Grand Worthy Advisor, Rainbow Girls, and adults of whatever Rainbow relationship, thanks for a chance to meet with you again. 

 

Listening to your registration numbers (and comparing them to your membership numbers,) I can see that North Dakota Masons have a lot to learn from North Dakota Rainbow about responsibility.

 

Last time we spent quite a while doing what so few Masons seem ready to do:  we took a few steps toward the demystification of the Masonic Lodge.  We lifted a corner of the veil of over-secrecy that too many masons enjoyed weaving as a means of keeping their secret Masonic life separate from their community life. 

 

So as a step along the road to helping non-Masons to understand the Craft, we took a look at some of the activities of a Lodge, and some of the natural similarities between The International Order of the Rainbow For Girls and Freemasonry.

 

Next to the Lodge in general, the Masonic apron in particular might be the most misunderstood part of Freemasonry.  To the general public, it is, at best, what the old guys wear to a Masonic funeral. 

 

If one is a Jack The Ripper conspiracy buff, one can try to forge a link between the character called Leatherapron, some of the more gruesome aspects of the murders, and the, on-again, off-again, attempt to link the Ripper with Freemasonry,

 

Bro. Rudyard Kipling, in The Man Who Would Be King, told a tale of how two adventuring Masons wandering the unknown reaches of Kafiristan in the 19th century stumbled across a lost civilization - supposedly a relic of the time of Alexander the Great - and knew at once that they were descended from Freemasons by the aprons they wore.

 

Back to reality.  Twenty-two years ago, before I was honored with this fancy garb [remove it], on the evening that my brother and I were initiated into Freemasonry, our dad presented us our Masonic aprons - also known as lambskins or white leathern aprons [open tube, display Lambskin].  When I die, assuming Mary doesn't just toss me in a dumpster, this apron will be part of the festivities.

 

Simply put, the Masonic apron serves at least three functions; two symbolic, one emblematic.  The last first:  other than the Square and Compasses - which I described in the Masonic Flag tribute - this apron most readily identifies a man as a Freemason.  While wearing it he is reminded that he is representing the fraternity and for the reputation of the Craft in general and himself in particular should always behave responsibly.

 

Symbolically it works on at least two levels.  I say "at least" because diligent research and consideration can always find more meanings in Masonic symbols.  There are the obvious meanings; the meanings we are taught as we first receive our degree work, and there are the meanings that may be so difficult to see that you and I are not going to understand the symbol in the same way.

 

The usual answer to the question; "where do Freemasons come from?" (No, not from the DeMolay, although that is a good answer too), is that we evolved from the guilds of Stonemasons from the great era of European cathedral building.

 

We teach our candidates that we wear these aprons in the manner of our ancient brethren the Operative, or actual, Stonemasons.

 

More importantly, the apron is also known as the lambskin, a reference to the Lamb of God, and we are admonished that its surface of spotless white should ever remind us to behave properly. 

 

This use of a single artifact as both a historical and moral symbol is especially significant in a fraternity that has many duties in relation to the community at large, but is, in reality, the most successful course of personal improvement for men.

 

It is when we are attempting to improve spiritually, to make ourselves better - not better than another, but better than ourselves, that we truly deserve to wear the lambskin as the badge of a Mason.

 

And so, each Freemason has heard something like this:

 

My brother, “Masonry is a song of the human soul.” Along its pathway for centuries, courageous, manly men have trod the Master’s carpet, drawing their inspiration from its sacred treasures of poetry, philosophy, tradition, art, science, history. Backward lies the past, upon whose milestones are inscribed the wisdom of Masonic lore; about us, the transcendent thought and life of men, who today lend dignity and stability to our Craft, while before us lies the future, resplendent with the brightest hope.

At your initiation, and at the very threshold of this Lodge, you were taught that the lambskin was an emblem of innocence and the badge of a Mason. The king wrapped in his purple robes, the judge clothed in his ermine, the statesman crowned with the laurel wreath of fame, as well as he with sunburnt face who earns his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, have each deemed it an honor to wear this emblem of innocence, this badge of a Mason.

To keep alive the memory of this occasion, the brethren of this Lodge have requested me to present you with such an apron.

 

Now the sunlight of hope gladdens your heart and the vigor of health and manhood is pictured upon your countenance, yet on the morrow your eyes may be closed in eternal sleep and then this apron will be laid upon your coffin. But so long as life shall last, my brother, wear it so that no word of reproach will ever come to you, or to the Fraternity which has entrusted it to your keeping.

 

You now know more about the Masonic apron than you really wanted to.  Now, what about the Rainbow apron?

 

Some of you have just completed your Initiation, and been presented with your Rainbow apron.

 

It looks much like a Masonic lambskin, it is even referred to as a lambskin, but with three differences.  The Rainbow Lambskin is obviously much smaller - scaled to fit the wrist rather than the waist.  It has the emblem of your organization upon it - the rainbow, and a five-pointed star.

 

In this one small rectangle you present the symbols of your own Order, the Rainbow, and two of your sponsoring organizations; the five-pointed star for the Order of the Eastern Star, and the apron itself as the emblem of Freemasonry

 

Have you ever wondered why the Rainbow apron is so small?  Maybe it is because otherwise the Pot of Gold would have to be the size of a cauldron to hold it.  Maybe it is because wearing an apron around your waist would ruin the line of your dresses.  Maybe the reason could be as simple as that about 80 years ago when Bro. Sexson developed the Rainbow ritual his thinking was that an apron tied around the waist of a girl would not seem ritualistic, but was instead an every-day piece of clothing.  So he may have decided that one tied around the wrist would be obviously symbolical rather than utilitarian and would make a deep impression upon the girl's mind.

 

Why is it tied with the tape toward the hand?  Is it to remind you that your hands - through service to others - are going to be the means for your eventual discovery of further contents in the Pot of Gold?

 

Sister Charity presents the Lambskin to Sister Faith, who ties it onto the Initiate's wrist.  We learn that the Pot of Gold is a symbol for the heart of the Rainbow Girl, and that it's contents should, therefore, be continually in her mind, so that they will become a part of her heart.

 

During the apron presentation Sister Charity says:

 

Last, but by no means least, we find this miniature lambskin apron, in the center of which is a star.  I give it to you as your own.  It is a sacred symbol that binds.  To your father, if he were a Mason, the lambskin apron was sacred, and though you may never fully know its meaning, it will be dear to you because he loved it, and to him it was priceless. Keep it always.

 

(And some of you have already seen that "always" is meant literally.  Just as the Masonic apron is to be laid on the casket of the deceased Mason, so too the Rainbow apron accompanies the girl during her journey of ultimate discovery.)

 

Sister Charity continues:

 

There are other treasures in the Pot of Gold that you find in a life of Service.  The ones that we have discovered are just a few of the many contained in it.  Keep in mind that the great Fraternity which has sponsored this Assembly has preserved them for you.

 

As Genesis 9 speaks of the bow in the clouds as a reminder of the covenant between God and man, so the Rainbow apron serves as an emblem and reminder of the treasures of the Pot of Gold, the treasures of a Rainbow girls heart, both those explained in Sister Charity's lecture, and those to be discovered only through a life of Service.

 

So we see that, as is to be expected in two organizations so closely linked, the similarities between the Masonic apron and the Rainbow apron are many and the differences few.  For both organizations it is an emblem of membership that should ever remind us of our duties to ourselves, our families, our communities and the world.

 

Thank you for your attention.  I'll try to answer your questions for a few minutes.

 

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