Our District Deputy Grand Master

Oct 2025	Hamilton Masonic District	Issue No. 2
	Brethren, it is a pleasure to address you as the District Deputy Grand Master of Hamilton South District. First at the direction of the Grand Master all the DDGM’s across the province will continue to focus on R.E.M. Ritual, Education and Mentorship. Ritual By always striving to improve your presentation and your memorization. In the last 3 weeks I have visited 7 lodges and in more than one I have seen books open during the Lodge meeting. I have spoken to the members and Worshipful Masters of those lodges and made it clear that this action is not acceptable and should not be happening. Please practice your ritual, Masters call practices to find out if you have a member that needs special help. Education In these past 3 weeks I have seen many of the lodges do Masonic education. Sometimes on its own and sometimes in conjunction with a degree. Master’s please make time for Masonic education. If the degree is making a long night, plan something short, if Masonic ed is the work of the evening then plan something longer or 2 speakers on connected topics. From my conversation over the last year and more, it has become clear that there are many men in our District that crave more knowledge in Masonry. It is our duty as leaders to feed that craving and hopefully spark others to research and prepare their own presentation. Mentorship This is a plea to the Past Masters and long time Master Masons, your experience is invaluable. Please consider mentoring a member of your lodge. There are 2 groups that need mentors, the new masons and the line officers. We need to cultivate both of these groups, if we are to grow and prosper our Lodges. An officer only sits in a chair for a year, but with guidance and friendship that carries them through all the chairs, he can become a good leader maybe a great one. Young masons need guidance and encouragement to grow and find their place. I can not think of a better legacy than for a Master or a member getting up to speak and having them recognize their mentor. As most of you are aware my membership in masonry is the continuation of five generations of masons. Those four previous individuals taught me the importance of service to the craft and my community. My hope this year, that I can be a facilitator to build bonds in the lodges of the realigned districts. The work has already begun; in the South we have reinstated Accompanying Lodges. When choosing which lodge would join me on which Official Visit, I made a concerted effort to have each lodge visit a lodge from a former different district. The plan is to hopefully build new connections. To promote this, the former district “B” Traveling Cane will be given to the accompanying Master to create an opportunity for the Worshipful Masters to interact more as they hand the cane off to the next Accompanying Master. My goal is to make this year one of bonding and unity. The last thing the district needs to hear is “well in District X this is the way we used to do it”. We need a year of “yes, let’s adopt that tradition” or “have you considered an alternative idea” they both serve the purpose of building our district stronger. However one is divisive the other is inclusive and co-operative. In all our dealings we will need to keep the inclusive and co-operative attitude in mind to make this a successful realignment. This year we will have the opportunity to write new guidelines and provide each lodge an opportunity to express ideas that are important to them and help lay the ground work for the future leaders of the South District. From the beginning of my candidacy for District Deputy my desire has been to raise the awareness of Masonry which will consist of three parts; Public Awareness Many in our community have little or no information about Masonry. Since our new District covers a wide geographical region I would encourage each of the Masonic Halls to host an Open House or participate in their community Open Doors program. My thoughts are to have some display boards made for each of the officers chairs with the Jewel of the office the name of the officer’s position and a brief description of their duties. Then when visitors are guided through the lodge they can gain an appreciation of what the members are doing. This accompanied by literature for men interested in masonry, and the wise words of the members of the lodge, my hope is to create an understanding in the community of what masonry is. Self Awareness Through several of my talks during the year we will look at the reasons why we joined Masonry and possibly through sharing those experiences we will be better enabled to discuss with non-members the benefits of belonging to the craft. We will discuss and, through sincere reflection, develop the building blocks to our own five minutes on masonry. -Every member should be able to discuss Masonry with a non-member for at least 5 minutes. If you are new and not prepared to have a bigger conversation that is fine, but your 5 minutes need to be enough to peak their interest to be able to bring in the pinch hitter. Broader Awareness Not all Masons will go through the Lodge line of Officers to become the Master. We have a duty to show through leadership that there are many ways a member can be encouraged to contribute to Masonry, being involved on a committee such as Cornerstone, helping to run a Blood Donor Clinics or MasoniChip events. I would like to encourage all lodges to start a phone tree or visitation committee to reach out to the absent brothers. Too often we find out too late that they are in need of benevolence or visitation. In Masonry there is something that speaks to every member, it is their duty to themselves to find that part that speaks to them. it is also the duty of every experienced member to help the new ones to find that part. Only by enjoyment will we truly love Masonry. By building on these three areas, and focusing on building a strong tie between all the lodges, we can hope to be successful and keep our craft alive and well. Thank you. Fraternally, R. W. Bro. Cory McCarthy

Oct 2025

Hamilton Masonic District

Issue No. 2

Brethren, it is a pleasure to address you as the District Deputy Grand Master of Hamilton South District.
First at the direction of the Grand Master all the DDGM’s across the province will continue to focus on R.E.M. Ritual, Education and Mentorship.

