Ritual, Our Greatest Asset or Albatross?

The three Pillars of the Scottish Rite are Ritual, Education, and Charity. In my opinion, the most important Pillar of the Scottish Rite is ritual. I have been around the world from Thailand to Russia, to Hungary, the Philippines, Japan, Okinawa, to our Northern neighbors in Canada and our Southern neighbors in Mexico. In all of these countries, I have witnessed great ritual to not so great ritual. I have seen bombastic to nonverbal ritual, and can say without a doubt, ritual matters.

Ritual not only defines an organization, it sends a very positive or negative message about the organization performing the ritual. From soldiers marching to monks blessing a temple, you are swayed by their proficiency, dedication, their message, and if you would like to be part of the organization you are watching. This holds true when it comes to the Scottish Rite and our ritual.

Men are looking for an organization like the Scottish Rite to join, because of our beautiful ritual. Our ritual sends a powerful and lasting message. It tells a possible member and our membership what we believe in, our moral makeup, the philosophy of the Scottish Rite, and how hard we work to dedicate our lives to help others and educate our members. There are many benefits / side effects when being involved in the ritual of the Scottish Rite.

Ritual is a great place to build fellowship, brotherly love, and confidence in one’s speaking skills, stagecraft, lighting, and sound, to name just a few. The bonding that takes place when a cast puts on a successful degree is fabulous. To be a director of a degree and put in your personality / interpretation of the degree into the ritual will open your eyes and others’. Degree work and all of the members who participate show the pride they have in putting on the degree, as well as their pride of the organization. There is a flipside to all of this.

Poor ritual will destroy the Scottish Rite or any other organization. Reading your part sends the message that you aren’t willing to put the time and effort into learning your part. Skipping out during rehearsals not only hurts your performance, but others’. The brothers will suffer, members become lethargic and possible new members won’t join.

I was at another masonic group that I belong to and witnessed the worst ritual I have ever seen. They claim they are an elite group. I looked around at the membership, and they are, but they let their ritual slip so badly, I am thinking about dropping my membership. Their attendance has dropped, and by now you should know why. They are slowly turning into a dinner club. Now, don’t get me wrong, a good meal is important, but I can get a good meal at home. I need a good reason to leave my house and family. That reason is good ritual. Great ritual can and will turn this situation around. If other groups want to die off, just keep performing poor ritual, and they won’t be around much longer. Great ritual is one of the Orient of Oregon’s goals for 2017.

I am very proud in all of the Valleys in the Orient of Oregon and their ritual. We aren’t totally there yet, but we are making improvements every day. There are some Valleys that have not done a degree in a long time, but are now. Some Valleys have started doing all of the degrees, even outside degrees. It isn’t perfect, but they are moving in the right directions. They aren’t sitting around and deteriorating into a failed masonic group. I joined the Scottish Rite to be around like-minded and good men, morally strong, caring and giving men. Men who want to improve and help others in the process; Someone whom I am proud to call bother who has the principles, ethics, and the will to do the hard work to keep this great fraternity called the Scottish Rite alive. To me the Scottish Rite is the greatest fraternity around, and I am very proud of my fellow brothers in the Scottish Rite. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication!

God bless all of you!

Gary Kuney, 33° Active
Grand First Equerry
S.G.I.G. in Oregon