62nd Annual Duck Dinner

Gentlemen. On behalf of our Jr Warden, Franklyn Johnson, it is my pleasure to invite you to the 62nd Annual Commerical Lodge Duck Dinner, Friday, October 16, 2009. The Duck Dinner is a Commercial Lodge tradition like no other. This year, we are greatful to have another excellent speaker who will be giving a talk on the history of British Motorcylces and Scooters.

Cocktails at 6:00
Dinner at 7:00
Tickets are $35

Hope to see you there for a night of friendship and fraternity.

Master's Message - June

Hello Brethren,

Another good turnout last month for our Table Lodge. Thank you to our J.W. Also thank you Donna Said for keeping the Ladies entertained while we were taking care of business.

This month we will be holding our second degree. This is our last Lodge before the summer break, so if you are on the fence as to coming this month, please make the time.

I’m going to do something a bit different here. I’m interested in knowing how many Brethren read our notice.

So, up for our next meeting is a bottle of Scotch. So email me at jsaid@shaw.ca before our GP meeting Wednesday, June 17th, and I’ll enter your name into the draw.

Other Lodges are also open to enter the draw.

If you win, you have until our November 2009 meeting to pick up your bottle (you have to attend a Commercial Lodge meeting to get your Scotch!).

Brethren, take notice that an updated Calendar is with this notice. Please get rid of the old one as my cell number was incorrect. I do not want to annoy the poor sole’s cell that some have been calling.

And we sometimes forget, but a huge thank you to W.Bro Bill Wandio for so faithfully getting our notices out each month. Needless to say, he is automatically entered to win the Scotch.

See you at Lodge

W.Bro Jason Said

Master's Message - May

Hello Brethren,

First off. What a great Lodge meeting we had in April! I have to say that, outside of our installation meetings, I have not seen such a full Commercial meeting in quite a few years. I do believe we had about 40 Brethren stay for our festive board also.

A Big welcome to Bro. Armstrong and Bro. Spence on joining our Lodge. As I mentioned at our festive board, you are now Brothers among Brothers and you will one day soon have a personal experience that really brings home what that truly means for you.

Thank you to our degree team. You put on a solid show.

Congratulations to Bro. Bill Trofimuk on being honored by the Al Shamal Shriners and many major institutions this last month. It was very obvious from all the words spoken about you that you have had a direct impact on so many people’s lives. Your Brethren at Commercial Lodge are proud of you.

15 of our Lodge members made it down to Kananaskis this year and much fellowship (and Scotch drinking) took place. I would suggest to those that have yet to make this weekend to consider it for next year. It is, in my opinion, the best Masonic event of the year and it never fails to increase my level of Masonic wisdom.

This month is our annual Table Lodge. Invite your significant others and friends. While the Brethren hold a short meeting, my wife Donna will be leading the Ladies in a card making workshop.

As for a question from one of our Brethren at our last meeting (our SW Bro. Lardner actually). “Do I plan on giving out and words of wisdom in my notices”? The answer is that it is not really a plan of mine but if I come up with something I will. So here is a small piece of wisdom for you, Bro. Lardner, for your next year in the East. At our last meeting I went from Labor to Refreshment for the space of 10 minutes. I ended up walking back into the Lodge a tad late and got quite a round of applause. So, here is the little bit of wisdom. One of the nice things about being Master of the Lodge is that Lodge cannot restart until the Master returns … so he cannot actually be late :) .

Fraternally

W.Bro Jason Said

Master's Message - April

Hello Brethren,

March was and April will be great months for out Lodge.

Why?

Because March was the month:

...of our Beaver Hills District Curling Bonspiel. Congratulations to Brothers James, MacKenzie, Findlay and Roth for bringing the Cup back home after almost 2 decades.

...of our Ladies Night. Thank you to Bro. Johnson for our joint event with Norwood Lodge. The food was great and the music memorable.

...of the Master's Millennium Cup. The debate could not have scored closer so both teams won the coveted bottles of Scotch.

...of our Scotch Tasting event. As always, R.W.Bro. Caldwell outdid himself yet again, educating us about our favorite libation following by a bevy of whiskies to choose from.

April is the month:

...of our Masonic Spring Workshop. Many Commercial Brethren are attending this year and it promises to be a remarkable time of Thought, Fellowship and Scotch.

