Members of Renaissance Lodge #933 gather during the Lodge’s 10th Anniversary Celebration, held September 12, 2026, at Happily Ever After Weddings & Events in Hartselle. Seated in the front are the Lodge’s seven current Charter Members: Bro. Thomas David Jordan, WBro. John Henry Harbin, WBro. Craig Skinner, MWBro. John Strickling, WBro. David Whitaker, WBro. Jerry Burpee, and WBro. Kerry Stanley.
On Saturday, September 12, Brothers, families, and friends of Renaissance Lodge #933 gathered at Happily Ever After Weddings & Events in Hartselle to celebrate the Lodge’s 10th anniversary and a decade of fellowship, tradition, and Masonic labor.
Chartered in 2016, Renaissance Lodge #933 became Alabama’s first Observant Lodge. From its beginning, Renaissance has placed particular emphasis on excellence in ritual, Masonic education, decorum, meaningful fellowship, and the preservation of the traditions of the Craft.
The anniversary celebration provided an opportunity to recognize the Brothers who helped establish that vision. Seven of the Lodge’s original Charter Members remain members today: WBro. Jerry Burpee, WBro. John Henry Harbin, Bro. Thomas David Jordan, WBro. Craig Skinner, WBro. Kerry Stanley, MWBro. John Strickling, and WBro. David Whitaker.
The Lodge also paused to remember five Brothers who have laid down the working tools of life during its first decade: Clarence Ballard, Bob Hickman, Dr. Stephen Gilbert, Harvey Pride, and Tim Edwards. Brothers Ballard, Hickman, and Gilbert were Charter Members of Renaissance Lodge. A special memorial recognition during the evening honored their friendship, service, and contributions to the Lodge.
WBro. Jerry Burpee, a Charter Member and current Secretary of Renaissance Lodge #933, served as the evening’s keynote speaker. He shared the story of the Lodge’s founding, the principles that guided its formation, and reflections on Renaissance’s first ten years.
The evening also included formal toasts, an anniversary cake ceremony, dinner catered by The Freight House of Hartselle, a group photograph, music, dancing, and fellowship among Brothers, their families, and guests.
As Renaissance Lodge #933 enters its second decade, its Brothers look forward to building upon the foundation established by its Charter Members and continuing the Lodge’s commitment to Masonic education, excellence in ritual, meaningful fellowship, and the traditions of the Craft.
Visiting Brothers are always welcome at Renaissance Lodge #933, and we encourage Masons from across Alabama to join us for an evening of Masonic labor and fellowship. A Festive Board follows Lodge, and visiting Brothers are asked to provide advance notice when possible so that we may properly prepare for their attendance.
The Grand Lodge office will be closed November 26th – November 28th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The office will reopen on Monday, December 1, 2025.
Brethren All, due to the ongoing government shutdown, the Veterans Monument dedication ceremony scheduled for this Friday, November 7th at Noon has been canceled. The Grand Lodge office will work to reschedule this ceremony for a future date.
A memorial service for Most Worshipful Cecil Lane Weatherbee will be held Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 2PM at Piedmont First United Methodist Church, 300 N Main St, Piedmont, AL 36272. The Grand Lodge of Alabama will be opened at the church at 1:30PM. Masonic Rites will be performed at the church at the conclusion of the memorial service.
In a recent homily at a funeral, I mentioned that at the funeral of our brother Sir Christopher Wren, who designed St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Wren’s son famously inscribed on his tomb inside that very building: “Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you.” Wren’s legacy was in the beauty he left behind. The cathedral is an outward, visible monument to the glory of God, and is a central theme of Freemasons. We love the tales, substantiated or not, that we descended from the stonemasons who built those amazing edifices. They are among the ultimate expressions of order, of math, of piety. The greatest cathedrals are testaments to dedication and the generational perseverance of our Craft.
Our beloved Grand Master Richard Shultz asked me recently what I thought the purpose of Freemasonry was. I answered that I think the purpose is to serve humanity and improve the world to the glory of God. That is not too far off from what I expect early stonemasons were attempting to do with building cathedrals.
