October 28, 2007
The Benevolence Committee of the Grand Chapter is established to provide
some financial help to Royal Arch Masons in distress.
Benevolence is a characteristic that is inculcated in Masons from
initiation in the Craft Lodge and on into the Royal Arch chapters.
In the Entered Apprentice degree,
the Charity Lecture gives heavy emphasis on the practice of
benevolence to the less fortunate members and makes it very plain that in
a worldwide fraternity such as ours there are brethren in distressed
circumstances. The Master
Mason Degree adds a further emphasis in offering assistance to a brother
when instructing them in the Five Points of Fellowship.
One of the signs in that degree also suggests the necessity
of helping
brother masons.
The Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter have their charities which they
support.
Masonic districts and Royal Arch districts usually have charities
which
they stress.
Many individual lodges offer assistance to the community charities
where they
exist. John Robinson,
the noted Masonic historian, has
noted in an
appearance in
an educational video/dvd that Masonic organizations across North
America
give one and half million dollars
a day to a multitude of charities. That
is
monumental amount of money from Freemasonry.
Our fraternity does not
caim to be a
charitable organization but rather a brotherhood which practices
charity.
The Benevolence Committee of the Grand Chapter is established to
offer
assistance to
worthy applicants who are in desperate need.
Applications for
such
benevolence must come from a constituent chapter which is passed on to the
Grand
Superintendent and then to Grand Scribe Ezra.
If both such officers
feel
the need is
real, the application comes to
the the Benevolence Committee for their consideration and disposition.
The Benevolence Committee consists of the
chairman,
R. Ex. Comp. Hugh
Kernohan assisted by:
R.Ex. Comp. William Kalapatiuk,
R. Ex. Comp. Aaron Orr
R. Ex. Comp. Thomas Mortlock