...of our first Degree of the year. This month Commercial will be putting on a First Degree and it promises to be a good one as we will be welcoming 2 new members into the Craft.

This month, our meeting is moving to the 4th Saturday in April due to the Masonic Spring Workshop in Kananaskis.

I will see many of you in Kananaskis and I hope to see the rest of you in Lodge this month.

Fraternally

W.Bro Jason Said

Master's Message - March

The Landmarks

Masonic Landmarks are the “rules” that define Masonry: if you take away a Landmark, you’re not “doing” Masonry anymore. A true Landmark will have been a part of Freemasonry since “time immemorial”. Some of the things Masons think of as “Landmarks” today are not really very “ancient”; people want to think of them as Landmarks because they feel important; but just because something isn’t strictly a Landmark, it doesn’t mean that it’s not important. Its just that a true Landmark is Landmark is absolutely immutable! Other things will be changed, and come and go from Masonic practice, but any Lodge or Grand Lodge that tries to get rid of a Landmark is no longer practicing Regular Masonry. So the Landmarks are the very core of the practice.

Using this very strictest definition of a Landmark, I would conclude that the following are the essential Landmarks of Freemasonry:

1. That any candidate for membership must profess belief in a Supreme Being.
2. That all candidates for Masonry must be male, of 21 years of age (or 18 in the case of a Lewis), free and of good report.
3. That all candidates must profess a belief that existence continues after death.
4. That all Masons and Masonic Lodges must demonstrate allegiance to the sovereign of his native land, and obedience to the Craft.
5. That the V.S.L. is an essential part of the Lodge, and must be kept open and in plain view while the Lodge is open.
6. That all Masons and Lodges must keep secret the signs, grips, and tokens.
7. That the Apron is the true badge of a Mason, and must be used at all times when a Mason is in the Lodge.

These are the clearest and oldest elements of Freemasonry; and I have come to feel that meditating on the significance of these rules helps one to develop insight into Masonry as a universal practice. These Landmarks are important and are the gold standard of true Masonry not just for arbitrary reasons, but because every one of them has a moral foundation without which all of the rest of Masonic learning and philosophy becomes baseless.

It is my sincere pleasure to present these brief thoughts for your consideration, on the orders of my Worshipful Master and very good friend and Brother, Jason Said.

John Tarnowski

Commercial and Norwood Ladies' Night

Commercial and Norwood Lodges are holding a joint ladies night Saturday, March 7, 2009, at Freemasons' Hall, downtown Edmonton.

Just a reminder from our Jr Warden Frank Johnson that tickets are on sale for $40 each, and this year's soiree is sure to be a memorable affair. Please join us as we honour our wives and ladies in fine fare.

Master's Message - February

Brethren,

Although the work was colourful at times, I think we had a pretty good event filled meeting.

This month we invested W.Bro. Jack Warwick-Foster as our IPM. Thank you to him for a good year in the Chair and for some very interesting discussions, visits and demonstrations throughout his year.

A thank you goes out to our Telephone Committee lead by Bro. Skov-Rochette. They helped make our Roll-Call successful.

This year, R.W.Bro David Roth is our Mason-of-the-Year. Thank you Brother Roth for all of your extensive and valuable work in the Craft. For those that do not know, R.W.Bro. Roth is running for the Grand Lodge position of Junior Grand Warden this year. If you visit Lodges, feel free to let those Brethren know about this. I will be talking more in the future on how we can further help to support him on his Masonic Quest.

Our Masonic Education presentation this month was ""Architecture, Metaphysics & Masonry" given by, none other than, Brother Roth. Although it only touched the very surface of the topic, it was enlightening and informative. If you have further interest in this area, R.W.Bro.Roth would be more than willing to point you in the right direction.

In your notice this month, you will note an updated Calendar for 2009. It is more extensive than last month’s version. Interesting enough, it would seem that many of the Ladies of Commercial Brethren are extremely happy to have access to this, so do not forget to share it with them.

Next month, Bro. Sandstra & Bro. MacEachern will be proving up in the 3rd Degree. R.W.Bro Campbell will also be filling the Chair for me, as when Lodge is opening, my plane will be landing in Cuba. Keeping with that theme, Bro.MacIntosh will be presenting his movie about his trip to Cuba during our Festive Board. This will be open to male non-Masons, so please invite some friends.

All the best Brethren!

W.Bro. Jason Said