Ritual

By always striving to improve your presentation and your memorization. In the last 3 weeks I have visited 7 lodges and in more than one I have seen books open during the Lodge meeting. I have spoken to the members and Worshipful Masters of those lodges and made it clear that this action is not acceptable and should not be happening. Please practice your ritual, Masters call practices to find out if you have a member that needs special help.

Education

In these past 3 weeks I have seen many of the lodges do Masonic education. Sometimes on its own and sometimes in conjunction with a degree. Master’s please make time for Masonic education. If the degree is making a long night, plan something short, if Masonic ed is the work of the evening then plan something longer or 2 speakers on connected topics. From my conversation over the last year and more, it has become clear that there are many men in our District that crave more knowledge in Masonry. It is our duty as leaders to feed that craving and hopefully spark others to research and prepare their own presentation.

Mentorship

This is a plea to the Past Masters and long time Master Masons, your experience is invaluable. Please consider mentoring a member of your lodge. There are 2 groups that need mentors, the new masons and the line officers. We need to cultivate both of these groups, if we are to grow and prosper our Lodges. An officer only sits in a chair for a year, but with guidance and friendship that carries them through all the chairs, he can become a good leader maybe a great one. Young masons need guidance and encouragement to grow and find their place. I can not think of a better legacy than for a Master or a member getting up to speak and having them recognize their mentor.
As most of you are aware my membership in masonry is the continuation of five generations of masons. Those four previous individuals taught me the importance of service to the craft and my community. My hope this year, that I can be a facilitator to build bonds in the lodges of the realigned districts.

The work has already begun; in the South we have reinstated Accompanying Lodges. When choosing which lodge would join me on which Official Visit, I made a concerted effort to have each lodge visit a lodge from a former different district. The plan is to hopefully build new connections. To promote this, the former district “B” Traveling Cane will be given to the accompanying Master to create an opportunity for the Worshipful Masters to interact more as they hand the cane off to the next Accompanying Master.
My goal is to make this year one of bonding and unity. The last thing the district needs to hear is “well in District X this is the way we used to do it”. We need a year of “yes, let’s adopt that tradition” or “have you considered an alternative idea” they both serve the purpose of building our district stronger. However one is divisive the other is inclusive and co-operative. In all our dealings we will need to keep the inclusive and co-operative attitude in mind to make this a successful realignment.
This year we will have the opportunity to write new guidelines and provide each lodge an opportunity to express ideas that are important to them and help lay the ground work for the future leaders of the South District.
From the beginning of my candidacy for District Deputy my desire has been to raise the awareness of Masonry which will consist of three parts;

Public Awareness

Many in our community have little or no information about Masonry. Since our new District covers a wide geographical region I would encourage each of the Masonic Halls to host an Open House or participate in their community Open Doors program. My thoughts are to have some display boards made for each of the officers chairs with the Jewel of the office the name of the officer’s position and a brief description of their duties. Then when visitors are guided through the lodge they can gain an appreciation of what the members are doing. This accompanied by literature for men interested in masonry, and the wise words of the members of the lodge, my hope is to create an understanding in the community of what masonry is.

Self Awareness

Through several of my talks during the year we will look at the reasons why we joined Masonry and possibly through sharing those experiences we will be better enabled to discuss with non-members the benefits of belonging to the craft. We will discuss and, through sincere reflection, develop the building blocks to our own five minutes on masonry. -Every member should be able to discuss Masonry with a non-member for at least 5 minutes. If you are new and not prepared to have a bigger conversation that is fine, but your 5 minutes need to be enough to peak their interest to be able to bring in the pinch hitter.

Broader Awareness

Not all Masons will go through the Lodge line of Officers to become the Master. We have a duty to show through leadership that there are many ways a member can be encouraged to contribute to Masonry, being involved on a committee such as Cornerstone, helping to run a Blood Donor Clinics or MasoniChip events. I would like to encourage all lodges to start a phone tree or visitation committee to reach out to the absent brothers. Too often we find out too late that they are in need of benevolence or visitation. In Masonry there is something that speaks to every member, it is their duty to themselves to find that part that speaks to them. it is also the duty of every experienced member to help the new ones to find that part. Only by enjoyment will we truly love Masonry.
By building on these three areas, and focusing on building a strong tie between all the lodges, we can hope to be successful and keep our craft alive and well.

Thank you.
Fraternally,
R. W. Bro. Cory McCarthy