September is here and it is time for our annual Hamburger Feed.
Please join us Thursday, September 1 (I know the card says September 7 but you can’t believe everything you read) at 6:30pm. Cost will be $6.00.
Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Potato Salad and all the Fixings
Please reply to this email address with your reservations: salemscottishrite@gmail.com
See you Thursday
Dave.
All Scottish Rite Members of the 6th° or higher are welcome to attend. Visiting Brethren will need current dues card showing membership in the Scottish Rite.
The Duty of the Seventh Degree is “Let justice be the guide of all your actions.” The Lesson of the degree teaches “All actions have consequences. Be just in judging others’ motives.”
Schedule
6:00 pm Dinner
7:00 pm Degree
After the degree there will be a cast party and social in the Members Lounge.
Please RSVP for dinner reservations no later than 11:00 am on Monday the 19th. Any requests that come in after the cut off will go on the standby list. Email officemanager@portlandsr.com to RSVP.
Brethren,
The roll of the workmen has been called, and one Master Mason, Brother Walter D. Alley, 32°, has not answered to his name. He has laid down the working tools of life and with them has left that mortal part for which he no longer has use. His labors here below have taught him to divest his heart and conscience of the vices and superfluity of life, thereby fitting his mind as a living stone for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Strengthened in his labors here by faith in God, and confident of expectation of immortality, he has been granted admission to the Celestial Lodge above.
Brother Alley was a member of the Portland Valley Scottish Rite, Al Kadar Shrine as a Past Potentate and originally member of Sellwood Lodge No. 131 later consolidated with Willamette No. 2.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, at the Al Kader Shrine Center, 25100 S.W. Parkway Ave., Wilsonville. His complete obituary can be read at: http://www.omegaservices.com/…/Walter-D…/Portland-OR/1645270
Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 the Portland Valley Scottish Rite will be having a Celebration in Honor of Most Worshipful Brother Arthur L. Borland, Grand Master of Masons in Oregon.
All Masons and their significant others are invited. Banquet is just $20 per person, payable at the door.
The festivities will start with a Social at 5:30 pm and continue into the evening.
Please contact the Valley Office for reservations for you and your guest by no later than Friday September 2nd.
Phone: 503-226-7827 Email: officemanager@portlandsr.com
Portland Valley Summer 2016 Chili Cook-Off
Tuesday August 9th at 6:00 pm
If this summer’s not hot enough for ya yet come on down to the Scottish Rite Tuesday August 9th for the first ever Chili Cook-off hosted by the Rite. So far we have 6 cookers lined up that evening to show off their skills and fill your belly.
Also there will be a prize for worst cowboy hat of the bunch!
All Masons, families and their guests are welcome. Admission is just $10 per adult and younger folks 15 and under are free. Soda, beverages and hotdogs will be provided.
For the Cookers:
No fee to enter contest, must cook off site and bring in a warmer or crockpot to heat up and keep food up to serving temp. Electrical outlets, tables, sampling spoons and bowls will be provided.
Winner will receive $100, or if tied, winnings will be split evenly. Winning chili will be determined by public decision.
Cookers must RSVP to officemanager@portlandsr.com by no later than Tuesday August 2nd.
Freemasonry is first and foremost an active pursuit. It is both creative and expressive; we are the builders, the artists, the engineers, the doers that represent the quest of the creative, freethinking, mind of mankind.
Our Masonic pursuits are simple…we labor to turn sheep into wolves.
You see…sheep have an easy life, far easier than the wolf. The flock of sheep is given food, shelter, water and protection from its enemies by the shepherd. The sheep eat food they did not grow, live behind fences they did not build, and are protected while they graze, play and nap.
What the sheep doesn’t understand is that the comforts afforded them by the shepherd come at the very high cost of enslavement. They are bred not to be strong in body and mind but rather for their flesh and wool. The sheep become so in need of the shepherd’s protection and care that they no longer even require real shackles to enslave them. These sheep live a life of leisurely servitude that eventually ends at the whim of the shepherd.
Wolves have no masters. Yes, it must hunt for its own food, find its own shelter, and learn to protect itself; yet the wolf is free to roam wherever it wishes. It doesn’t require the shepherd to open a corral gate in order to do so. Yes, the sheep are always fed but they can only fill their bellies with the food of the shepherds choosing. The wolf on the other hand must find its own food, seek out and pursue its desires and labor diligently for their acquisition.
We as Freemasons must always seek to choose effort over leisure, purpose over indifference and critical freethinking over mindless acceptance.
The masses tend to yearn for their freedom but most often choose to rely on others to provide for their comfort and peace of mind. At dusk the sheep are herded back into their prison, fed at the hand of the shepherd and fall asleep believing they are deserving of all they receive even though they did nothing to receive it.
The wolf may often lack the comforts of a sheep’s life. There may be days when hunger pangs ache and gnaw at its belly, where the elements nip and bite at its flesh, but the wolf understand and treasures his freedom and never even in the worst of times desires to be a sheep…because the wolf knows that the fattest, slowest and most content sheep is likely his next meal.
The lesson we learn in freemasonry teaches us how to build within ourselves a temple that is fit for the habitation of God and to understand that our creator has given us the tools in mind, body and spirit to create abundance, not at the whim of a master, but rather from the strength of our freedom, creativity of our mind, and endeavor of our spirit.
Know my brothers that our Masonic labors are more necessary today than ever and that our pursuits are altruistic and benevolent and that the rewards for such effort, even if the droning hordes might tell us otherwise, will result in something more precious than any treasure on earth…our own freedom.
Larry Roberts 32° KCCH, Portland Valley Executive Director/Treasurer. Member of Modesto Lodge 206, Esoterika Lodge 227 and Research Lodge 198.
