Tag Archives: Free Mason

Where Is Pino

I have largely been absent for the last week or so.  I am spending most of my non-work time organizing a BBQ fundraiser here in Raleigh.

We are selling BBQ plates to raise money for a local charity:

PLM Families Together is developing a new housing service that moves families directly from homelessness into housing or from other shelters into housing. Rather than having families move from shelter program to shelter program in today’s times when the short term stay at shelters is not enough for family stabilization, we will focus on stable housing first. Once housed, we will continue to work with the family for 12 months, helping them learn the skills for budgeting and working with landlords that is needed to maintain that housing. Housing first reduces the number of transitions for the family. Initial rental subsidy will be available for housing and will gradually decrease as families meet their goals; a less expensive model than renting our own apartments.

Additionally, we are selling tickets that will donate a plate to Urban Ministries of Durham.

Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD) welcomes approximately more than 6,000 people each year who come seeking food, shelter, clothing and supportive services.

UMD is the point of entry, triage and emergency services in the Durham homelessness continuum of care network.  Our programs are designed to:

  • Help prevent homelessness by providing food and clothing to offset living expenses and by referring guests to others in the community who may be able to provide additional help;
  • Assist those who are homeless by providing emergency shelter, stabilization assistance such as recovery programs and medical referrals, and  to help them connect with the resources that will enable them to return to stable housing as quickly as possible;
  • Foster collaboration with community partners so that coordinated efforts can provide needed  longer term housing and supportive service needs; and
  • Offer support with dignity and compassion to neighbors in need, regardless of  their ability to leave homelessness at the time.

It’s been very busy and challenging, but the event will be held this weekend.  I  can’t wait to see the whole of the experience result in success.

By the way, if you’re interested in participating, I have the ability to sell tickets through PayPal and you can contribute to the donation of a plate of Carolina BBQ to the folks over at UMD.  Just drop me a note in the comments or e-mail me at:

pino.online@gmail.com

I hope to resume more full time blogging very soon!

 

Friendship, Morality and Brotherly Love

The tenants of a Master Mason.

In a world so eager to differentiate one from another based on politics or faith is it any wonder that we see war and conflict all around the globe?  Where we see walls rather than bridges?

It is with no small amount of honor and satisfaction that in a region dominated by the differences of Arab and Jew we see the peaceful association and love and admiration from one to another in a Free Mason’s lodge:

A Greek Orthodox Palestinian Arab, Nadim Mansour, has been installed in Tel Aviv as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Israel, a position he will hold until 2013.
Israel has had two previous Palestinian Arab Grand Masters – Yakob Nazee (1933-1940) and Jamil Shalhoub (1981-1982).
Nadim Mansour, who was born in Haifa but moved to Acre aged five, was initiated – as a Lewis – into Lodge Akko in 1971, of which his father Elias was a founder, and in 1980 became its Master. He also has the rank of 33rd Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
Currently, the Grand Lodge has about 1,200 members in 56 lodges, working in ten languages – Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, Hungarian, Rumanian, Turkish, Russian, German and Spanish – and five different religions.

As the governments of the region prepare for war, Free Masons continue to do what they always do, rejoice in the sublime existence of a love between one brother and another.

It will not be until the world can follow the example f the gentle Mason and leave the differences of the profane world outside the door of the temple and agree that all man can find reason TO agree.

Of Honor, Tradition And Things Cool

During the Civil War a family here in Raleigh lost several brothers.  They were buried and then…lost.  They were buried in graves marked with headstone and forget.  As urban sprawl sprawled, they were forgotten and lost.  Until recently:

Raleigh, N.C. — The bodies of two Civil War-era soldiers were re-buried Saturday in Raleigh.

Brothers Joel and Joseph Holleman died and were buried in 1862, but their remains were unearthed in Raleigh last month by development. Excavation near PNC Arena turned up the brothers’ bones.

On Saturday morning, the two men rested under honor guard at the North Carolina Museum of History.

A horse-drawn artillery caisson bore them to Oakwood Cemetery where the North Carolina Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans buried them with a military and Masonic service.

One of the men was a Mason; he received a full Masonic funeral.  I wish that I had known this was taking place; I’da tried to go.

In the photos you can see North Carolina Masons marching in procession, accompanying their fallen Brother.  A lambskin apron is resting on the alter, presumably to be placed upon the coffin which shall contain his earthly remains, and with them laid beneath the silent clods of the valley.  Finally you see a Mason holding a sprig of Acacia; the symbol to Masons that we are all walking through our probationary state to be reunited again with the Supreme Architect of the Universe in that temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

I’m a sucker for pomp and circumstance; ritual and tradition.  This is good stuff today.

 

Free Masonry: A Thing You May Not Have Known

Did you know that if you wanna be a Free Mason all you have to do is ask to join?