The Traveling Ashlar Weekly Trestleboard | Edition 0004 | Week of September 14, 2026 · A.L. 6026

Freemasons in England have provided an emergency £50,000 grant to the British Red Cross following catastrophic flooding in Nepal, where a sudden surge of water entered the Bhote Koshi River on Aug. 26 and devastated communities in the country's mountainous north.

The grant is being used to support the Nepal Red Cross Society and is designated for shelters, water-purification equipment, blankets, stretchers, first-aid supplies and other emergency materials. Bedfordshire Freemasons published details of the Masonic grant on Sept. 9, including confirmation from the Red Cross that the contribution would also help longer-term recovery efforts.

The scale of the disaster is considerably larger than the Masonic contribution alone. The British Red Cross reported that more than 1,000 people had died and thousands were missing across the affected region after floodwaters struck Nepal's Rasuwa district and areas farther north. Homes, roads, bridges and public infrastructure were destroyed or damaged, complicating rescue operations and making some communities difficult to reach. Nepal has since sought billions of dollars in international assistance for recovery.

The Nepal Red Cross activated its emergency operations center and deployed teams toward Rasuwa and neighboring Nuwakot, releasing emergency stocks including tarpaulins, blankets, first-aid equipment and stretchers. The Masonic money is therefore not creating a separate relief operation. It is entering an existing humanitarian network that was already working in the affected communities.

For a fraternity that places Relief among its foundational principles, the mechanism is worth noting. The money is Masonic. The expertise on the ground does not need to be.

The Grand Lodge of Oregon marked its 175th anniversary weekend with a public open house at its Forest Grove campus, part of a statewide observance of organized Freemasonry in Oregon dating to 1851.

The Grand Lodge traces its founding to Sept. 15, 1851. For this year's anniversary, it scheduled a free four-hour open house on Sept. 12 that allowed visitors to tour several distinct parts of its campus, including the Richmond Library & Masonic Museum, the Jennings McCall Retirement Community and McMenamins Grand Lodge. The latter is a former Masonic property that remains owned by the fraternity but now operates as a hotel and entertainment complex.

The event was intentionally designed for people outside the fraternity. No registration was required, and the Grand Lodge promoted the anniversary as an opportunity for the public to learn what Oregon Freemasonry looks like today rather than simply commemorate its past. An evening gala for members and guests was also scheduled at McMenamins, while individual Lodges around Oregon have been holding their own anniversary events from August through October.

The campus itself makes the open-house approach particularly useful. It places Masonic history, elder care, archives and a repurposed historic Lodge property within walking distance of one another, providing a broader picture of the fraternity than a visitor would get from seeing only a Lodge room.

After 175 years of explaining Freemasonry, Oregon tried the more direct approach Saturday: come inside and look around.

A century after English Freemasons financed the building that became Freemasons' Hall on Great Queen Street, the United Grand Lodge of England is using that history as the model for a much larger campaign focused on the future of Masonic buildings.

UGLE's Centenary Hall Stone Appeal has set a goal of raising £100 million over 10 years. The appeal was announced earlier in 2026, but September begins the official window for Metropolitan, Provincial and District areas to launch their local campaigns. Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire was among the first Provinces to publish its appeal material this month.

The historical reference is deliberate. After the First World War, English Freemasons created the Masonic Million Memorial Fund to commemorate Brethren who had died in the war and to help finance a new headquarters. Lodges and individuals that made significant contributions received Hall Stone recognition and jewels, many of which remain part of English Masonic regalia a century later. The new campaign revives that system with recognition levels for individual members, Lodges, Chapters and entire Provinces or Districts.

A Lodge seeking the highest Centenary Hall Stone recognition must generate donations averaging £1,800 per subscribing member during the campaign. A qualifying Lodge receives a Centenary Hall Stone Jewel for its Worshipful Master, and its name and number will be engraved in or near the courtyard at Freemasons' Hall. Individual members can also qualify for Silver, Gold and Hall Stone Centenary Building Jewels based on their cumulative giving.

The money is not intended only for Great Queen Street. UGLE says the Centenary Buildings Fund is meant to help Masonic buildings throughout its Constitution survive, modernize and, where appropriate, become more useful to their local communities. Its official guidance says the overwhelming majority of funding is expected to support halls other than Freemasons' Hall, even as Great Queen Street itself also requires structural work and modernization after nearly a century of use.

The question behind the campaign is less ceremonial than the jewels suggest. Many Masonic organizations inherited substantial historic buildings from earlier generations. Those buildings now require roofs, masonry repairs, accessibility improvements, heating systems, kitchens, fire protection and the steady expense of remaining usable.

The original Hall Stone generation built something for men they would never meet. UGLE is asking the present one to decide what it intends to leave behind.

Excelsior Lodge No. 113 is marking the centennial of its downtown Masonic building while simultaneously raising money to keep that building viable for another generation.

Minnesota Public Radio noted the 100th anniversary of the building's dedication in its Sept. 8 morning announcements. The Lodge itself is older. Excelsior No. 113 was organized in 1874 and formally chartered by the Grand Lodge of Minnesota on Jan. 13, 1875, making the building centennial follow closely behind the Lodge's own 150th anniversary.