When I lived in France, I worked across the river from Notre Dame cathedral and saw her flying buttresses every day. Living in London I went to St. Paul’s and looked up at the square and compass in the ceiling and laughed with pride. In Cork, Ireland, our brother William Burges designed and built St. Finbarre’s Cathedral, his being the fifth building on the site since the church there was founded in AD606. I travelled to Amiens and Chartres, Armagh and Washington DC, New York and San Francisco, to Munich and Rome, to Venise and Wittenberg, to see the greatest cathedrals. Each was a masterpiece. I loved the order, the lines, the delicacy of stonework that looked like lace. To me, there was nothing that defined the beauty and artistic expression of what we do as masons more than a cathedral. These works glorify God and bring us closer to seeing heaven than anything else created by human hands.
And yet, even the most beautiful cathedral pales in comparison to the work of the Great Architect. Rounding a road on a recent autumn day, the top down on my old project car, I caught sight of a tree, leaves turning. The magnificence of the colored leaves, with the sun just right behind them, gave me insight into what Moses saw with the burning bush. Awe, wonder, and love for the hands that set the foundations of the earth and prepared the dry land overwhelmed me. I pulled over and turned off the car, the beautiful sound of a well-tuned engine falling silent, replaced by the symphonies of wind and birdsong, insects and babbling brook. God was laughing with and at me, letting me in on His jokes. His creation is more than ours. When He created humans in Eden, we were perfectly human. When we fell, we became less so. We did not need cathedrals as we were already in one. We could not confine God to a house, but He let us build temples and cathedrals to help us understand Him.
For the past 40 years, I have visited Barcelona every few years and watched the progress of the Cathedral of Sagrada Familia, Antoni Goudi’s masterpiece imitation of nature. Instead of forms of lines and angles, that building conforms to divine laws of architecture, taking inspiration from tree and flowers, from waterfalls and mountains. It is a work of submission and admitting that we cannot surpass God’s architecture. Goudi was striving to be MORE human in expressing God’s intentions above human’s ideals. Does everyone like that cathedral? No. But is the intention in the right place? Yes.
As we strive to build the greatest temples and cathedrals of our lives, let us think of the examples scripture sets out for us. Let us seek God and our relationship with him that guides us to improvement and humility. Let us consider commandments to love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us try each and every day to be better men, even if we sometimes go backwards on that path, hope continues for us to advance until we come to what Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act III) called “that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.”
Outside of my door at work here in Birmingham, I have a small bible verse: Micah 6:8 (NIV): “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Let us find the cathedral of our hearts and hope that we have built them to be good work, square work, delightful in God’s sight. Such an edifice would be the greatest cathedral and the purpose of masonry.
Anniversaries, by definition, happen every year. However, there are milestones that mark special longevity, whether of a relationship or of an institution. In Marriages, we mark some anniversaries with special gifts. In a Lodge, we might mark the 25th, 50th, 75th, or other anniversary with a pin or a certificate. Our Lodges themselves we celebrate with cornerstone rededications or similar at 100, 150, and even 200 years. We are about to celebrate our country’s Semiquincentennial, or250th anniversary of Independence, and will celebrate with parades, fireworks, and dedications of public works.
On October 1st, W. Bro. Jason Gonce and I headed to my Mother Lodge back in Ireland for the 300th Anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. We were overwhelmed by the honor of representing you and our Most Worshipful Brother Richard Schultz. Even though we were paying our own way, it was a bargain to be so honored ourselves to be part of history. We flew into Dublin, the capitol of the Republic. We got to visit the Grand Lodge Museum and were given a private tour of the rooms for the various Bodies, immersing ourselves in the History of the place and our forebearers. We dined in restaurants with Masonic history and visited exhibitions about Masonic brothers in the National Gallery and National Library. The white and red saltire cross of St. Patrick was flying, and that flag of the Church of Ireland made us feel at home, since it is what we adopted as the Flag of the State of Alabama.
We took a train to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, for the Tercentenary Meeting. Grand Lodge there meets quarterly, not annually, so that all areas of both countries represented in the Grand Lodge of Ireland get visits and voices, and issues do not escalate. In a Grand Ballroom of an enormous hotel we were seated upon the dais in the front, next to the Grand Master of Greece. He actually preceded us in the march to the front, since we are an older Grand Lodge than they are. We were given Grand Honors, and then I was asked to give the Response. We were given gifts and literally hundreds of photos were taken of us in our spectacular attire. The gold vests and ties, along with our beautiful aprons, were quite popular and made up for the concern that we did not wear sleeve gauntlets as most other Grand Lines do in Europe and elsewhere. Irish Constitution brothers from several countries were in attendance, including a group from the Philippines. Although the Banquet had been sold out for over a year, the Grand Master, M. W. Bro. Richard Ensor, found two tickets for us to attended in the Great Hall of Belfast City Hall. In spite of the beauty of the place, professionalism of the staff, and quality of the food, it was the congeniality and warmth of the brothers that was most memorable. The next day we headed to Cork, all the way in the South. We arrived in time to go to Evensong at St. Finbarre’s Cathedral, which recently (2006) celebrated the 1400th anniversary of its founding in AD606. W. Bro. Jason had never seen the red and green marble from Ireland, and the spectacular beauty of my old home church was overwhelming, as was the choir’s performance. They sang “Locus iste” by Anton Bruckner as the anthem, the notes echoing gracefully in that space, with lyrics that should resound in every Lodge:
Locus iste a Deo factus est, Inaestimabile sacramentum, irreprehensibilis est.
