As a progressive science, Freemasonry teaches us to balance a knowledge of and love for the past with our ambitions for the future.
For this reason Friendship Masonic Lodge has undertaken the task of combing through our extensive collection(s) in the Temple basement. Not only to discover just what we have collected over the past 104 years, but why we saved it; what it means to the history of our beloved Lodge and Fraternity, and what it can teach us today as we carry forward the ancient traditions of Freemasonry in Friendship Lodge.
Our first material effort took place in the waning days of July, when the Worshipful Master, Senior and Junior Wardens, and several other brothers gatherd to start the hard and not-too-glamorous work of dusting off the rooms of boxes.
Quickly we struck gold
Amidst our paper membership records we soon found a great range of things: certificates of ritual excellence, a banker’s box full to the brim with various travelling gavels, and a curious Masonic play. “After the Storm”, follows a cast of Colonial Era Freemasons during a Lodge meeting after the end of the American Revolutionary War. It drills down into the “healing process” for old wounds between brothers who were split between being Rebels and Loyalists. Plans are already developing for staging a performance in partnership with other Portland area lodges. You can follow our calendar to keep up to date on the performance(s) schedule.
Other venerable artifacts were also uncovered
Including Friendship Lodge’s first American Flag, our original hand-lettered parchment charter, an antique Masonic Holy Bible that had belonged to our late Worshipful Brother Dick Tibbits, and some real show-stoppers: a solid bronze “Blazing Star” and “G”, from our historical Temple on Sandy Blvd. All of these precious items have been moved out of our rented basement storage and into a climate-controlled unit off-stie, where we are now beginning the process of documenting and indexing our findings; and while we decide the best way to preserve and honor the treasures of Friendship Lodge.
Perhaps the most curious thing we found came after the main effort, when unpacking and staging boxes in thier new home. Brother Kent Smith found a text printed in 1740 of some of the cases which came before the royal court under the reign of King George II. The book’s cover is a poor state, but the pages are very well preserved; and while we work with a restorative binder in Portland, Brother Smith has taken it upon himself to look deeper into why we came into possession of this magnificent piece of history, and what Friendship Masonic Lodge can learn from it.