The Lodge has used the property at 249 Water Street since late 1926. According to its history, the site previously had connections to the Excelsior Library, the local Chamber of Commerce and the original Mount Calvary Lutheran Church. The Lodge preserves original charters, a book signed by generations of Masters and large paintings of Ruth and George Washington commissioned during the 1920s by Lake Minnetonka steamboat owner and Mason Capt. J.R. Johnson.

The anniversary arrives in the middle of a multi-year capital campaign scheduled to run from 2025 through 2030. The Lodge says major work is needed to deal with roofing, masonry tuckpointing, plaster and water damage. Its fundraising levels range from smaller individual gifts to $25,000-and-above contributions designated as "Pillars of the Craft." The Lodge describes itself not as the owner of the building but as its steward, responsible for handing it to the next generation in usable condition.

That is the less romantic part of historic preservation. The artifacts may tell the story, but eventually somebody still has to pay for the roof.

The Grand Lodge of the Philippines formally added the Order of the Secret Monitor to its list of recognized Masonic appendant bodies this week, giving official status to an organization whose ceremonial tradition centers on the biblical friendship of David and Jonathan.

Grand Master Robert Joseph S. Moran Jr. issued Edict No. 410 on Sept. 11, recognizing the Order as a duly recognized Masonic Appendant Body and Allied Organization and amending earlier Grand Lodge rules governing recognized associations. The edict appears in the Grand Lodge's official register alongside other recent regulations concerning Masonic ritual, Temple use and Grand Lodge administration.

The Order of the Secret Monitor, also known as the Brotherhood of David and Jonathan, requires candidates within the system administered from Mark Masons' Hall to be Master Masons in good standing. Its ceremonies are built around loyalty, friendship, mutual trust and the biblical account of Jonathan warning David of danger from King Saul. The modern Order has three degrees and traces documented antecedents to Scotland around 1790, with forms of the degree known in the United States by the 1820s.

The Philippine recognition is notable because the Order was not unknown there before this week's edict. Grand Lodge publications have previously listed Filipino Masons with memberships in Order of the Secret Monitor Conclaves, including units connected with overseas jurisdictions. Edict No. 410 gives the organization a formal place within the Grand Lodge's recognized Masonic structure.

Recognition sounds administrative, but within Freemasonry it matters. Grand Lodges determine which organizations their members may officially associate with as Masonic bodies and under what conditions.

The Philippine Masonic family tree gained another formally labeled branch this week.

Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire has consecrated its third new Royal Arch Chapter of 2026, an unusual burst of growth for a Province that had previously gone more than two decades without creating one.

Sartoris Chapter No. 9497 was consecrated at Rushden Masonic Hall on Sept. 4, with the Province publishing its account of the ceremony Sept. 11. Provincial officials said it had been more than 24 years since a new Chapter had been consecrated locally before this year's expansion. Sartoris has now become the third new Chapter established in the Province during 2026.

Fifteen founders were involved in establishing the Chapter. Following the consecration, Rowland Hockenhull was installed as its first MEZ, with Paul Talbott and Simon Whitbread taking the H and J chairs. More than 60 Companions attended the Festive Board afterward, according to the Province.

The development is especially interesting at a time when much of organized Freemasonry is discussing membership retention, consolidation and the long-term viability of individual units. The Province's own recent reporting shows activity going in the opposite direction, including another Chapter consecrated earlier in the year that entered the new Masonic season with eight prospective Exaltees and additional joining members.

One new Chapter after a 24-year gap would be notable. Three in one year is a trend worth watching.

Texas Lodge No. 46 met Saturday morning in San Juan Bautista on a schedule the Lodge says has remained unchanged since its charter was granted in 1854: the second Saturday of every month, with the stated meeting beginning at 10 a.m.

The Lodge's current calendar is unusually explicit about the claim, noting that both the day and time have remained the same since 1854. The modern schedule begins earlier with an 8 a.m. Hall Association meeting and breakfast at 9, followed by the Lodge meeting at 10 and fellowship afterward. The Lodge also offers transportation assistance to members who have difficulty getting to the building.

Older Lodge records on its website support the continuity of the second-Saturday morning tradition. Meeting reports from 2020, 2021 and 2022 repeatedly describe the 10 a.m. second-Saturday meeting as a practice dating to 1854. Even when California Masonic rules temporarily allowed online meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, Texas Lodge moved onto Zoom while retaining its traditional Saturday morning time.

The Lodge describes itself as a daylight Lodge, a comparatively unusual arrangement in American Masonry, where stated meetings are frequently held on weekday evenings. Its history says its early members included Texan ranchers, which also explains the Lodge's name despite its California location and helps account for the Texas-style breakfast that has become part of its modern meetings.

The claim ultimately belongs to the Lodge itself, and Traveling Ashlar has not independently reviewed 172 years of minutes to certify that there was never an exception. But there is considerable documentation showing that the Lodge has been very serious about keeping Saturday morning occupied.