Portland Valley Summer 2016 Chili Cook-Off
Tuesday August 9th at 6:00 pm
If this summer’s not hot enough for ya yet come on down to the Scottish Rite Tuesday August 9th for the first ever Chili Cook-off hosted by the Rite. So far we have 6 cookers lined up that evening to show off their skills and fill your belly.
Also there will also be a prize for worst cowboy hat of the bunch!
All Masons, families and their guests are welcome. Admission is just $10 per adult and younger folks 15 and under are free. Soda, beverages and hotdogs will be provided.
For the Cookers:
No fee to enter contest, must cook off site and bring in a warmer or crockpot to heat up and keep food up to serving temp. Electrical outlets, tables, sampling spoons and bowls will be provided.
Winner will receive $100, or if tied, winnings will be split evenly. Winning chili will be determined by public decision.
Cookers must RSVP to officemanager@portlandsr.com by no later than Tuesday August 2nd.
Location:
Portland Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
709 SW 15th Ave, Portland, OR 97205
(Entry through the SW Morrison Street doors)
Date:
Sunday, August 14th
Time:
3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Parking:
Available in the Scottish Rite parking garage
Memorial Service & Refreshments:
Memorial Service in the Auditorium
Fully-catered reception & conversation on the lower level in the Lounge
RSVP:
It is integral to the success of the event that all guests RSVP – the sooner the better. This will help the hosts best prepare in properly accommodating all those wishing to partake in the catered portion of the event.
Please RSVP via email: kittykat@teleport.com or telephone: 503-231-2855 to Jean Uzelac
Salem Valley will confer the 21st Degree at Claude Weldin’s Farm on Thursday evening. We will have a picnic at 6:00 pm followed by the conferral at 7:00 pm.
We will have to watch for the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers. (There are usually a couple of deer hanging around).
No caps.
Hope to see you Thursday.
Dave
Speech was given by Bro. Larry Roberts 32° KCCH on May 23rd 2016 at the Portland Valley Scottish Rite.
Welcome brothers and friends.
Today we are here to celebrate the historic evolution of our Scottish Rite Memorial Library and to recognize and dedicate the library to one of the Scottish Rite’s most prolific Masonic scholars, Illustrious Brother Norm Peterson 33°.
First I would like to briefly discuss the history of our growing library.
The Portland Valley Scottish Rite Memorial Library first began its modest collection in 1870 in the same year the Scottish Rite was chartered in Oregon.
When the current building was constructed in 1902 a small library collection was housed originally in the Candidate’s Room. It later moved up to the second floor on the northeast corner of the building to what was originally dedicated as a Blue Lodge room.
The new Library was then dedicated to Illustrious Brother Joseph Simon, 33° who donated funds in 1935 “which serve as the libraries corpus for both acquiring and installation of a Masonic Library.”
In the 1950’s it was supervised by the Chief Librarian Illustrious Brother F. McNeal Fahrion, 33° who obtained further funds and directly purchased volumes to contribute to its growth. Upon Brother Fahrion’s passing the Library was rededicated as the Simon – Fahrion Scottish Rite Memorial Library.
In 2014 when the climate control and damage from light exposure became an issue for preservation it was decided to move the collection it to its new home in the Members Lounge on the basement level.
The Brothers of the Scottish Rite Library Club:
Specifically brothers:
assisted over several months to sort, pack and move the collection while the construction of the first section of shelves was underway by Illustrious Brother Walt Johnson, 33° and Brother Earl Tradup, 32° KCCH.
Once the first section of shelves was installed a portion of the collection was put out on display in 2015. At present the Portland Valley Scottish Rite Library Club continues to grow and collect new volumes under the supervision of the Chief Librarian Larry Roberts, 32°, KCCH.
Currently there are plans underway to raise the necessary funds to complete the remaining shelving required to display and catalogue the entire collection.
***
Today we are very pleased to rededicate the Scottish Rite Memorial Library in honor of Illustrious Brother Norm Peterson, 33°.
Brother Peterson at the young age of 14 joined La Grange, which was a Masonic like fraternal organization founded after the civil war by 4 masons and 3 Odd fellows. Both his mother and father were also members of this organization.
While in college he worked part time as a library clerk giving him access to many books and introduced him into one of his passions…indexing.
Norm has a BA and Masters in Psychology
BA in education, with a minor in math and a minor in Biology.
And has taught classes at the University of Portland.
He is a member of the Vancouver Valley Scottish Rite
Life Member of the Research Lodge of Oregon #198
Member of the Scottish Rite Research Society
And a Fellow of the Philalethes Masonic Research society.
He has made contributions to many Masonic works of literature and donated hundreds of books to our Library’s collection over the years.
He began his Masonic scholarly writing In 1957 when he wrote two articles for the Scottish Rite magazine then called “NEW AGE”. He has since published numerous articles in various Masonic publications including Heredom, Philalethes and Quatuor Coronati.
His research papers written specifically for the Portland Valley Scottish Rite and Research Lodge of Oregon are far too numerous to list here but are now being collected and archived in the library you see before you today for future Masonic research.
Norm at the young age of 88 still writes Masonic articles and indexes and is currently working on a number of projects both independently and with other Masonic scholars.
His contribution to Masonic education cannot be overestimated and it is with great joy and honor that we here at the Portland Valley now re-dedicating the Scottish Rite Memorial Library in his name.
Henceforth to be known as the Simon – Fahrion – Peterson Scottish Rite Memorial Library
Please join me in congratulating Illustrious Brother Norm Peterson 33° for his vast contribution to this prestigious fraternity and his honorable Masonic career.
Larry Roberts 32° KCCH, Portland Valley Executive Director/Treasurer. Member of Modesto Lodge 206, Esoterika Lodge 227 and Research Lodge 198.