Source: Interlakespectator.com

Posted By Roger Newman

Updated 2 days ago

Thor Stevens (center, front row) was installed last Thursday as master of the Gimli Viking Lodge. He is flanked by fellow masons including David Lodge (front row, far right), the grand master of Manitoba s 47 lodges.

The Viking Lodge No. 175 celebrated 45 years of freemasonry in Gimli with a public installation of new officers last Thursday night at the Shorepointe clubhouse.

Thor Stevens was selected as Worshipful Master, the top officer who will govern the lodge for the coming year. This was the second time around for Stevens. He also served in 1999 as master of Viking Lodge which was established in 1964 with a nucleus of commercial fishermen and Gimli airmen as its first members.

The Gimli masons formed a group a few centuries after the freemasonry fraternal organization was started by the guilds of stone masons who constructed Europe's historic buildings in the Middle Ages. It is an organization of men helping men, based on a belief in a supreme being but no specific religion.

While membership is exclusively male, affiliated masonic organizations, such as the Eastern Star and Jobs daughters, are open to women and young women. Shriners are also part of the masonic fraternity, with the result that 44 per cent of masons belong to both organizations.

David Love, grand master of Manitoba's 47 masonic lodges, was guest speaker at the Shorepointe installation attended by an audience of family and friends.

"Masons belong to an organization where older men teach younger men to be better people," said Love who belongs to Winnipeg's Dormer Lodge. "We support each other when there are difficulties in our lives."

He also said masons often help with needs in the community. As an example, he said Manitoba masons since 1983 have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars towards the purchase of vehicles by the Canadian Cancer Society.

"We have also given countless hours to driving cancer patients to and from their appointments," he said.

Stevens, meanwhile, succeeds Richard Mushrow as master of Viking Lodge. Other newly-elected officers are Ted Zaik, Don Carganillo, Gil Strachan, Baldur Nelson and Alain Dumak. Appointed positions will be filled by Von Mark Dator, Allan Villanueva, Michael Senden, Norman Gudbjartson, Tim Vermaak, Jan Lumasac and Elvin Garcia.

Gil Strachan conducted the installation while Ron Meisner gave a talk on what it means to be a mason.