GRAND MASTER’S ANNUAL ADDRESS - 2007
R:.W:. Deputy Grand Master, Distinguished Past Grand Masters, Members of the Grand Staff, Our Distinguished Guests and Brothers All. Good Morning! It is an honor and my very great pleasure to welcome each of you to the 202nd Annual Communication of the M:.W:. Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Delaware. Brother Grand Secretary would you please convey our sincere thanks to the Officers and Brothers of Endeavor Lodge # 17 for the lodge room set up and furniture we see here today. I also extend my personal thanks to Worshipful Brother Emory R. West and M:.W:. Brother William T Watkins, Jr. P. G. M. for their continued dedication to this cause. I am particularly pleased to welcome our distinguished guests, both from within this Grand Jurisdiction as well as those from without. To each of you, I express sincere thanks from both Jan and I for the many acts of kindness and your gracious hospitality as we visited each of your jurisdictions. We are honored by your presence and thank you so very much for taking time from your busy schedules to be with us. If there is anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable, please let us know. It has been an absolute joy to have served this year as your Grand Master. The honor you bestowed by electing and installing me as the 154th Grand Master of Masons in Delaware will glow in my heart forever. The tremendous responsibility that accompanies that honor has been a great motivating force for our year and I trust that my performance in the duties appertaining to the office have met with your approval. I suppose only time will tell.
OFFICIAL VISITATIONS
Our Grand Lodge Code requires the Grand Master to visit each subordinate lodge in this Grand Jurisdiction. I am pleased to report that each lodge has been visited. The Grand Staff and I have been graciously received and on many occasions our ladies were invited to join us for dinner and to enjoy some entertainment while the lodges were meeting. To all of our lodges, I thank you for the courtesies extended and the hospitality, fellowship and Brotherhood we all shared. We are incredibly fortunate here in Delaware that because of these visitations, every Delaware Mason enjoys the opportunity to meet his Grand Master.
VISITATIONS - SISTER JURISTICTIONS
It was my great pleasure, with my wife Jan, to visit many of our sister jurisdictions. During the past year we were honored to be received in Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina, Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Ontario. Right Worshipful Deputy Grand Master Emerson represented us at the Grand Lodge of West Virginia and the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia. We were graciously received and the hospitality and courtesies extended were exceptional. In addition to the fraternal benefits extended at these visitations are the tremendous friendships developed that will last a lifetime.
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