Grand Master's Days (Continued from Page 4)
guest rooms open for inspection including the names of the guest hosts. A map of the Homes' grounds will also identify first aid stations as well as indoor and outdoor toilet facilities. The information will enable participants to move freely throughout the Masonic
Homes' complex with a minimum of effort. Any number of service people, members of the various committees formed to provide for spec ific needs, will also be able to provide information and assistance. The afternoon phase of the program
will end at about 3:30 p.m. when the buses having to travel the greatest distances will want to begin the trip home. Lodges are reminded the Grand Master has authorized the use of lodge funds to defray transportation costs. No rain dates have been established since all events can be handled indoors, if necessary.
Masonic Temple Plates Become Collector's Items AN OFFICIAl PUBliCATION OF THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUl GRAND lODGE OF FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS OF PENNSYlVANIA
A pewter plate of limited edition that bears the image of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia is now available for sale. Just 250 nine-inch plates were created from dies the manufacturer, Wendell August Forge of Grove City, Pennsylvania, claims required more man-hours to develop than any other project in the firm's history. The plates, to be so ld at $100 each, are marked with sequential numbers and bear the seal of the Grand Master of Masons in Pennsylvania. A great deal of skill and obvious craftmanship was put into the design of the plate so that it might accurately reflect the Masonic Temple's status as one of the most significant masonic buildings in the world. Orders can be placed by use of the coupon accompanying this article. The plate is on display in the museum of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia along with a special bronze rendition created by Wendell August Forge as a gift to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in recognizing the design as the most difficu lt and detailed the firm has ever produced.
VOLUME XXX
Office of R. W. Grand Master Masonic Temple One North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pa. 19107
Second Class POSTAGE PA ID AT Philadelphia Pennsylvania
Enclosed is my check for$ _ __ for_Masonic Temple Plate(s). Check should be made payable to the Grand Secretary. NA ME -- -- -- -- ------ - - - -- ADDRESS --- --
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CITY - -- - - -- --
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NUMBER 2
Grand Master Declares Moratorium on Physical Requirements
THE PENNSYLVAN IA FREEMASON Distribution Office MASONIC TEMP LE One North Broad Street Philadelphia, Pa. 19107 Postmaster: Send address changes to above
Send to-
MAY • 1983
POSTMASTER: Please include complete imprint of address on your postal return clipping.
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The R.W. Grand Master, Bro. Samuel C. Williamson, chose the Masonic Congress at Elizabethtown as the forum in which to announce on April 16 an immediate moratorium on physical requirements for membership in the fraternity. Speaking at the Masonic Homes to more than 100 leaders of the appendant bodies in the state, the Grand Master said he would present an amendment to the Ahlman Rezon at the June Quarterly Communication to omit the words "sound in all his members" from Article 21.01 . Masonic law requires the amendment to lay over until the December Quarterly Communication when the members of the Grand Lodge will be asked to ratify the Grand Master's action. The moratorium is the means to immediately implement the Grand Master's wish since masonic law also provides that the Grand Master is the final authority in deciding physical questions. To that end, the amendment will result in the elimination of certain decisions in the Digest of Decisions by insertion of the following: "By amendment to the Ahlman Rezon, a man who is not sound in all his members may be, by affirmative vote of the lodge, app roved for initiation and membership provided his infirmity is made known to the members of the lodge prior to their voting on his petition. Present decisions appearing on pages 122 to 125 of the Digest of Decisions under Article 81, sections one through 18 are hereby annulled." Further, Article 49, section two on page 64 of the Digest of Decisions shall be amended to read: "Upon an inquiry made to the nearest lodge to the residence of the petitioner as to whether any
THE MASONIC FAMILY - WORKING TOGETHER was the theme of a Masonic Congress held at the Homes in Elizabethtown on Saturday, April 16. Leaders of. the various bodies in the state, the York Rite, Scottish Rite, Shrine, Tall Cedars and Grotto, among others, came together as the first step in a program to identify problems common to the fraternity and to seek united means to face and solve them .
masonic objection exists, the only masonic objections are unfitness of character and habits." By his actions, the Grand Master has effectively healed all previous rejections attributed to physical defect. Those persons who stand rejected are now eligible to petition for memoership under the single condition that any infirmity be made known to the members of the lodge prior to their voting on the petition. Handicapped persons who have not previously petitioned for membership in the fraternity are now welcome to do so. The changes in instruction and ritual necessary to the conferring of the degrees on handicapped persons will be explained to the lodges through the Schools of Instruction. A distingu ished group of national leaders addressed the congress in the morning session. The keynote address
was delivered by Bro. Roger A. Zinszer, a New York Mason expert in communicative skills who has developed many valuable training programs for youth groups, particularly DeMolay. Principal speakers included Bro. Stanley F. Maxwell, Sovereign Grand Commander, the Supreme Council, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction; Bro. Ned E. Dull, Most Eminent Grand Master, Grand Encampment of Kn ights Templar, U.S.A.; Bro. Daniel E. Bowers, M.D., Imperial Potentate, Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America, and Bro. Ronald Seltzer, Executive Secretary of the International Supreme Council, Order of DeMol ay. Remarks were delivered at the morning session by the Deputy Grand Master, Bro. William A. Carpenter, who called the congress to order and introduced the (Continued on Page 11)