Maryland Council No. 9
Chartered on June 23, 1965
Fraternal Greetings and Welcome to Our Official Home Page
Meetings
Our business meetings are normally held on a Saturday in May and October. Dates vary to avoid conflict with other Masonic meetings. We meet at the
Odenton Masonic Temple
1206 Stehlik Drive, Odenton, Maryland 21113
410-374-8689
NEXT MEETING; March 16, 2024
Table Council at 6:00pm
For OFFICIAL Information
CONTACT:
Robert Lumbert
boblumbert@aol.com
2022 OFFICERS
Living Past Excellent Chiefs
Robert B Malwitz 1998
John A Rafine 2006
James B Coker 2007
David W Theilman 2010
David A Tibbetts 2011
Robert B Lumbert 2012
John B Maclay, Jr 2013
Grover D Brewer 2014
Thomas A Marraffa 2016
Arthur F Hebbeler III 2017
John Austin 2018
Robert W Reynolds 2019
Gerald W Peeters 2020 2021
Templenoe Council No. 78
Knight Masons
Established 2002
Honorary and Invitational Body
Stated Meetings
2nd Saturday.
June and December
Our next meeting is
May 30, 2024
Jephthah Lodge No. 222 -140 Orville Rd, Essex, MD 21221
7:00 PM
Fraternal Greetings and
WELCOME
Our Home Page
Excellent Chief -Terry Royce
Senior Knight – Roger Dunn
Junior Knight – Christian Meile
Scribe – Richard Naegele
Treasurer – Fred Spicer
Senior Warden – Justin Fuller
Junior Warden – Richard Mainley
Director of Ceremonies – Jonathan Strickler
Priest – Kostas Vourvoulas
Steward – Charles Carmichel
Sentinel – Thomas Roston
Greetings!
Have you ever heard of the Knight Masons? Have you ever heard of the Green Degrees?
The Order of Knight Masons is an invitational and honorary body.
The Mission of the Knight Masons is to:
1. Perpetuate the ancient rituals of the Irish Masonic Canon, (the “Green” degrees) by promoting their frequent and regular conferral in its constituent councils, and by its expectation that such conferral will be executed with an accuracy, a precision, and a dramatic power congruent with the highest traditions of the Masonic institution.
2. Elevate to membership in its constituent councils only those Freemasons who in their character and persons have amply and thoroughly demonstrated in their Masonic lives, by means of a faithful attachment to the institution, a true and honorable record of service to its goals, and a genuine dedication to its high ideals.
3. Foster in its constituent councils the regular exploration and studyof the Masonic Tradition and Heritage by means of an aggressive program of scholarly inquiry and research, and to pursue that Masonic learning in the spirit of our Celtic forbears who kept the light of faith burning in times of darkness.
4. Encourage its constituent councils to discover in the pleasures and diversions of the festive board that warm fellowship and that joyous fraternity, which have ever characterized and actuated the great spirit of this Ancient Craft.
5. Promote the charitable dimension so central to, and inherent in, Masonic life and tradition by obliging its constituent councils to contribute with customary Masonic liberality to those institutions, both Masonic and non-Masonic, which serve the needs of the greater community.
If you are interested in the Knight Masons, please let us know!
It is acceptable to contact a Council or a member and express interest in receiving an invitation. So if you are interested in the Knight Masons, please let us know.
The Knight Mason degrees have their origins to the earliest records of Freemasonry . In fact, there is some indication that the Knight Mason degrees may have been developed even before the degree of Master Mason. The degrees are Knight of the Sword, Knight of the East, Knight of the East and West, and Installed Excellent Chief and are not to be confused with the degrees which may have similar names in other orders and rites of Freemasonry.
It has been established (by Philip Crossle) that in 1744 the ceremony connected with the Royal Arch belonged to the “Part of Master.” the then Master Mason. However, a duplicate set of officers was required to explain it because both the “J” or Joshua and “Z” or Zerubbabel legends were included in the ceremony.
There are a number of old seals and certificates extant (see 1923 Transactions of Ireland’s Lodge of Research, No. 200) which show that both the “J” and “Z” legends were worked in different parts of Ireland-North and South. The “J” legend dealt with “Red Masonry” and the “Z” legend with “Green Masonry.” In the minute book of Lodge No. 557, Benburb County Tyrone there is a record of a “Green” certificate issued in 1784 and there is an apron extant (owned by James D. Mitchell of Bin) known to be over 170 years old, having on one side red with the emblems of the Royal Arch, and the reverse side green with the emblems of Knight Masonry.
In about 1790 (possibly earlier), “Green Masonry” became separated from the Royal Arch and was known as “Red Cross Masonry;” but by 1810 in some manner not very clear now, the name was changed to “Knight of the Sword”, “Knight of the East” and “Knight of the East and West”. Also, as time went on, the conferring of these three degrees became the exclusive privilege of the Order of Knights Templar, some of the oldest Warrants of the preceptories (known as “commanderies” in the United States) covered the conferring of these degrees. They were not very generally conferred because they had nothing in common with the Templar Orders. Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the degrees were controlled by the Great Priory of the Order of Knights Templar in Ireland. The degrees are also worked under the authority of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland.
It was the gradual dying of the brethren who were sufficiently versed in Knight Masonry to confer the degrees that first caused alarm early in the Twentieth Century. Candidates for the degrees had to travel far to procure them. It was visualised that the degrees would eventually die out unless a means to prevent it was taken. The first move was to contact those preceptories/commanderies whose warrants included these degrees. Some of them were loath to part with their rights. Eventually, the subject was taken up with the Great Priory of Ireland. After some time, that body obtained consent of its preceptories to hand over the conferring of the degrees to the suggested new body. which we now know as the Grand Council of Knight Masons.
The modus operandi of this relinquishment of rights from one Grand Body to another eventual Grand Body is unique and pertinent to our existence. In 1922, at a joint meeting of the members of the Great Priory and the Knights Templar, who desired to form the new body was held. A motion by Gerald Black, G.C.T., was passed “that pursuant to report of Committee, all rights and privileges touching the Red Cross Degrees, which are at present vested in the Great Priory be transferred to a Grand Council for these degrees.” The new Grand Council met for its first meeting on 18 June 1923, when it notified the Great Priory that it was then in a position to take over and exercise the rights and privileges with which it was invested.
The first President of the Grand Council was Gerald Black, who received the Degrees on 9 January 1901 in Commercial Priory No. 245, possibly by Gerald Byrne who probably was the last person to confer these degrees in Dublin; it is known that but three Preceptories — Commercial (Dublin), Sharavogue, (Birr) and Shaflesbury (Belfast) were conferring the “Red Cross Degrees” at the turn of the century. Thus we have a Grand Council of Knight Masons, for all intents and purposes appointed by the Great Priory of Ireland.
Knight Masonry was introduced in the United States on 20 May 1936 when the Grand Council in Ireland chartered three councils in North Carolina under a Provincial Grand Superintendent. Seven additional councils were chartered by the Provincial Grand Superintendent. The councils in the United States formed the Grand Council of Knight Masons of the United States of America in 1967. The Grand Council in Dublin recognised this Grand Council of the U.S.A. two years later. All councils chartered in the U.S. since that time were chartered by the by the Grand Council of the United States. All councils in Ohio, less their newest one, remain under the province of the mother Grand Council in Ireland. Today, there are over seventy councils of Knight Masons in the U.S.A. with more than seven thousand cousins.
