Protected Homes of America
Initiation Ritual
Opening Ceremonies
1897
The President clothes himself in appropriate regalia or badge and assumes his
station.
President, *: The Home will be in order. All persons not entitled
to sit with us please retire. Watchman, please come forward and give me the
passwords.
Watchman gives passwords, retires to the altar and salutes.
Watchman, the outer door is in your charge; permit no one to enter who is not
in possession of the annual password, unless otherwise instructed by the
Sentinel.
Watchman, salutes: You directions shall be obeyed.
President: Guide, examine those present and ascertain if all
present are qualified to remain. The Companion will assist the Guide.
The President fills vacant stations while the Guide and Companion take up the
passwords. After all have been examined the Guide and Companion return to the
altar, salute, and say:
Guide: Worthy President, I find all persons on the right qualified
to remain.
Companion: Worthy President, I find all persons on the left
qualified to remain.
They return to their stations.
President: Officers and members, you will please be attentive to
the opening exercises. Past President, what is your duty?
Past President, arises, salutes and says: It is my duty to give
counsel and advice, and have charge of the literary and other entertainments of
the Home.
President: Vice President, what is your duty?
Vice President, stands and salutes: It is my duty to have charge
of the inner door, assist you in preserving order, to aid in conducting the
initiatory ceremonies, and preside in your absence.
President: Chaplain, what is your duty?
Chaplain, stands and salutes: It is my duty to conduct the
devotional exercises of the Home, administer the obligation, and assist in
conferring the degree upon the candidates.
President: Secretary, what is your duty?
Secretary, stands and salutes: It is my duty to keep accurate
minutes of the proceedings of the Home, to draw and attest all orders on the
Treasurer and conduct the correspondence, collect all monthly payments and dues,
and such other duties as the laws require.
President: Treasurer, what is your duty?
Treasurer, stands and salutes: It is my duty to hold the funds of
the Home and pay all orders signed by the President and attested by the
Secretary.
President: Guide, what is your duty?
Guide, stands and salutes: It is my duty to have charge of the
regalia and paraphernalia of the Home; to superintend initiation and perform
such other duties as the President may direct.
President: Companion, what is your duty?
Companion, stands and salutes: It is my duty to assist Guide in
conducting the candidates during initiation, collect the ballots, and perform
such other duties as you may direct.
President: Sentinel, what is your duty?
Sentinel, stands and salutes: It is my duty to attend the inner
door, and permit no one to enter without the permanent password of the Order,
unless so directed.
President: As the presiding officer of this Home, it is my duty to judge
impartially of every transaction, and endeavor to inculcate the principles of
Peace, Hope and Protection.
Call the Home to its feet with * * * and the following is sung:
Now God, upon us look,
As we a blessing brook
From Thee once more.
Aid us while meeting here,
May good results appear;
And Thee we’ll praise and cheer,
On you bright shore.
President: We will now unite with the Chaplain in repeating the
Lord’s prayer.
Prayer.
President: I now declare the Home open for business. *.
Initiation
Officers should memorize their parts.
Guide and Companion will place the open Bible on the altar in center of room.
President: Guide and Companion, retire to the reception room and
prepare the candidates for initiation. The Secretary will accompany you.
The Guide, Companion and Secretary advance to the altar, salute and retire.
Guide, addressing candidates: Do you seek admission to our Order
through any motive other than the benefits and privileges it bestows?
Candidate answers.
Secretary, addressing candidates: Our rules prescribe that certain
fees must be paid, the amount of which is $ …. You will please settle the same
and I will give you a receipt therefore.
Guide: Secretary, you will report to the Home that the candidate
is qualified for the degree.
Secretary advances to the inner door, gives * * * and the Sentinel opens the
wicket and calls in a loud voice:
Sentinel: Who is there?
Secretary: A returning officer.
Sentinel admits the Secretary, who advances to the altar, salutes and says:
Secretary: Worthy President, a candidate qualified for the degree
is in waiting.
President: Secretary, you will assume your station, and the
Sentinel will report the Guide that all is ready.
The Guide and Companion will advance to the inner door with the candidate and
give * * *.
Sentinel: Who comes there?
Guide: Returning officers with a candidate.
Sentinel, addressing Vice-President: Vice President, returning
officers with a candidate who desires to learn the lessons of Peace, Hope and
Protection, seeks admission.
Vice President: Admit them.
The Sentinel obeys and the Guide and Companion conduct the candidate to the
Vice President’s station and the Guide says:
Guide: Before you stands a candidate who seeks for himself and
those dear to him, the benefits and privileges of The Protected Homes of
America.
Vice President: Friend, you have chosen well. But you are yet to
learn the duties, privileges and benefits of this Order. Guide, present the
candidates to the Chaplain for obligation.
The Guide will conduct the candidate around the room and face Chaplain’s
station while the following is sung:
‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
A charm through the skies seem to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home,
There’s no place like home.
An exile from home, splendour dazzles in vain:
Oh, give me my lovely thatched cottage again!
