Let me take this opportunity to thank the Great Architect of the Universe, for in him we live and move and have our being. I am humbled to serve as Worshipful Master of William F. Taylor, Lodge #57, grateful to you for believing and having faith in me to lead this great lodge this 2019 masonic year. I plan to do my best to revitalize our friendship, build upon our fraternity, and strengthen our financial standing.
Through Friendship and the practice of brotherly love, I hope that we can get to know each other and have a better understanding of who each of us are, not just through a fraternal connection but as family. I also would like to see us expand that bond to the other local lodges in our own jurisdiction, so that the reputation of William F. Taylor expands to all Prince Hall Masons of Maryland. The first step in this is to know each other, intimately, as you do your own brothers. Part of this means bridging the gap between the generations within our lodge and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each individual brother, and lifting them up as needed. Since I have been in the lodge I have seen a separation of brothers that has grown wider, and my hope is to bridge that gap. We are linked by a chain of sincere affection, and we must always remember that we are only as strong as our weakest link. By doing this, we not only strengthen our lodge, but the entire fraternity.
Our Fraternity has a rich history. Not just in its history of Prince Hall, but from time immemorial. Freemasonry is a beautiful or peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated in symbols. Its symbolism is found throughout our lodge and by that understanding, we can gain the knowledge to know our history and what our purpose is. William F. Taylor has a reputation of being a ritualistic and teaching lodge, not just in our jurisdiction but every place we travel. We have a reputation of being a traveling lodge, whereby, we enrich our brothers with the zeal and knowledge to understand who we are. I plan to take every opportunity available to expand on that education, by exploring that history in this masonic year, as well as in our travels. My hope is that we, as a lodge, instill that zeal to learn infinitely into the hearts of every brother that we decide to welcome as a brother into our lodge. It is also my hope that by reigniting that zeal in every brother in our lodge, we will extend our arms to strengthen the fraternal love, and build our home not only through the love, but also our finances.
Our fraternity is built on Faith, Hope, and Charity, which are our three Principal Moral Virtues. The last virtue, Charity is known to be the essential characteristic of a Freemasons heart. It blesseth him who gives, as well as him who receives. A claim on a Freemasons Charity is also made as his circumstances in life may warrant. In fact, Freemasonry is so practical in its approach to Charity that we are told to practice Charity, without detriment to our connections or ourselves. To practice Charity, we must have the ability and resources to contribute Charity. Therefore, we must take one view of our organization, not just as a Fraternity, but also as a business, and increase our finances. I plan to take an approach to our finances which will involve investing a portion of our earnings, so that when we practice Charity, we not only give, but improve the society in which we live. A well-known poet by the name of Alexander Pope said “In Faith and Hope the world will disagree, But, all mankind’s concern is Charity”.
In this Masonic year, my hope is to strengthen our Friendship through brotherly love, improve our Fraternity by masonic education in Freemasonry and its history, and grow our organization through its finances so that our contributions will empower our communities and help those in the most need. This can be made possible by building on the foundation of that was laid before – by working together as a TEAM.
