Practicing My Craft for The Craft

Alma Bane, Right Worthy Grand Secretary forthe Eastern Star

The Supreme Council’s Department of Membership Services has produced three new videos to tell the Scottish Rite Story.

Jay Patterson,32°, KCCH

As many of my Brethren in the Valley of Alexandria can tell you, I like telling stories. As a cameraman and engineer for https://scottishrite.org/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=journalABC World News’ Washington Bureau, I follow the President around the world, shooting video that helps to tell the stories that make up your evening news. So it was a great honor to be asked to practice my craft for the Craft by helping Ill. Dean Alban, 33°, Director of Membership Services for the Supreme Council, tell some stories about Scottish Rite Masons in Virginia and across the country.

Ill. Dean and Assoc. Director of Membership Services, Ill. Stan Dodd, 33°, had three ideas for how to tell these stories, and developed them into three video projects: Scottish Rite Friends and Family, a testimonial video featuring numerous Masons from many walks of life, and There Comes a Time: Dr. Richard Draper.

For the first video, Scottish Rite Friends and Family, we enlisted the services of Dr. Carolyn Bain of Bain Pugh and Associates. Carolyn filmed this in Washington, D.C., and it shows a side of Freemasonry that often goes unnoticed—the women’s perspective. This great video gives women a chance to speak about their partners and how it has influenced their lives. Most importantly it allows us to hear from those deeply connected to the Fraternity such as Gwen, the wife of Personal Representative Ill. Ed Cohen, 33° in the Valley of Alexandria’s wife, who is almost as well known and as highly regarded in Masonic circles as Bro. Ed! In addition you will hear from Alma Bane the Right Worthy Grand Secretary for the Eastern Star who grew up with a father involved in the Scottish Rite. Or from Lou Elias whose husband Akram is past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of D.C., and from Lindsay Goff whose boyfriend is now a member of the Scottish Rite. It is this type of insight from these and others that will help us explain to future wives, daughters, and others the importance that Freemasonry has on the significant men in their lives. If you have looked for a way to show the values of Scottish Rite and Freemasonry to the public and to those new Masons in your Blue Lodges then look no further, for this can be a great tool to enhance future meetings and events.

For the testimonial video, Stan and I traveled to several Valleys around the Southern Jurisdiction, including the Valley of Nashville and the Washington, D.C., area, to interview a diverse cross-section of members and to hear their inspiring stories of when it hit them that Freemasonry was right for them. These members come from a variety of backgrounds—bomb experts, engineers, musicians, businessmen, and pilots. These men, along with two women who are connected to Scottish Rite Masons see the benefits of Scottish Rite Freemasonry and have done a great job of expressing their inner thoughts. In the future we will use additional video footage from these Scottish Rite members to tell their Masonic Journeys and what it has meant in their lives.

Ill. Stan traveled to Hannibal, Missouri, to capture the amazing life story of Dr. Richard Draper for the video, There comes A Time: Dr. Richard Draper. This video tells how Dr. Richard Draper’s life was deeply affected by a Scottish Rite Mason. If you are searching for an inspiring story to show at lodge meetings or to new Masons then you must show this video. Dr. Richard Draper quite possibly would have never become a physician without the help of a Scottish Rite Mason. In turn as you will hear in the video he might have not saved the mother of that Mason later in his practice nor might he have saved countless other lives as a practicing physician. As Masons we give to a lot of people and organizations. What we might not realize is the affect we have on those individuals and then consequently many others in the future.

Together, these videos will offer new tools to our Valleys and Orients across the Jurisdiction, that will help us communicate with both our current members and prospective members what the Scottish Rite means for those involved in it.

I hope you enjoy their stories as much as I do. The links are on YouTube and the Freemason Network, which you should join as soon as you can if you aren’t a member of yet! (The Freemason Network is a social networking site, like Facebook, that’s free to join and just for Freemasons.)

Here’s where you can see these videos yourself:

“Scottish Rite Freemasonry: There Comes a Time”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-ZFdxi09_c

“Scottish Rite Friends and Family”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj20shazLYs

And if you are a member of the Freemason Network
http://www.freemasonnetwork.net/video/154