The birds singing gally, that came at my call;
Home, home, sweet, sweet home,
There’s no place like home.
At the end of the song the Chaplain repairs to the altar and the members all
form a circle around.
Guide: Chaplain, there stands before you a friend who is ready for
the obligation.
President gives * * *.
Chaplain: Friend, before going further, our Order requires from
you a solemn promise. This promise will not conflict with either your religious
belief, or your duties as a citizen. With this assurance are you ready to
proceed?
Candidate answers.
Then please lay your right hand on the open Bible and repeat after me: I, …,
in the presence of these witnesses, do of my own free will and accord, most
solemnly promise that I will comply with all the Rules and Regulations
established by the Supreme Home of the Protected Homes of America or subordinate
Home of which I may become a member, so far as they do not conflict with my
civil or religious liberty. That I will hold allegiance to said Supreme Home,
and be loyal thereto, as the Supreme authority of the entire Order. I will not
defraud or wrong any department of this Order, or any member thereof, or suffer
it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent. I will never introduce
anything of a political or sectarian character at any meeting, or in any way
bring reproach upon the Order. I will never improperly communicate to any one
any of the words, signs or tokens, now ill I reveal anything that may transpire
during my initiation. I will protect worthy members from slander, defamation and
injury to the best of my ability, and will hold in preference and honor all true
members of this Order, and will consider this obligation as binding out of it as
in it. Should I fail in this, my solemn obligation, I hereby consent to be
expelled from this fraternity.
Chaplain: My friend, you have taken this solemn obligation; will
you faithfully abide by it?
Candidate answers.
The Members in unison: We are witnesses of your solemn obligation.
President: Guide, conduct the candidate to the Vice President’s
station, there to be instructed in the lesson of Peace.
The members in the circle will retire to their seats, the Chaplain will
return to his station, and the Guide and Companion will conduct the candidate
around the room to Vice President’s station.
Guide: Vice President, I present to you this candidate to be
instructed in the lesson of Peace.
Vice President: My friend, when the wealth of human language was
explored, to find the most fitting term in which to epitomize the greatest and
grandest of all characters ever known among men, the phrase chosen was
"Prince of Peace." Strife is confusion, peace is harmony; war is
destruction, peace binds together, builds up and perpetuates; one finds its root
in ambition and hate; the other in self-sacrifice and love. War is like a fire
that wrathfully consumes the underbrush and stubble. Peace breathes upon the
soil left bare by the tide of destruction, and lo! it brings forth grasses,
fruits, grains and flowers. Civilization is the product of Peace. It has brought
forth art, science, and a feeling of tender kinship. When it vanished men grow
savage and barbarous. Because war has frequently preceded great reforms it has
been extolled. But war does not enlighten; it is the resistance ignorance offers
to progress. Peace is the sweet sunshine storm and wreck. It is the practical
expression of a love too deep and broad to be raffled by turmoil and disaster; a
love that blends all the seeming discords of time in an anthem of grandest
praise to the Infinite. When the "White Dove of Peace" shall bear the
olive branch to every nation, tribe and tongue, it will be the herald of the
grandest era of progress the world has ever known. The progress of the world in
civilization, and in the onward march toward the adoption of a wiser, kindlier
philosophy of life, has been marked by evidences of a constant tendency toward
harmony and universal good feeling between man and his brother. True progress
means improvement. True betterment tends toward an universal peace. Even he who
has in his heart no true philanthropy, will, if he is wise, strive to live at
peace with all men. St. Paul, speaking from the standpoint of enlightened common
sense, as well as that of the simplest, strongest manner when he said: "If
it be possible, as much as in you lieth, live peacable with all men." Peace
is great. Its adoption means a conformity of men’s lives to the principles of
the golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye
even so unto them."
President: Guide, conduct the candidate to the Chaplain’s
station to receive the Lecture of Hope.
Guide: Worthy Chaplain, I present you this candidate to receive
the Lecture of Hope
Chaplain: My friends, hope is all that makes life worth living.
The present is never supremely happy. The future is so only as it is illumined
by the ruddy light of hope. It is hope that makes youth one long happy dream,
full of imaginary triumphs and achievements. It is hope that forms the very
heart and soul of parental love. It is naught but hope that inspires the teacher
in the daily routine of imparting knowledge to the growing intellects beneath
his care. And greatest of all, it is hope, nothing but the strongest, purest and
most unselfish hope, that upholds the one about to pass from this world that he
knows, to another that he knows not, that those near to him in this life and
those dependent upon him for the necessaries of earthly existence may enjoy,
through his foresight and provision, a life free from physical want and mental
anxiety over temporal things. And it is the hope of meeting again this generous
one, that upholds the mourner in the hour when, without hope, the heart would
break. Hope nerves each toiler’s arm, inspires each weary mind, sustains each
sinking heart, and as the shadows of death approach, what is it but hope that
draws back the veil of the great future and reveals the light of immortality
gleaming brightly upon the boundless shores of eternity.
President: Guide, you will present the candidate to the Past
President.