This place was made by God, a priceless sacrament; it is without reproach.
The First Lodge of Ireland building on Tuckey Street is being renovated to meet city code at a cost of over $1.5 million, so we were not able to meet in the hall we have owned since 1726, the fifth building of First Lodge. I was sad that Jason could not see my Mother Lodge: the place where I was initiated, passed, and raised all those years ago. Instead, First Lodge met in the Lodge at Kinsale, a nearby town voted the culinary capitol of Ireland and one of the most beautiful towns in Europe. Dinner at a local hotel was moved up an extra half hour so that we had time to chat beforehand, even though dinner is normally a festive board after the meeting. Again, the brotherly love and welcome was phenomenal. The meeting was filled with beauty and work that reminded us where Alabama ritual came from. W. Bro. Jason was able to follow along with most of the work word for word, although there were a lot of extra words that we have taken out over the centuries here. There were many jokes about my being there, since I do not get back to Ireland very often and some of the younger brothers only know me from my monthly apologies for not being in Lodge. The reunion was lovely, and showed again and again that we are brothers of a world-wide organization who all value the same principles.
While we were in Ireland for the 300th Anniversary of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, just as in 2017 we celebrated the 300th of the United Grand Lodge of England, it is important that you see this as YOUR anniversary. A celebration of where we came from masonically in our ritual and in our passion for the basic principles of brotherly love, relief, and truth. Each time I travel, I remind brothers that to travel and visit lodges helps us to connect to the wider world and to see that each jurisdiction as another piece of the puzzle that makes up the image of Freemasonry. What a beautiful image it is!
Celebrate and love your Mother Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Alabama. Revel in the glorious history that we have, descending from those European Lodges and creating ourselves in our own way. Happy Anniversary to us all, whether 300 or 3.
It is my sad duty to inform of the passing of Most Worshipful Brother Delton Earl Havard, Past Grand Master of Masons in Alabama for the years 1996-1997. Brother Havard passed away Sunday, September 21st, 2025 after a short but hard fought battle against cancer. Services are scheduled for Saturday, September 27, 2025, at Mobile Memorial Gardens, 6040 Three Notch Rd, Mobile, AL 36619. The family will receive visitors from 9AM-10AM with the funeral service to begin at 10AM. The Grand Lodge of Alabama will be opened at the funeral home at 9:30AM. MWPGM Billy Jackson will perform the Masonic Funeral Rites at the funeral home. Interment will follow at Pine Crest Cemetery, 1939 Dauphin Island Pkwy, Mobile, AL 36605.
To the Worshipful Masters, Wardens, Secretaries, and Brethren of Alabama Freemasonry
Each year, it is the duty of the Grand Master to appoint a Membership Committee to assist our Lodges in matters of growth and retention. This year, I have renamed that committee. It is now known as the Shepherding Committee, not just in name, but in purpose.
The Shepherding Committee has been tasked with more than reviewing membership rolls. It has been charged with helping Lodges reconnect with their members, restore fellowship, and renew the bonds that define who we are as Masons. To support this mission, every Lodge will have access to a complete Shepherding Toolkit. This includes a full Shepherding Guide, printable flyers, one page summaries, a dedicated website, Masonic education materials, a public video message to share, and regularly scheduled hybrid learning sessions through Google Meet. These resources are prepared to teach, support, and strengthen the work of every Lodge in our Grand Jurisdiction.
