GMMelanson

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ARTHUR H. MELANSON

ArthurMelanson1980.jpg

Deputy Grand Master, 1972
Grand Master, 1978-1980


TERM

1978 1979 1980

NOTES

CHARTERS GRANTED

SPEECHES

MORAL LESSON, 1970

From the March, 1970 Quarterly Communication: Moral Lesson, as Grand Chaplain:

"Brethren, I don't know how you react to current events, but I am about ready to give up reading my daily paper. It is full of one hopeless situation after another; even the comic page is no longer comical, the funnies no longer funny. A pall of gloom seems to touch almost everything. Another college president resigned last weekl Dr. Margaret Merry of Wheelock College became the 10th presideat in New England to resign since last fall. She resigned to make room for a successor, and I quote, 'with youth and vigor equal to the demands of the office.' I would not make a good college president. I am not ready to surrender the administration od the academic pursuit to those who are supposed to be pursuing the academic. There are other situations that concern me, too. Global unrest, war and seemingly imminent war. Global poverty, with the horsemen of hunger and disease still ranging over much of the world. The breakdown of morality as I know it. There are those who would throw the word responsibility out of our vocabulary. Persons need no longer be responsible to other persons or to society, they intimate. Brethren, I refuse to sell my integrity, my value standards, for a mess of pottage. I am increasingly concerned, also, about the drug scene.

"In the midst of this hopelessness there is yet a testimony of hope. Asked to say something about HOPE, Elizabeth Thomas wrote: 'I muse over the thin white scars on the inside of my wrists. My own testament to hopelessness. To a feeling of isolation utter and complete. To a feeling there was no one there but me, and I could no longer support myself out of my own strength. But they are scars. Why choose to live? HOPE is what I call it now.' As Masons we have a two.fold answer to the situation: The first is friendship and brotherly love. We are not alone. We belong to a Fraternity. We belong to each other. The second is found in the familiar words of the Master's lecture in the third degree. And this is a big 'But' - when we lookJorward the sprig of acacia found blooming. This is our symbol of Hope. From the very beginning of our Masonic journey, each of us affirmed our trust in God.

"In the play Man of La Mancha Aldonza asked Don Quixote why he does such ridiculous things. In answer, the following conversation ensues: Don Quixote replies, 'I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.' To which Aldonza says, 'The world's a dung-heap and we are maggots that crawl upon it.' 'My lady knows better in her heart.' 'What's in my heart will get me half way to Hell. And you, Señor Don Quixote - you are going to take such a beating.' 'Whether I win or lose does not matter.' 'What does?' 'only that I follow the quest.' Aldonza asks him what he means by that, and Don Quixote replies by singing the well-known theme song - THE QUEST:

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
This is my Quest, to {ollow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause !
And I know, if I'll only be true to this glorious quest,
That my heart will be peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest.
And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

May God help each of us to be that man!

HALL DEDICATION, 1980

At the dedication of Juniper Hall, June 22, 1980, as Grand Master:

"Four score and nine years ago, our fathers brought forth on this hill a Masonic Home, conceived in the desire to care for their Brother Masons in their twilight years, their wives and widows, and dedicated to the proposition that Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth must prevail in this Jurisdiction.

"Now we are engaged in a program of expanding and refurbishing that Masonic Home, to assure that any Home so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are now met on the site of that Masonic Home. We can come to rededicate a portion of that Home, as a continuing haven of peace and rest for those who have been an ongoing part of our Fraternity over the years, enabling it to be strong to this day. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But in a larger sense, we cannot rededicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. Those brothers, living and dead, who brought this Masonic Home into being and have sustained it year by year, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The Fraternity will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what those Brothers have done here. It is for the living, rather, to be here rededicated to the unfinished work, which they who brought this Masonic Home into being have thus so far nobly advanced. It is for us to be here rededicated to the great task remaining before us - that from those who have given their talent and treasure we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these Brothers shall not have given and striven in vain, and that our Fraternity and this Masonic Home, under God, shall have a new birth of faith, concern, and caring, and that Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth shall not perish from the earth.

"So mote it be."

Note: this is, of course, a sort of caricature of The Gettysburg Address.

QUARTERLY ADDRESS, 1980

From Proceedings, Page 1980-167, in his final Quarterly Address as Grand Master, December 10, 1980:

"As I come to the end of my term as Grand Master, I emerge with the following convictions concerning Masonry in the next decade.

"Almost every Grand Jurisdiction is struggling to find a way to stem a diminishing membership. THere is no question that the number of members suspended for non-payment of dues is larger than it ought to be. This needs to be seriously and continually addressed by every Lodge as well as the Grand Lodge.

"I believe more than ever, however, that the future of the Fraternity lies in Particular Procurement. Though the process may seem strange and unusual to us, we need to ask those good men who are our friends and colleagues, Have you ever thought about becoming a Mason? You may be surprised at the number of men who were waiting for someone to raise the question with them. We can no longer afford not to confront Particular men with the aformentioned question. I hasten to say that we are neither recruiting members nor establishing membership quotas.

"I believe that we will see more consolidation in the future. Not only because some Lodges are having difficulty in securing officers, and others are facing a decreasing membership, but more so because many Lodges will no longer be able to afford to operate their Temples by themselves. Symbolic Lodges and Collateral Bodies will have to join hands to meet the rising costs of energy and maintenance and thus preserve the Temple.

"I believe the the Lodge will have to become more family centered. That wives will go to the Temple with their husbands and enjoy their own program while the husbands attend to their Lodge work. The evening would end with some kind of combined involvement. What better place for a candidate to bring his wife while he takes his degrees? It is a splendid opportunity for her to meet and get acquainted with the wives of the members, as well as the members themselves. She will hear the story of Masonry from a woman's point of view, and perhaps get some of her unasked questions answered. She is becoming a part of the Lodge family at the same time that her husband is. On many occasions affairs will be planned to include children of all ages. The DeMolay Chapter and Rainbow Assembly will make progress because parents will want it to be so.

"I believe that more time must, not should, but must, be spent in making our candidates more Masonically literate, and our members better prepared and interested in becoming officers. We must be increasingly concerned about raising Masons and not candidates. The Grand Lodge Department of Education must design and implement programs for officer education that will prepare a member to be an officer and aid him while he is in office. This needs to be beyond what is now being done.

"I believe that if this Fraternity is to grow in the next decade, we must engender a new sense of pride in what we belong to and what it is we do. In short, I believe we will have to live like Masons in every sense of the word. This may not always be easy, but do it we must."

RULINGS



Grand Masters