I would like to thank everyone for their confidence in me and for supporting me over the last few years.

As I travel and talk with our companions, I have seen one area that I would really like to focus on for the upcoming year: Cryptic Education. At a recent Blue Lodge meeting, I overheard a Companion invite a Mason to join the York Rite. The brother replied, “What does the York Rite do?” Well, the Companion was at a loss for words in describing the responsibilities and duties of a York Rite Mason.

We are the Custodians of the Work. Every Blue Lodge Mason who strives for more light, and that should be all of us, needs the York Rite to continue their education. Only in the York Rite can you receive the True Word of a Master Mason, learn how it was lost, where it was stored, how it was re-discovered after laying in darkness, and how we preserve it today. I believe that by educating ourselves we will be better prepared to educate the lesser-informed Brethren that we need to perpetuate our organization.

To that end, I have laid out a series of educational lectures using our Monitor as a guide. There is a lesson for each month, and after 1 year, you will have studied the entire ritual, opening and closing, and history of the Degrees. You will become a shining beacon for Blue Lodge Masons to come to for answers. Get comfortable talking to your Lodges about the York Rite and the CMMRF. It’s been said that “If you build it, they will come.” I also believe that “If you teach it, they will learn.” Every man here today is capable of being a teacher. Teach our Blue Lodge Brothers about the York Rite.