The Cornerstone Newsletter

Degree work scheduled

Several degree presentations have been scheduled by our Worshipful Master this month. On Monday, May 5, 2008 we will be initiating one candidate in the Entered Apprentice Degree. If he is ready with his Fellowcraft examination May 19th, we will proceed with the degree, if not, we will exemplify the Fellowcraft Degree on that evening. Officers are hereby notified to know their ritual parts.

A Special Meeting has been called Saturday, June 7, 2008, 11:30 A.M. after our Fund Raising Breakfast for an exemplification of the Master Mason Degree. R.W.B. Rich has called the meeting to make sure we complete our Grand Lodge Code required degree work during the year in a timely manner. Please make every effort to attend these meetings especially June 7th when help will be needed on the Fellowcraft Team. Please contact our Fellowcraft Team Captain, Doug Nutter (330-638-2377), to offer your assistance.

Ladies Night program announced

We will be honoring our ladies Saturday, May 10, 2008 at a special Ladies Night program with guest recording artist Tia Ciferno from Warren beginning at 7:00 P.M.— refreshments afterward in Fellowship Hall.

Tia attended Dana School of Music with a full scholarship, but eventually decided to major in singing lullabies to her first born son, Michael and to three more babies in the following years.
There at home, the Lord began to craft Tia’s songwriting (and mothering) skills as she grew closer to Him while sorting socks, washing dishes and homeschooling. When her children were older, she knew it was time to begin sharing what she had received within her home, beyond her home. Christ and also His purposes for our families.

Tia is now a singer, songwriter, author and speaker who is delighted to be sharing the joy of living for Jesus. And though the Lord has taken her all over the country and even as far as South Africa and Germany, her greatest joy is singing about His Love right in her own community. Tia has recorded three CDs: Healer of My Heart, Heaven Sent (lullabies), and Legacy. She has also written a book entitled Mom Moments—A Daughter’s Journal, which celebrates the goodness of God in the midst of terminal illness.

Tia and her husband Mike are still busy with their four children; Michael, Aaron, Anna and Julia, now ages 16 through 27.  They live in a little white cape cod in Warren, Ohio.

Bring your special lady to Lodge and recognize her contributions to Freemasonry and enjoy the vocal talents of one of our areas’ finest singer songwriters.

Table Lodge?

What’s a Lodge of Entered Apprentices and one of Table Instruction—a Table Lodge? Good question. For one thing, it’s different than a normal meeting! It’s good food, laughter and fellowship. It’s singing (in and out of tune). It’s Masonic education. But most of all it’s learning to live Masonry at its finest.

Historically, the Table Lodge was so common in the early eighteenth century that it may be presumed that most meetings were of that character. In simple language, it merely meant that the lodge met for dinner and as they sat around the table, eating and drinking, the degree was conferred. We continue that tradition today in the Table Lodge.

The feast as a function, a ceremony, an occasion is very, very old. How old it is is not necessary to determine, but certainly far older than any Masonry we know. From the idea of a feast in which Brethren broke bread together and drank in common, came the Table Lodge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In eighteenth century lodges, the feast was of such importance in the life of the lodge that in many of them, the members were seated at the tables when the lodges were opened, and remained there throughout the communication, even when the degrees were conferred! The result was that Masonic fellowship was good fellowship, as in warm and fruitful soil. Acquaintanceship, friendship and affection could flourish—there was no grim and silent sitting on a bench staring across at a wall.

The Table Lodge is an opportunity for all Brethren to share Masonic fellowship in a less formal atmosphere with discussions and talking continued during the evening. By tradition, the Table
Lodge is open to all Masons, thereby opening the door to all Brethren in the lodge—including Entered Apprentices and Fellowcrafts—to be able to attend the feast in the tiled dining room.

Niles McKinley Lodge will be hosting a Table Lodge Monday, June 9, 2008 with a country-style spare rib dinner beginning at 6:00 P.M. Reservations at $15.00 per person are required and need to be made NO LATER THAN MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2008 by contacting our Worshipful Master, Dave Rich at (330) 792-4882. Attendance will be limited to 60 Brethren so get your reservation in quickly. R.W.B. Alan Bohr will be our guest speaker for the evening. A commemorative glass will be yours to take home. You don’t want to miss this great evening of fellowship and fun for all Masons!

Cornerstone laying reenactment

The Founders’ Day Dinner Dance sponsored by the 25th Masonic District in January was very well attended with close to 400 people in attendance. You can see our contingent of Brethren and their ladies in the Photo Gallery at our website, www.niles794.org.

