NEWS FROM THE MASTER
Happy New Year to all Brethren, Ladies & Friends of Golden Rule Lodge:
It has been a privilege and an honor to serve as your Master this year. Congratulations to all the newly elected and appointed officers for the ensuing Masonic Year. Let us continue to support them in keeping with the highest ancient landmarks and traditions. It is my hope that 2015 is going to be the best year ever, not only for our Lodge, but for you as well. I wish to thank all the Officers who have performed their duties with ease and confidence during 2014. The future line is going to make for a strong Lodge for all of us.
We will be taking down Christmas decorations at the Masonic Home in Union City on Saturday, January 3rd. We will meet at 6:30am at the San Jose Masonic Hall parking lot and carpool up to Union City. Please come and show your support to our Masonic family in Union City. This has been a rich tradition for the Lodge for several years, and Golden Rule Lodge has received many awards in the past for the decoration of our tree. It is my hope that this year is no exception.
In appreciation for their service to the Lodge and to me, I am hosting an Officers' Appreciation Dinner at 7:00pm on January 8th at Mexico Lindo, 1415 Foxworthy Ave. All officers are invited. Please RSVP to me at 408-821-9408 or johnkirkcpa@comcast.net.
Our degree work continues through the month of January! Please plan on attending and experience the beginning of the Masonic Journey of the First Degree for Mr. Roberto Robles on January 12th and another First Degree on January 26th for Mr.
Steven Wiedlin.
The FIRST Masonic Get Together of 2015 is scheduled for Sunday, January 18th, from 1-6 pm. See Wor. Hank's information about the Get Together in this issue of the Gauge. This is a great opportunity for Masonic fellowship and also a place to bring your friends who are interested in becoming a member of our Fraternity.
I am passing on the legacy of the Master's gavel to Wor. Hank Vlcek on January 19th at our annual Installation of Officers. Please plan on attending and invite your friends and family.
The first OAM for 2015 will be held on Thursday, January 22nd at Liberty Lodge. All Officers, especially the Stewards and Deacons, are required to attend.
I have enjoyed my year as your Master of the Lodge, and appreciate all the Kindness, Love and Support provided to me from the Officers, Past Masters, Members and families. Please extend this to our Master-Elect during his term as well.
Fraternally,
John Kirk
Master
NEWS FROM THE WEST
My Brothers,
This is the last column I will write as your Sr Warden. In a few weeks, on January 19th, we will all gather for the Installation of Officers for 2015, and I will again put on the Master’s hat and sit in the time honored Oriental Chair. I am overcome with an extreme sense of humility, that my Brothers so trust me that you have elected me to again carry the vanguard of Golden Rule Lodge into the New Year. It is a position fraught with responsibility, and as any Past Master can tell you, a certain amount of fear and concern about whether I can help, guide and lead my Lodge and my Brothers in the best interests of Masonry and themselves. I will do my utmost to be worthy of your faith and trust in me, and, during the year, if you observe anything that you think should or should not be done – PLEASE – whisper good counsel in my ear.
I would like 2015 to be a banner year for Golden Rule Lodge, and am already looking into a number of Fellowship and Community Enrichment activities. I have spoken with KQED about volunteering to answer phones during their next pledge drive, and have booked our reservation at Vasona Park for our Annual Picnic on June 14th, in our favorite Peppertree area. Put that on your calendars NOW! Next month I plan to outline other activities for the year. AND – if you have an idea for an activity, please call/email/talk to me about it. I want this year to be more that Stated Meetings and Degrees. Tell me what YOU want to do! I’m ready to listen.
In closing, I want to offer you something I came across in my continuing study and research into Masonic lore and history. This was written by Bro Alvaro F. Gibbons, at a Masonic Banquet – in April 1898!
“I feel, being a Mason of over a quarter of a century, that this night I would not give up my claim to the Masonic character – my claim to call each one here a Mason – for the richest fortune that could be bestowed. I would rather go out of that door a beggar, without any of the world’s goods, and yet feel that I could grasp the hand with fraternal grip of all of you, and call each of you my Brother and my companion, than I would leave there with the fortune of a millionaire, and be unable to give that sacred and fraternal grasp.”
Brotherhood – Fellowship – Companionship – Fraternal Love! THAT, my Brothers, is what we are all about, and will burn in our hearts until time shall be no more!
Fraternally,
Hank Vlcek
Senior Warden
NEWS FROM THE SOUTH
Something to Think About. . .
By Brother Dan Weatherington, from the Masonic e-mail journal CINOSAM
Not one person ever joined Masonry because George Washington was a Mason. Not one person ever joined Masonry because Harry Truman was a Mason. Not one person ever joined because of any of our great Masonic heroes. Joining doesn't make you any of those people.
Not one person ever joined in order to give a million dollars a day to charity, or homes, or crippled children. You don't have to be a member to give money.
Not one person ever joined because our ritual is outstanding, or our minutes are accurate, or a hundred other things we worry about. They don't know about our ritual.
They joined because someone they knew and admired was a Mason. It could have been a father, a friend, a man down the street, or someone a thousand miles away.
Who, it didn't matter. They admired him and wanted to do the things he did, and they did it by the millions. Want to help our growth? Be the kind of man someone admires. Someone will notice.
Fraternally,
Andrew Fowler
Junior Warden