like water: If he opens his fingers then he needn't hope to find himself again." Robert Bolt Home • Guestbook • Officers • Contacts • Location

 

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