Home Officers Honormen Newsletter Tshiri 2001 Barkerville	The Valley of Bellingham, Bellingham Washington	Feast of Tishri 2001 (Click on photos for larger view of the photo)
		The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is not a religion or connected to any religion, however, the Rite does demand that its members are religious and faithful to their religion. The Rite teaches that a good man can be better by finding that inner strength that God gave us and that a man’s religion is an integral part a man’s search for what things he must do to become a better man.
	Because Scottish Rite Masons are religious and most of us are Christians or Jews who share many of the same beliefs. Certainly the Feast of Tishri is one of those celebrations. The feast of Tishri (also known as the Feast of the Tabernacle) is described in the Old Testament where it is said the Lord spoke to Moses saying that in the fifteenth day of the seventh month when, “ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days….Ye shall dwell in booths seven days….That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:39, 42-43).
		The origins and significance of the Feast of Tishri make it the most Scottish Rite of festivals. Although originally celebrated as a harvest and gathering festival, no other occasion epitomizes the character and purpose of the Rite more wholly than our historic celebration, held in conjunction with the dedication of King Solomon’s Temple (Chronicles 7:8-10). To marshal the meanings of the feast is to summarize the principal ideals and traditions of our Fraternity. (The previous two paragraphs are from, “Forms and Traditions of the Scottish Rite by C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33° Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite.)
	The Valley of Bellingham held its Feast of Tishri and invited Brothers from the Fraser Valley Lodge of Perfection in British Columbia, Canada to join us on October 24, 2001. It was a festive dinner cooked by Gene Gilbert and his wife and we all had a great dinner with good food, good friends and great fellowship that was capped with a speech on the meaning of the Feast of Tishri by Bud Gilbert, our newest 33° Scottish Rite Mason and Past Grand Master of the MW Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Washington.
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