January/February 2012
updated: 01/01/2012

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Personal Representative

The Language Center on the Peninsula

At a recent Board meeting of the San Francisco and Burlingame Childhood Language Center, a motion was made and unanimously passed that beginning in January 2012, Glenna Milleman the Center Director, will be working with the children on the Peninsula every Thursday. Initially, Glenna and in some cases Glenna and I will be visiting various schools and organizations on the Peninsula to identify the needs with which we could help and to identify those organizations on the Peninsula which may be able to help support the Center with grants and/or contributions.

Although children from the peninsula have always been helped at the Center in San Francisco, this is a great step forward to bring this help right to where it is needed. Now here is where you come in. We need help identifying schools whose children can be helped by our Center testing them to identify potential problems and organizations who we can solicit for grants and contributions.

Soon there will be a phone number at the Burlingame Scottish Rite for Glenna, but in the mean time you can call her at the San Francisco Center 415-664-4646 ext. 11 or call the present Burlingame Scottish Rite phone 650-344-4841.

The Scottish Rite of the Czech Republic

In November of this year, I had the honor and opportunity to represent the Sovereign Grand Inspector General in California, Ill... William F. Stovall 33° at the 20th Anniversary of the Revival of the Scottish Rite in the Czech Republic. This event commemorated the Scottish Rite revival which took place approximately two years after the Velvet Revolution and the fall of Communist Rule in Czechoslovakia, which later formed into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Besides freeing the people of Czechoslovakia the revolution also allowed Freemasonry to remerge from hiding from both the Communists and the Nazis before them. I was warmly welcomed into the Marble Hall of the Clam Gallas Palace by Jakub Chalupa, 33° Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Czech Republic. In addition to me representing California there were Grand Commanders and Representatives from Austria, Finland, France, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, and Switzerland all of which Susan and I had an opportunity to meet several times. Our first meeting was for dinner Friday evening in the Underground Gothic Hall of the VaBene Restaurant. The next morning we all went for a guided walk of Prague’s Old Town and then met for lunch again at the VaBene Restaurant. Later that evening the Brethren walked in mass to the Clam Gallas Palace where we met to participated in the Ceremony of Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Revival, in non-ritual form. After the ceremony our ladies were able to join us for a beautiful chamber concert at the Palace. Afterwards we retired to the Restaurant Parnas for our final meal together as a group. After a wonderful evening of making friends by way of food, drink and fellowship we sadly parted to return to our abodes. Before leaving the Czech Republic, Susan and I had the opportunity to have lunch with the Grand Commander, Jakub Chalupa 33° before he left to attend the Supreme Council of France in Paris. We dined at the Sahara Restaurant in Peace Square in Prague where we enjoyed each others company for the last time this visit and with the hopes to meet again soon.

If you want more details come out to the January Stated meeting where I can fill you in completely and maybe even show you a few photographs.

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Venerable Master - Lodge of Perfection

The mind is a not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled
-Plutarch

As Builders, our marks are explicit and well-founded in several manners: present in the architectural style in our Masonic buildings, in the active participation of our rituals and activities and in the process of renewal of our ideas and innovative concepts regarding daily life during our Masonic career. Without a doubt our toolboxes are full of rich legacies, lessons, and new ways of learning and teachings that are never to be forgotten experiences that we do not always immediately perceive during our degrees. Perhaps they resurface in our moments of reflections and introspection when we are able to see the road, learned by ourselves or in conjunction with our brethren during our present or past Masonic career. As Builders we should remember our initial steps as initiates while we consider the value and importance of the Light we were able to obtain in the symbolic higher degrees, gaining more knowledge from our Fraternity supported by Wisdom, Strength and Harmony.

Briefly, here is a reminder of the legacy from our Valley Builders. On May 8, 1922 the Burlingame Lodge of Perfection, then known as the Peninsula Lodge of Perfection, was formed under the authority of William Parker Filmer, 33, the Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Northern California and Hawaii at that time. Moreover, a group of Scottish Rite members of the Advisory Council of Peninsula Chapter of De Molay, recognizing the importance of a new Valley in California, conceived the idea of creating what we now call our Small but Mighty Valley. The Masonic leaders who advanced this idea were Ralph C. Lee, 32; Charles M. Burrowes, 33; Albert A. Rochex; 32, and Louis Best, 32, to whom we must be grateful for the creation of the Valley of Burlingame. Therefore, our Valley will be 90 years old on May 8, 2012. Those Brethren were “Builders, whose heart and soul were dedicated to Masonry”1 as is cited by Arthur R. Andersen 33and Leon Whitsell 33 by crystallizing the power of their imagination as builders and making our Valley a reality, a reminder from the obligations of continuing and maintaining the legacy from our Valley Builders.1

In our current time as fellow-men and mind-builders, our circumstances have changed as we are constantly bombarded with i-devices, smart phones, reality entertainment, info-net, e-surfing and capturing ideas from e-blogs that compromise our realistic and idealist state of time as followers. In the meantime, we are facing dilemmas and have forgotten our principal tenet as Masonic leaders. We as builders use the pretext of being “busy” focusing on our real life that distract our Masonic legacy for making our societies better places to live, where needs, opportunities, prosperity and happiness should be a common goal as we have learned from our Masonic teachings. Albert Pike remind us as initiates and builders of the importance of our Masonic masterwork “What am I, and how and whence am I? And whither do I go.”2 Our Valley needs you as a creative Masonic builder to participate in our degrees and masonic activities as an active propagator of our Masonic knowledge, as part of our stage crew or as a presenter of your Masonic doubts or exposing new discoveries on Masonic aspects in our open lodge. Also by helping Burlingame and the community on the Peninsula by providing volunteer work, practicing our Charity tenets by assisting the San Francisco & Burlingame Childhood Language Center and providing more Masonic seeds to our Masonic Youth groups who are the future generation of our Valley Builders.

Finally, my gratitude for being elected by the Brethren as Venerable Master of our Small but Mighty Valley for the 2012 Masonic year. Many lessons in Masonic leadership from our predecessors as well our active brethren have been a golden experience during my Masonic career at the Valley of Burlingame. Thanks for your confidence. By working and participating together as Builders, our Valley will remain strong by propagating the tradition of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Our Burlingame Small but Mighty Valley is proud to have you as a Builder contributor in our current Masonic Year. (AM 5772, AL 6012, AI 2542, AD 3012, AO 1194)

1. California’s First Century of Scottish Rite Masonry. Oakland California. 1962
2. Albert Pike: What Masonry is and its Objects, 1858

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In Memorium

Ernest Ingold II, 32 Born: February 21, 1921 Entered into Rest: September 7, 2011 Brook C. Phillips, 32 Born: June 30, 1980 Entered into Rest: October 19, 2011

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The Scottish Rite Creed