District Instructor
The THUNDERING 17th Masonic District
Christopher J. Durie
District Deputy Grand Master
My Brothers,
It is an honor to have been
selected by our Most Worshipful Grand Master, Thomas L.
Turlington Jr., to serve as his District Deputy Grand
Master for the 17th Masonic District. I have
worked with many of you over the past two years as
District Instructor, and I look forward to continuing
working with each and every one of you over the course
of this Grand Lodge year.
With the closure of lodges for two
and a half months earlier this year, I know that many of
you are looking to get back to work and seeing old
friends. Many of the lodges will have some work ahead of
them to get caught up on business. I am confident that
all of the lodges in the district will be able to
overcome any challenges that the recent concerns over
the virus have caused and that while part of the year
has been lost, the remainder of the year will be
productive for everyone.
As lodges start to reopen, I plan
on making unofficial visits to some of the lodges in the
month of June as a means of seeing how everyone is doing
and offering my assistance where possible. While I have
not set a schedule for my official visits at this time,
I hope to be able to do some official visits starting in
July. Expect more information in the coming months as to
the status of my official visits.
Finally, our official visit from
the Grand Master will be on Friday, October 9th.
It will be held at Azan Shrine, which registration at
5:30PM and dinner served at 6:30PM. I encourage the
brothers of the district to attend. This year our Most
Worshipful Grand Master will be returning to the format
that MW John Karroum had in his year (with some minor
variations). In other words, there will be no tyled
meeting that night and everything will be handled at the
dinner. This will allow all attendees to hear the
messages from the Grand Line and the Grand Master and
enjoy a night in fellowship.
In closing, my Brothers, I look
forward to the year ahead of us and wish you all well.
As I have stated at my visits so far, as
well as at our Masters and Wardens meetings, in a couple
of months, we will be having the Grand Master's Official
Visit (GMOV) to our district. The event will be held at
Azan Shrine on Friday, October 9th. Check in will start
at 5:30PM and the supper will start at 6:30PM. Our Most
Worshipful Grand Master is going back to the type of
visit that MW Karroum held in 2018, in which there will
only be a dinner and all speeches and presentations will
be done at the dinner. This will allow both brothers and
their guests to hear the messages from the Grand Line as
well as share in the fellowship for the entire evening.
This year, however, due to the ongoing concerns about
the virus, it is required that attendees RSVP. This will
ensure that I have as accurate a head count as possible
so that I do not go over the number of people that we
will be allowed to have in the building. Therefore,
please share this email with the brothers of your lodge.
They will need to RSVP back to me, along with the number
of people in their party, at this email address (cduriepm2013@gmail.com)
by September 25, otherwise I will not be able to
guarantee a spot for them or members of their party.
District School of
Instruction, 1st Wednesdays 6 pm to 9 pm. Harbor City
Masonic Lodge #318 