Most Worshipful Grand Master, M. W. Past Grand Masters, Distinguished Visitors, past and present Grand Lodge Officers, Brethren, Ladies and guests.

Thank you, Brethren, for electing me to the Grand East. It gives me great pleasure to be able to serve you as Grand Master for the ensuing year.

Freemasonry is capable of bestowing many laurels upon its members, but none so great as that of the Grand Master of Masons of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia.

I am deeply appreciative of the honor you have bestowed upon me, the faith you have displayed in me, the responsibilities you have entrusted to me.

My predecessors have set distinguished examples of leadership; I will strive to live up to their records. Looking at my fine line of Officers, and with the knowledge of the interest and assistance of all the active members of this Grand Lodge, I am confident that I shall have a successful year. This Gavel I now hold in my hand is, to me, not a symbol of authority, but a mark of trust - the trust you have reposed in me to conduct the affairs of Grand Lodge in accordance with your wishes for the ensuing year.

I would like to address a few words to our very junior Past Grand Master, Most Worshipful Grand Master, Dan. May I add my personal thanks to those of the Grand Lodge for the splendid job you have done. I know that your stepping down from the Grand East does not mean that your contribution to the Fraternity will, in any way, diminish. We all look for you to go on to other service for Grand Lodge and to other branches of the Order.

I think that perhaps I am in a better position than most to appreciate the time and talent you have devoted to Grand Lodge during the years you served in the line. Following in your footsteps, I have had the pleasure of working with you through these years, and I know I speak for all the Brethren in saying, thanks for a job well done. Thank you too, Dan, for the guidance and inspiration you have given me personally, particularly during the past year when I was privileged to assist you as Deputy Grand Master. I will feel content if, when next year at this time I relinquish this Gavel, I can feel in my heart that I have done as fine a job as you did in the past year.

My dear Brethren, I hear your cries for change to the Annual Communications of this Grand Lodge and I promise you I will work this year to bring that about so that all Brethren throughout this Jurisdiction wishes are heard. In two weeks time, a special meeting of the Board of General Purposes will be called to receive the new Constitution. This will be sent out to the members during the summer so please give your utmost attention to this Revised Edition.

Most of you in this room are leaders; and what is truly important, you are leaders by election. So, as gently as I can, I suggest that you lead! Lead by setting the example; lead by truly educating your Brethren in the meaning of Freemasonry; lead by allowing others to make use of their God given talents. Some of the best brains in the world are yours to command; some of the noblest spirits; some of the most inspirational teachers - all at your beck and call!

As a leader, it is not your function to ignore these men, and thus make them passive instruments, dull and broken and useless. Rather, you must inspire them to share their nature and their talents in the greatest arena possible.

You must not wait for some command to do good to all. God delivered that command eons ago! Do not surrender to either the fear of innovation or the suffocation comfort of custom and tradition. Freemasonry is not now and never has been static - and thank goodness for that.

Because obeying an immutable law of nature, things that do not change become extinct. And so, each day in each Mason's life, there should be change resulting in growth. As a leader, you must provide that setting for that change and that growth.

Since most of you in this room have been, are now, or will be a Master of a Lodge, I would like to, for just a moment, touch on that leadership position.

Grand Master is a most paradoxical office. It is one of the most absolutes and yet, one of the most limited. While it is certainly the richest in personal gain, it is absolutely the poorest in revenue gain.

If a Grand Master tells you that he doesn't have fleeting thoughts of autocracy, he probably lies. If he doesn't sometimes walk in terror, and does not pray often, he is almost certainly a fool.

At times, he is alone on the desolate mountain of doubt and those he would serve seem not to know him.

Like all positions of leadership, it seems at times you stand alone; and yet, a Grand Master will gather a lifetime of friends from all across this great Country. Of course, he is granted great power, great authority; but he must use it with some caution lest he be a leader with no followers.

I think that we all understand that the knowledge of power is one thing; the use of it is quite another matter.

Whatever your plans are for Freemasonry; you have no choice, you must use the tools at hand - your Brethren and the organization that was so lovingly given by those who preceded you and I understand this. If we lose contact with our Brethren, both past and present, then we are lost, negligent shepherds who in the end will have lost much and done nothing.

Being a leader is never easy and I believe that is particularly true within Freemasonry. We are, after all, each one dedicated to the full limit of our talent and ability to what looks like folly. A folly that seems to offer little hope for a successful completion - and yet, we continue the preparation of a good man to become a better man, and we do that in the midst of a world filled with evil's temptations. I do not have enough facility with the English language to describe how essentially necessary it is that you men, our leaders, continue this work.

For our work is not done, and with support from the Great Architect of the Universe, it will always be ongoing; an act of brotherly love that never ends.

Know this. Where we become defensive, where we hide Freemasonry's Light in the Lodge Room as though it would become tarnished goods because of contact with the world - there we fail, and we should! Where we hold it up as a beacon of hope, a torch of truth and where we boldly proclaim it as relevant to every human life, every human act - there we succeed, and we should!

As we look forward and plan for our future, we must review and remember our past. The study of our past is the key to the pattern of events that will form Freemasonry's future. This is an essential truth because all history shows that the only justification for yesterday and today is the tomorrow that comes from them.

The future I want, the future I'll work for has brotherly love as its capstone. I suppose there are two sides to the coin of brotherly love. The giving side is the one that proves the worth of the original minting. Sadly, the obverse side of giving is taking. I believe that he who constantly takes is the unhappiest, the emptiest of souls, for he has nothing to give.

How sad that is; after all, the only things that cannot be lost to us, that are truly ours, are the things we give away - freely give away. Love has no value, no meaning, until it is given. Freemasonry can never truly belong to you until you have given it to another man.

Here is one of God's greatest miracles - giving actually renews its source; over and over, and at ever greater levels.

How grateful I am that my life has been graced by so many good men, who without thought of recompense or desire for credit gave me the gift of Freemasonry. They gave it freely, willingly. It came with no strings, no demands; only the hope that I would receive it freely, willingly and let it work a miracle in my life.

They were simple men, humble men; neither rich nor clever. Many were uneducated; most were closely connected to the good soil and water of Pleasant Harbour on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.

I'll say it again, they were simple men, and yet how great. Each possessed a spark of greatness and it was that well spring from which came all that they gave to me.

If you good men in this room would truly be the leaders of our gentle craft; then you too must fan that glowing ember of greatness that lies within you - fan it into incandescence, and then - and then you must give it away!

My brothers, I would like to close by telling you a story.

A water bearer had two large pots; each hung on the end of a pole, which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the Master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his Master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived as bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

"I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." "Why?" asked the water bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your Master's house." "Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the Master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful flowers on the side of the path and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again, it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seed on your side of the path, and every day while we walked back from the stream, you watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my Master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."

Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But if we allow it, the Supreme Architect of the Universe will use our flaws to grace His table. In God's great economy, nothing goes to waste. So, as we seek ways to minister together, and as the Supreme Architect calls you to the tasks He has appointed you, don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and allow Him to take advantage of them, and you, too, can be the cause of beauty along the pathway of life.

June 2008