Guide: Worthy Past President, by direction of the President I
present you this candidate.
Past President: My friend, peace and hope without protection would
be impossible. Peace comes only from ample protection, and the strongest hope
lives in the soul most tranquil. The first thing a babbling infant knows is the
protection of parents. Beneath such protection alone is fostered the courage to
go forth and do bravely and manfully the battles of life. The first thing
citizens learn is the protection of a strong and sturdy government, the arms of
whose laws are ‘round about them, sheltering the life, liberty and property of
themselves, after knowing the solicitous care of their parents in youth, and
still existing under the protection of their government, upon them falls the
very highest and gravest responsibility. Life is full of dangers that threaten
to put out the vital spark, and no one can say with assurance "tomorrow I
shall be alive." Upon those of affairs, those of family, those who have
relations dependent upon them, devolves the important and no longer disputed
duty of providing for the welfare of those dependent ones, and of protecting
them against the ravages of want and degradation in the event that their natural
and responsible protectors should be removed by the remorseless and irresistible
hand of death. This protection appeals to all that is highest, noblest, purest
and most unselfish, and those who have satisfied their consciences along this
line can rest peacefully in the assurance that they have done one God-like act.
Guide, conduct the candidate to the President for final instructions.
Guide: Worthy President, by direction of the Past President, I
present you this candidate for the final instructions.
President: My friends, you have been obligated in this Order, and
have listened to the beautiful lessons by our worthy Vice President, Chaplain
and Past President, and if you will take these lessons to your heart, we feel
assured that your admission into our Order will not disturb the peace and
harmony of our Home and that your conception of the sentiments embraced in the
lessons of Peace and Hope will be greater than ever before, and as the Past
President has said, that the protection this Order will furnish to those
dependent upon you , will satisfy your conscience and you will feel that you
have done your duty toward them.
I will now proceed to instruct you in the unwritten work of the Order, as
follows:
1. Desiring to enter the Home, you will give … of … at the outer door.
The watchman will open the wicket and you will give him the password of the
current term in full, and he will open the door and permit you to enter. After
clothing yourself in the proper regalia, you will give … at the inner door,
and the Sentinel will respond with … and will open the wicket, and you will
give him your name and the Home to which you belong. He will close the wicket
and report you to the Vice President, who will direct that you be admitted, if
correct. He will re-open the wicket and you must give him the permanent password
of the Home, …. If correct, the Sentinel will admit you, and you will advance
to the altar by right angles and salute the President with the salutation sign
of the Order, who will respond with the answer to it. You will then be seated.
Desiring to leave the Home before it is closed, you will advance to the altar by
right angles from wherever you may be seated and address the President with the
salutation sign, who will respond with the answer, and the Sentinel will then
permit you to depart.
2. The annual password will be given to you by the President of your Home, or
by his direction, at any time you may be entitled to it. This password is used
at the outer door and is also taken up by the Guide and Companion in examination
prior to opening. It is changed annually by the Supreme President and sent to
the President of the Homes by the Supreme Secretary.
3. The permanent password of the Order is …, and is used at the inner door
and is also taken up by the Guide and Companion in the examination prior to the
opening of the Home.
4. The salutation sign is made …, signifying Peace. The answer is made …,
signifying Hope.
5. The recognition sign is made …, and the answer is made ….
6. The sign of distress is made …, and the answer is made …. The words
used when the sign cannot be seen are …, and the answer to it are the words
….
7. Grip. With the right hand, grasp a brother or sister’s right hand ….
8. The voting sign is … and in ballot, white balls elect and black balls
reject, or white balls say yes and black balls say no.
9. The gavel is used by calling the Home to order, calling it to its feet and
in seating it. … calls the Home to order. … calls the Home to its feet. …
seats the Home.
My friends, having been obligated, lectured, and instructed in the unwritten
work of the Order, I now, by authority of the Supreme Home of The Protected
Homes of America, declare you fully entitled to all the rights and privileges of
initiated members of The Protected Homes of America, and may you ever be
animated by the principles of Peace, Hope, and Protection, and we hope your
conduct will offer no reproach to the Order of which you are now a member.
Guide, you will please seat the new members.
Closing Ceremonies
President: Secretary, is there any further business to offer?
Secretary not responding, the President will say: Officers and
members, we will now leave this place of meeting and I hope we can do so with
the feeling that we have been benefited by our attendance here, and that for the
success and prosperity of our Order we will work together. Let us sing our
closing ode:
May peace her white wings spread above
Each member of this noble band.
Oh, guide and guard us with Thy love
Where e’er we roam on sea or land.
President: Officers and members, you will be attentive while the
Chaplain offers prayer.
Chaplain: Heavenly Father, we ask that thy blessings rest upon all
that we have done this evening. May it redound to thy honor and glory. Bless the
sick and afflicted of our Fraternity throughout the land, and may our Order
dwell in harmony and peace. Amen.
President: Guide, you will collect the Rituals and Odes, and see
that all property is put away. I now declare this Home closed. *.