APRIL 2019
Welcome to St. Paul’s Lodge Newsletter. This regular monthly communication is intended to keep you, as well as friends of the Lodge, informed of recent activities and upcoming events. Your input and feedback is welcome and appreciated.

GAME DINNER TABLE LODGE – A HUGE SUCCESS!
Our joint communication with King Solomon’s Lodge No. 7 on March 20th featuring a Game Dinner Table Lodge was attended by over 50 brothers. It was a wonderful evening of food, camaraderie and conviviality. Our thanks go out to chef JW Brother Jamie Fisher and to his awesome team, Brother Matt Sweet, Brother Courtney Brown and Tracie Dzurnak for providing another fabulous feast. Our thanks also go out to WM John Stack and the brothers of King Solomon’s Lodge No. 7 for helping to make this a most enjoyable event.

WALK A MILE IN HER SHOES® PROJECT – May 19th
St. Paul’s lodge will again be participating in the Susan B. Anthony Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® fund-raising event. The walk will take place on May 19, 2019 in Litchfield Center. This is a community event where men and boys lead the way on the road to end sexual and domestic violence. Brothers in full regalia will march in a parade that will pass in front of St. Paul’s Lodge on Meadow Street wearing red high heel shoes (optional) and red bow ties. All associated costs will be covered by a donation from St. Paul’s Lodge. Brothers from neighboring lodges and guests are invited to march along with us. Please contact WM Pat Iannuzzi (860-710-1246) if you would like to participate.

LITCHFIELD MEMORIAL DAY PARADE – May 27th
The brothers of St. Paul’s Lodge are planning to march in Litchfield’s Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 27th. The parade will begin on North Street and proceed down Meadow Street by the lodge, turn left onto Wolcott Street, and then back up South Street to the center of town. Please mark your calendars.

FELLOWCRAFT DEGREE – April 17th
At our stated communication on April 17th, we will be holding a Fellowship Degree. Three brothers from St. Paul’s Lodge No. 11, and one from St. Luke’s Lodge No. 48 will be receiving “More light in Masonry.” We look forward to having a fine turnout of brothers to celebrate this momentous event.

UPCOMING EVENTS
April 3rd: S.C. Pot Luck Dinner – 6:30 pm. Meeting 7:30 pm.
April 17th: S.C. Buffet Dinner – 6:30 pm. Meeting 7:30 pm. FC Degree.
May 1st: S.C. Pot Luck Dinner – 6:30 pm. Meeting 7:30 pm.
May 15th: S.C. Meeting 7:30 pm. Program TBA.
May 19th: Walk-A-Mile Parade (9:30 am Sunday)
May 27th: Litchfield Memorial Day Parade (North Street 10:00 am)

A LITTLE MASONIC HISTORY

The life of Paul Revere, and the services he rendered to our country are reason enough to endear him to every patriotic American. Yet we, as Masons, can claim a still closer tie. He was made a Mason at St. Andrew’s Lodge in Boston on September 4, 1760, and became its Master in 1770. At that time, St. Andrews Lodge was one of the two competing Grand Lodges of Massachusetts and in subsequently chartered several lodges in Connecticut as no Connecticut Grand Lodge existed then. One of the Connecticut lodges chartered by St. Andrew’s was St. Paul’s Lodge, and our charter prominently displays the signature of Brother Revere.

The forefathers of Paul Revere were Huguenots, a sect of French Protestants who for many years defied Rome and the King of France. Paul’s father, also named Paul, eventually found his way to Boston where in due time he established himself as a gold and silver smith. Young Paul, the third of twelve children, was born on January 1, 1735. He eventually followed in his father’s professional footsteps and specimens of his work are treasured to this day.

Revere married Sarah Orne on August 4, 1757. Together they had eight children. Three of Revere’s daughters later married into Abraham Lincoln’s family, and three of his grandsons fought in the Civil War.

Revere’s profession as a skilled craftsman brought him into contact with many influential men in the community who were Freemasons, and these associations opened up the opportunity for him to become a Mason himself. It was an event that had a significant impact on the future direction of his life. Being a Mason gave him the ability to interact with the political leaders of the time such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock and John Adams, and through his Masonic involvement with such men, Paul Revere was able to demonstrate his leadership ability which he otherwise would probably not have had the opportunity to do.

It is believed that he took part in the famous Boston Tea Party in 1773, and was appointed official courier for the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly in 1774. In this capacity, he made his famous ride from Boston to Lexington on April 18, 1775 to warn the country that the British were on the march.

In Massachusetts in Revere’s time, there was the same social system as existed in England with the “ruling class” at the top consisting of men of wealth and high office, and below them were the common or ordinary men. The Masonic lodge was the only place that men of the ruling class and the rank and file of ordinary men ever met and socialized together. What Paul Revere saw going on in the lodge was the discovery by both classes of men that man for man, the purported upper-class men were not, in fact, superior to ordinary men. The realization by Revere of the apparent “equality” of Masonic brothers became the model for his vision of American Democracy.

Paul Revere served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts from 1795 to 1797.

Image:
Oil on canvas portrait of Paul Revere painted by John Singleton Copley in 1768.

Image source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J_S_Copley_-_Paul_Revere.jpg