Yesterday evening found me out on the back porch of my home. The sun was beautiful, and the end of day beer tasted great.

As has become so common in this time of pandemic, I was alone, yet not alone, for our Grand Master, Grand Wardens, Grand Secretary, and his Assistant GS were with me on Zoom. It was yet another virtual meeting of the Executive Committee of the Grand Lodge of Washington.

Our main topic of discussion?

I imagine that you can guess it...

Yep, can we open our Lodges yet?

Well, regretfully the answer is no. While our State continues to open, cases of people infected is growing again. Growing quite fast in some areas. Our Grand Master will continue to hold our Lodges, and other Masonic bodies closed. For the health of all our members, this decision is wise.

That decision made, we talked a great deal about the need for us to communicate to all of the superb men who make up this Jurisdiction, the Freemasons of Washington.

Since the closures of our Lodges, all of us have participated in Lodge and District virtual meetings, various online Masonic education events, and even shot some videos for posting on social media. I received a new side-degree via zoom, and that was a great deal of fun.

We talked about the need to encourage all of our Lodges to continue their embrace of virtual meetings, but more importantly we talked about our own responsibilities to continue doing all that we can to communicate and interact with our Brothers.

The creation of more videos was talked about, as were offering of online classes similar to those from our annual Lodge Leadership Retreat, and modernization of our Masonic Tribune.

We talked about the fact that each of us have different strengths and weaknesses, and different comfort levels with different forms of communication.

So, I guess that for part of my own solution, this is it.

I enjoy writing, and I enjoy writing about Freemasonry, so this will be a place for me to share my thoughts about Freemasonry in general, and Washington Freemasonry specifically. At least for as long as we are all kept out of our Lodges.

Please do visit this site regularly, follow it, or even sign up for the email updates. I'll do my best to keep it eternally green until we can meet again.

#Lodge #Freemasonry #Masonic #Pandemic

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

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