Ronald A. Seale, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander

We must value the past, but we cannot live in it nor allow it to
blind us to today and the future.

One of the joys of serving as your Sovereign Grand Commander is the daily opportunity to work in our magnificent building in Washington, D.C. Though I have visited the House of the Temple many times, I was never in the building long enough at any one time to really look around and absorb the beauty and significance of this magnificent edifice which is the headquarters of our Order.
It is good to be here, and, as I explore, I find that new discoveries daily await me. I have climbed the narrow catwalk of stairs that zigzag up to the skylight 100 feet above the Temple Room, and I have poked around the boiler room and the lower-level archival vaults. Gradually, I am learning my way around, and I am beginning to feel comfortable. This can be a mixed blessing. Feeling comfortable and “at home” allows one to relax and let the creative juices flow, but being too comfortable can lead to complacency and the temptation to let one day, month, or year pass into the next while doing what’s always been done with a false sense of security that Scottish Rite will continue to prosper in the future without the need for any significant change of course or direction.
My expeditions in the House of the Temple have refreshed my awareness of the glory of our past. There are wonderful treasures here! The Albert Pike Museum, the Americanism Museum, our magnificent Library, and ornate ceremonial rooms, to name a few, all call us to a remembrance of our glorious Masonic history and heritage.
The history of Masonry, Scottish Rite in particular, is rich, and I am proud to see it so beautifully presented and preserved in the House of the Temple. As I made my way through the building one day, however, it occurred to me that we take great pride in presenting what we have done and who we have been in years gone by, but we equally must be concerned with telling the next chapter in our story. It’s about who we are now and what we are doing in these times of ours. Critically, we must also tell the story of who we plan to be in the future and what we plan to do. If not, we will lose our sense of direction, our vision, and our reason for being. We must value the past, but we cannot live in it nor allow it to blind us to the needs and issues present today and to those issues certainly to arise in the future. The key to our success is a positive tension between past, present, and future.
Make no mistake. We can and should look to the past. It offers us solid traditions, sound values, and inspiration. But we can and must work in the present. Today’s challenges need today’s solutions. If we do not make Masonry a vital part of the contemporary world, our Craft will suffer as a result of our inaction and lack of vision and be remembered as a curious phenomenon that probably meant well but never really connected with practical needs and real issues.
Although we are called upon to use our past as a foundation, we are equally charged to build for today so that the Craft will exist for others tomorrow. How will we do this? Where to start? How to reach younger men and their families? These are some of the questions that the 2004 Leadership Conferences are addressing as their agenda. As you read this issue of the Journal, some of these Conferences will have concluded. I hope to have the opportunity to personally greet you at these Conferences and to find new ways to energize and expand our Fraternity.
Frequent trips to Valleys throughout the Southern Jurisdiction are central to my vision of leadership for our Fraternity, and I have already visited a number of Orients since my election. These events provide me with the opportunity to meet the Brethren one-on-one and to get a firsthand understanding of local conditions.
I find these meetings to be very uplifting experiences. Masons are great optimists with an unshakable belief in the future of our Craft. They join with me in proclaiming “The Best Is Yet To Be.”
I look forward to working with you as we labor upon the behalf of our beloved Scottish Rite.