Kevin Miller-Conley

A wonderful start to April for our Lodge. We opened on the MM Degree to welcome and receive the Right Worshipful Brother Adam Bayer, our favorite District Deputy. We were also happy to be visited by Brother Mike from Kenton 145, as well our a couple of our Brothers Russ and Scott, who came to lodge for the first time in a while much to all of our delight. We had much to discuss in terms of our planned Master and Wardens BBQ coming up next month, as well as the St Johns Parade that same month. RWB Bayer also graced us with some lovely remarks about our lodge, masonry, and philosophy which we all found enlightening. After we completed our Stated Meeting, we retired to our Clubhouse downstairs to enjoy some refreshment and a lively conversation about the Book we’re all reading.

We met this week to discuss the next Month of our Masonic Planning. We’re getting ready for our District Deputy’s visit next Month, and Grand Lodge the month after! We’re also applying to walk in the St Johns parade and hoping to host a BBQ in May. Lots of fun things to come!

Congratulations to Matt, our newest EA and our second initiate in 2024! It was a wonderful evening in Milwaukie with a lot of fun and interesting twists and turns. Because of Matt’s previous familiarity with our Lodge and with Prince Hall Masonry, we surprised him by taking him to a completely different lodge building! Speaking of which, a HUGE thanks to Milwaukie lodge for loaning us their beautiful building for the evening. A hearty thanks as well to Past Masters Chris, Kent, and Walter for their contributions to the degree.

This month we had a spirited Stated meeting as usual, with the high point being that we voted to make Matt our newest Entered Apprentice! We plan to hold his degree later this month. Other than that, we gave updates on our charity efforts, as well as our efforts to work on our clubhouse space, and our first meeting of the WM’s book club!

Our Worshipful Brother Schuman was visiting from Montana, so we decided to celebrate with an impromptu Chicken Lodge! Chicken Lodge is a Friendship tradition going back a decade now where we usually hold an Officer’s Meeting over a dinner of Chicken and Waffles. Seeing as how we were celebrating our Brother from Montana being in town, there was very little business discussed, but much chicken was eaten!

We had a great Stated Meeting last night as usual. What was delightfully unusual was the number of guests and returning members that we had! One Brother visited from especially far away, with Bro Leo joining us all the way from Montana. He brought with him a pin with a sapphire (the state gem of Montana) to present to our WM.

We also memorialized a Past Master of the lodge, Mike Watson, who unfortunately passed away recently. We were joined by his son, and several Friendship members who came to share fond memories of our passed Brother as well as celebrate his life.

Congratulations are in order to Brother Burgos, who we just initiated as an Entered Apprentice. We are so glad to welcome you into our Lodge! A special thanks to our Past Master Chase for performing the ceremony, and to Past Master Lee for a wonderful lecture.

Last night the lodge arranged for a nice dinner for the incoming principal officers as well as several of the lodges Past Masters. This was a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of our PMs and share advice to our new officer line. It was a fabulous evening with an amazing meal at the Ringside Steakhouse in downtown Portland. Here’s to a good year ahead of us!

Introducing your Officers for the 2024 year!

Yesterday, Friendship installed our officers for the ensuing Masonic Year. A special thanks to our outgoing Worshipful master of the last two years who installed all of our officers except for himself as our Tyler. And afterwards, we enjoyed a lovely dinner provided by our Brother Treasurer who was unfortunately absent.

We had a great breakfast over the weekend, with some delicious Waffles for our members. Thanks to our Junior Warden, Brother Smith, for supplying the waffles!