This was a home to several Masonic Lodges, a Royal Arch Chapter, a Cryptic Rite Council, a Preceptory, the York Rite College, a chapel of St. Thomas of Acon and the third-oldest Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in the jurisdiction.
This was the North Vancouver Masonic Temple in Canada, one of three Masonic buildings struck by an arsonist yesterday morning.
This was a home, too. This is a different Masonic building, the Lynn Valley Masonic Hall. An arsonist got in there, too.
And this is yet another Masonic building.
This is the Park Lodge Hall in east Vancouver. The arsonist got inside this home, too. It reeks of gasoline. Fortunately, you can see there was vandalism but no major fire. The carpet is fire resistant.
Vancouver Police are reporting the arrest of a man known to them, though not for arson. They didn't reveal specifics.
Picture what it would be like if someone came into your home and destroyed it for some deluded reason. That's what the Masons and the dear ladies of the Eastern Star in North Vancouver are going through.
No Masonic groups are meeting due to Provincial Health regulations to deal with the coronavirus, so no one was hurt. But at the North Vancouver Temple, regalia, warrants, minute books, a museum with artifacts are all gone, never to return.
The Job's Daughters met in what is a now charred pile of wood. The Bethel has been gone for some time, but the members today are reminiscing about their teenage years and all the lifelong friends they made. Masons are reliving old memories.
How do you combat hate? Irrational, ridiculous hate?
There are many in the Craft wondering if there's an answer.
In the meantime, my heart goes out of my many Masonic friends on the North Shore. I trust they will unite and build, just as Masons of yore did, so they can create a new generation of memories.
