The Degree Rituals The Supreme Council, 33 ... - Scottish Rite, NMJ

The Degree Rituals
scene drama, with a cast of more than 30 characters, concluding with an epilogue.
The scenes were introduced and linked by a narrator representing a
survivor of the event. To facilitate its presentation, which many Valleys would
find to be challenging and some daunting, the proposed ritual included ample
stage directions, production notes, and scene diagrams explaining that the allegory
was designed to be presented with no scenery and with only limited
stage properties. Thus, modern theater techniques were applied to presentation
of a Scottish Rite ritual.
In 1988, after trial exemplifications, the allegory of “The Four Chaplains”
became the tentative ritual of the 23°. The previous “Sacred Fire” ritual was
assigned to the 5° in the Lodge of Perfection. Eight years later the tentative
ritual, with some modifications, was approved as the 23° Ritual of 1996.
The first complete review of the “Four Chaplains” ritual was a two-year
process undertaken in 2006-08 under the primary responsibility of Ill.
Lawrence D. Inglis, 33°, Active Emeritus Member for Illinois and member
of the Committee on Ritualistic Matters. The review resulted in numerous
and significant revisions, although the dramatic theme and primary lesson
remained intact. The review included research of the historical event on which
the ritual was based, as well as the biographies of the four protagonists and
comments submitted by members across the jurisdiction.
The brief ceremonial opening was eliminated in accordance with the policy
adopted by the Supreme Council in 1995. The prologue was substantially
modified by deletion of the better part of three paragraphs that attempted to
preserve a strained connection with the Old Testament story of the “Sacred
Fire,” which had been the theme of the 23° ritual before its transfer to the
Lodge of Perfection in 1988. References to the “Sacred Fire” which reoccurred
in the allegory also were eliminated.
The quotation on religious toleration in the prologue, from President and
Ill. Brother Truman’s address at the dedication of the Chapel of the Four
Chaplains in 1951, was replaced by observations on fraternal love and selfsacrifice
made in the same address. The latter remarks were considered more
consistent with the primary lesson of the degree. An excerpt from Ill. Brother
Truman’s address emphasizing the lesson of the degree also was added to the
epilogue.
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