Portsmouth Freemasons | St. John's Lodge #1

Brethren Golfers be yea “pros” or “duffers”…..Click here for all information concerning the 14th Annual Scottish Rite Seacoast Learning Center Golf Tournament!

Brethren of St. John’s and St. Andrew’s Lodges and any members of other lodges who will be attending the Masonic Veteran’s night on August 11th, please RSVP via the link below.  Please it is very important you do so Chef Phil can get as near an accurate count for supper as possible.  Look for the R.S.V.P. posts in the future of all regular dinners.

click below on the elite logo below

On Wednesday August 9th, St. John’s and St. Andrew’s Lodges will be holding their annual joint Masonic Veterans Night at the Portsmouth Masonic Temple.  Dinner, which is free for all those attending,  will be Chicken Cordon Bleu (please RSVP to our Junior Warden Brother Gregg Annis at  ggg22@comcast.net )   Dinner will begin at 6:00 with Lodge beginning at 7:00 p.m.  This is a semi-public event.  Please join us to salute the long standing members of our two Portsmouth lodges.   A special event will follow our Veterans Program in the auditorium [See the posting “The Challenge is Met…the Hair Will Fall!”]

In about as much time as it took Brother Rod MacDonald to issue his $1,000 dollar haircut challenge, $1,500 was raised to answer his challenge!  So he must now go through with his pledge to have his shoulder-length hair cut to acceptable army bootcamp standards.  “The cutting” will be open for all brothers to witness on the evening of Wednesday, August, 9th in the Portsmouth Masonic Temple’s auditorium following the St. John’s/St. Andrews Veteran’s Night Program.  Refreshments for “the event”  are being sponsored by the Scottish Rite Valley of Portsmouth Dover.    Although the $1,000 goal was raised and exceeded further donations are welcomed with all monies going to the Scottish Rite’s Seacoast Learning Center, for dyslexia,  in Rochester, NH.  Have some fun, join us, and watch the follicles fall!

St. John’s Past Master William “Bill” Sawyer (second from left in this picture) is visiting Britain and recently attended a Fellow Craft Degree at the Prince of Wales Lodge in Gosport, England.   Bill noted that the Lodge room is filled with plaques and banners whereas seven different lodges make use of the same Masonic centre.

One of St. John’s Lodge Past Masters, Rod MacDonald, has issued a challenge to the individual brothers and lodges in the N.H. seacoast area,  If they can raise at least $1,000 for the Scottish Rite’s Seacoast Learning Center in Rochester, N. H. he will have his shoulder length hair cut to army boot camp regulation standards!  Three conditions have been placed on the challenge:  (1) A Donation to this challenge can not take the place of a regular contribution a lodge or individual would normally make to the Learning Center (such as sponsoring a hole at its annual golf tournament);  (2) the “cut” will be done by a licensed barber ; and (3) At least one brother (possibly two) who were former Army drill instructors will be present to “certify” that the cut satisfies Army boot camp regulations.   Rumor has it several lodges are going to sponsor this as an “event” for brothers to come watch!  Stay tuned for details for this will probably happen fairly soon whereas several sizable donations have already been made.

Donations by check only made out to Scottish Rite Seacoast Learning Center.  Checks may be given or sent to Rod MacDonald, Secretary Seacoast Learning Center Board of Governor’s, PO Box 33, New Castle, N.H. 03854 -0033.  To keep everything “honest” and on the “up-and-up,” no check will be cashed until the “cut” has actually happened!

June’s Master Mason’s class will be held at the Portsmouth Masonic Temple, in the “Pub Room” (off the auditorium) on Saturday June 17th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.  This month’s topic is “Smorgasbord” – an open discussion on any of the subjects we have discussed this past year.  The meeting is open to all Master Masons, so please join us for coffee doughnuts  and some interesting discussions!