What Is Shepherding
The Shepherding Program is a grassroots initiative designed to restore, strengthen, and rebuild the fraternal ties that bind us together. It focuses on welcoming back suspended members, reconnecting with those who have grown inactive or unadvanced, and creating Lodge environments that feel warm, engaging, and meaningful. To shepherd is to guide and care for our brethren. It means looking after each other, not because we are required to, but because we want to. This program is not about dues. It is about people. It is about saving and strengthening what we love most about Freemasonry, one brother at a time.
The Three Phases of Shepherding
Shepherding is built around three core areas of focus we designed, known as The Three R’s: Reinstatement, Retention, and Revival. These are not steps that must be followed in a strict order. Every Lodge is different. Begin where it makes sense for your Lodge. What matters most is that all three phases are eventually embraced, because each one strengthens and supports the others.
Reinstatement focuses on those we have lost. These are members who were suspended for nonpayment of dues or who never completed their Masonic journey. Reaching out does not require a formal letter. Often, it begins with a phone call, a text, or a simple conversation in town. With patience and genuine concern, we can help them find their way back to the Craft.
Retention is about those already sitting among us. Greet every brother by name. Offer a short educational or inspiring message. Make space for family. Host a meal. When a Lodge feels welcoming and alive, brothers return, and often bring others with them.
Revival is about visibility and outreach. Lodges that are active in their communities naturally draw interest. Host a barbecue. Donate to a school. Recognize a local teacher or first responder. Show the public who we are and what we stand for. Freemasonry thrives when the world sees its good works.
These three areas are not seasonal projects or temporary efforts.
They are a continuing cycle of care.
Program Successes in Alabama
Shepherding is already working. More than ninety Lodges across Alabama have formed committees and begun this journey. Many are seeing real results.Some have welcomed back suspended brothers. Others have restarted degree work and initiated new candidates. Some have seen attendance rise just from personally reaching out to men they had not seen in years.
One Lodge saw four men return in one month following a few phone calls. These are not difficult tasks. These are acts of care and attention. And they are making a difference.
Shepherding in Alabama
In 1961, Alabama had more than 76,000 Masons and 434 Lodges. Today, there are fewer than 17,000 Masons and fewer than 260 Lodges. That is a 78 % drop in membership numbers and a 41 % drop in Lodge numbers. This decline did not happen overnight, and it will not be reversed overnight. But it can be reversed. The Shepherding Program gives us a clear foundation to begin on. It reconnects us. It strengthens our lodges. It restores the purpose and heart of Freemasonry in Alabama.
What Your Lodge Can Do
If your Lodge has not yet started a Shepherding Committee, I encourage you to do so. The Worshipful Master may appoint the committee and ask for volunteers. It does not have to be large. Three to five committed brothers are more than enough. Stewards, deacons, officers, Past Masters, and the secretary are often a natural fit for this work. This program is not limited to large or well funded Lodges. It is for everyone. Every Lodge can find its own way to participate. Every brother has something to offer. Whether your Lodge is small or large, vibrant or struggling, you can be part of this movement. Make use of the resources. The Shepherding Guide contains call scripts, templates, event ideas, and practical steps for reaching brothers and strengthening your Lodge. Use the Modern Tools and Timeless Brotherhood flyer. Today, communication often happens through text messages, social media, and short video updates. Post photos of your Lodge’s activities. Share events. Use your Lodge website or Facebook page to be visible in your community.
My Grand Lodge Shepherds have been visiting Lodges across this Grand Jurisdiction to share this message and assist brethren in understanding the program. Please welcome them when they visit and give them an opportunity to speak. This is a message that benefits us all.
The Shepherding Committee also holds monthly educational sessions, in person and virtually. These are open to all Master Masons. If you have questions, these classes are the place to ask them and receive helpful answers. Please attend if you are able.
All program materials can be found at the link below or under the Master Mason – Resources Tabs of The Grandview Membership Portal. (For smartphone users, scan the code below) https://sites.google.com/view/shepherding101/home
If your Lodge needs help, do not hesitate to ask. Each Group has Grand Lodge Shepherding Representatives who are available and ready to assist.
Group 1: Zach Griffith (256-926-8202)
Group 2: Mike Brewer (502-542-2580)
Group 3: Ron Forrest (205-304-1009) *Chairman
Group 4: Zach Grizzard (256-239-5269)
Group 5: Randy Smith (251-923-7767)
This is not just another committee. This is our opportunity to restore what has been lost.
This is the work that will shape the future of Freemasonry in Alabama.
Shepherding is how we save brothers, Saving brothers is how we save Lodges, and Saving Lodges is how we save Freemasonry.