Another event to help celebrate Ohio’s 200th anniversary of Freemasonry will take place Saturday, June 21, 2008. The Grand Lodge of Ohio is sponsoring a Masonic parade and cornerstone laying reenactment in Columbus, Ohio. The parade will begin at Nationwide Blvd and High. The route will follow High Street south to the State Capital. After the parade, there will be a reenactment of the cornerstone laying ceremony for the Annex to the Statehouse.

The 25th Masonic District Blue Lodge Association is renting busses to take Brethren to this very special event celebrating the 200th year anniversary of Freemasonry in Ohio. One bus will leave from Warren, one from Ashtabula.

A number of Brethren from our Lodge will be making the trip with the District. Reservations will be made on a first paid basis. You may send your reservations and money to: Bob Homoly, 435 Clarmont Road; Willowick, Ohio 44095-4703. Seats will be limited so—the sooner you make your reservation, the surer you’ll be of getting a seat!

Sts. John Day

“Erected to God and dedicated to the Holy Saints John” – these are familiar words known to every Freemason. The “Holy Saints John” are, as we know, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.

There is no proof, of course, that either of these men were ever functional Patrons of our Fraternity, and they most certainly were not Operative or Speculative Masons, but it is a fact that Freemasonry has adopted them as Patron Saints for several centuries. We know, for example, from the New Testament, that John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus, so tradition has set his birthday as June 24th. Legend has set December 27th as the Evangelist's “birthday”. These two men were exact opposites in temperament: The Baptist was an extrovert and man of action, while the Evangelist was an introvert and a man of thought, meditation, and vision.

St. John the Evangelist teaches us to subdue our passions, one of the first lessons every new Freemason learns in Lodge. When we examine the writings of St. John the Evangelist, we see a major transformation of a young man. He goes from being a hot-tempered young radical to one who exhibits peace in his old age. He goes from being intolerant of others to working with others by sharing his theology of a “better way of life”.

We know from the writings of St. John the Evangelist that his message is simple and straightforward -- that to know and love God is to obey His law, that the essential mark of grace is Brotherly Love, and that the ideal life is to live in fellowship with others.

It does not matter that there is no, nor ever was, a Lodge of the Holy Saints John of Jerusalem. It does not matter whether the two Saints John were actually members of the Masonic Fraternity. They were selected as our Patron Saints because they exemplified the basic principles of our ancient Fraternity in their daily lives through their words and deeds. It is because Freemasonry regards the character and internal qualifications of a man that the two Saints John are fitting Patrons. Freemasonry honors them because they were living examples of the Golden Rule and their practice of love for their fellowmen, and their love of their Creator.

Our Lodge will celebrate Sts. John Day Sunday, June 22, 2008 at the Mineral Ridge First United Methodist Church on Main St. (State Route 46) In Mineral Ridge. R.W.B. Curtis Miller, a Past Master of our Lodge and an Associate Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, ministers to the church as its pastor. All Masons and their families are asked to attend the 11:00 A.M. church service. After the service, a light luncheon will be provided by the church for a nominal donation.

Ohio Special Olympics

The Masons of Ohio for many years have been supporting athletes to the state Summer Games of the Ohio Special Olympics. The following is the awards qualifications of the 2008 Special Olympics "Sponsor-An-Athlete" program for Ohio Masonic Lodges:

A donation of $500 to $999.00 from a lodge will receive a certificate signed by the Grand Master and Special Olympics, also a listing in The Beacon. This certificate will be given to the lodge at the Registration table of Grand Lodge 2008. Donations ranging from $1000—$2000 will be recognized at Grand Lodge by our Grand Master and listed in The Beacon. The “Jerry C. Rasor Award” will be presented at Grand Lodge by the Grand Master to the lodge that raises the most money contributed to the “Sponsor-an-Athlete program for 2008. All lodges will receive a Special Olympics pin for each $100.00 donated. The cost for an Athlete to attend the summer games is approximately $100.00, this figure goes up each year with the cost of housing and food.

We must point out that donations for the “Award Program” are calculated from the money given through the Charitable Foundation for the Sponsor-an-Athlete program. There is no way of tracking money given to a local organization by the lodge.  We would also like to remind you that checks sent directly to Grand Lodge should be made out to the Charitable Foundation, and should have “Special Olympics - 794” on the memo line. We thank you for your continued support of Special Olympics.