Council of Deliberation

On Saturday, I attended the New York Council of Deliberation. This is the equivalent of a Grand Lodge session for the New York State Valleys of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.

The morning kicked off with a Leadership Training session presented by Brother Rev. Duane A. Kemerley. His presentation, while not presenting anything that I haven't heard before was interesting and was worth the hour & a half that was devoted to it.

The CoD officially opened following the training session. The usual reports and announcements occured during that hour and then we broke for lunch.

The afternoon began with a presentation of the play "December's Rose" by the Valley of Syracuse. Even though I am a member of this Valley, I had never seen this performed. It was very nicely performed by my local Brethren and should you ever have a chance to see this play done, please go see it.

We then completed the reports, awards and so forth to close out the CoD session. I find that Scottish Rite is a well oiled organization, well, at least my Valley is. It is extremely well run and and accounted for.

The degrees that Scottish Rite offers contain a wealth of esoteric symbolism and lessons. The Lodge of Perfection in particular, logically follows as a "sequel" of sorts to the three degrees of the Symbolic or "Blue" Lodge and runs parallel with those of the York Rite's Holy Royal Arch.