05/12/2022
To: Larry Spires, President GGMC
Cc: K. Paige, Secretary, GGMC
Dear Sir, or Brother Mason, as you prefer:
I am presently not recognized by you as a Brother, but for 25 consecutive years prior to an intrusive and divisive action taken by then president of the General Grand Masonic Congress (GGMC), Jerome Woodward we recognized, and respected each other as Brothers. My sense of brotherhood remain and is the reason I refrained all these years from legal action against your GGMC
As you know, attested by the attached letter written by Jerome Woodward, his intrusion in my State of Tennessee clearly violated the Fourth Landmark of Masonry, and the provisions of Chapter II of Mackey’s Jurisprudence of Freemasonry, and Chapter xx Article y of the GGMC Constitution and Bi-Laws.
Granted, our State was jostling over my efforts to get our Grand Lodge to pay its State and Federal IRS taxes neither of which had been paid in 25 years; which is how I and four Worshipful Masters ended up controlling the Corporate name. Had Woodward not interfered, our state issue would have been quickly resolved by the election process at our upcoming scheduled biannual session.
However, as you know Woodward refused to wait out those 90 or so days. Rather he convinced all but four subordinate lodges to abandon The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Tennessee ( MWGL) and re-form themselves as Most Worshipful Grand Lodge, State of Tennessee (MWGLS).
The four remaining subordinate lodges who did not abandon their historic Grand Lodge (MWGL) lawfully retained that existing Grand Lodge, its furniture, and all its properties. The brethren, at our already planned annual session, again elected me Grand Master.
Woodward accused me of attempting a hostile takeover when it was his interference that created two groups. He wrote letters to every member, except me, both male and female instructing them to abandon everything associated with MWGL. Woodward separated us.
He unlawfully seated his hastily formed new group at his session of Congress and forbid the lawfully constituted body from attending.
Masonic scholars will agree that his interference was illegal, he caused irreparable harm creating the infraction, and the separation. Moreover he exasperated his error by denying me and my brethren an opportunity to address the entire body of the Congress, of which as a financial and regular member of 25 consecutive years, I had every right.
I am only now mentally able to publicly express and expose Woodward’s unlawful, un-masonic, hurtful conduct. I am posting and promoting his self condemning letter on social media for all the Masons of the world to see.
Both his actions and those of the unlearned, yet unlawfully seated delegation from Tennessee are perfect examples of clandestine masonry; an ominous title that, absent resolution, will persist on those illegal Masons and on that General Grand Masonic Congress; casting their stench of N-word Masonry throughout eternity.
President Spires, you could choose to continue as you are; unbothered by my discontent and your public image. However my health is failing and I have no desire to leave my jurisdiction eternally tarnished by Woodward so I am offering, President Spires, to cooperate with you to resolve the matter amicably. I have confidence in your integrity and trust that you will do the right thing.
Nonetheless, should you choose to ignore my complaint or you adopt an adversarial position I will seek to hire the best attorneys that I can find and instruct them to sue the GGMC, it’s president, the executive board, every house, every head of house, and every Grand Lodge in the Congress, as all of you are complicit in wronging me, according to Woodward’s letter.
Sir, you know this; The GGMC is nothing more nor anything less than a glorified Masonic Lodge. It opens and closes using the same ritual as every subordinate Masonic Lodge and is therefore governed by the same laws as every Masonic Lodge. Nowhere in any ritual or ceremony from the 1st to the 33rd degree is a lodge allowed to abruptly eject a member in good standing as Woodward did to me. I can’t begin to tell you how painful and embarrassing it has been for me over the years.
He cast me as a heathen but he couldn’t put me out of my own house so he clandestinely removed my house from around me.
I will ask the civil magistrate for a trial by jury which, mason or not, I am entitled to. I will consult with every Masonic Grand Lodge and every Shrine Temple seeking their input as such an unusual trial , should alarm upright Mason and Noble of the Mystic Shrine throughout the country. Your GGMC will be microscopically examined and likely frowned upon for your flagrant disregard for Masonic protocol. You had no right to deny me without a trial.
My idea of a resolution will look something like this:
1. You (or your rep) will present me with a LARGE check for my pain and suffering.
2. You will explain to the Craft - That past president Woodward’s interference was a flagrant violation of the constitution and bylaws of the General Grand Masonic Congress and un-Masonic conduct in general.
3. You will provide copies of and read a written statement officially apologizing to me and my brethren.
4. You will notify all the brothers in our jurisdiction that an election for the office of Grand Master must be held.
5. You will assemble and call the craft to labor, invite me into the already open Lodge, and hand me the Gavel.
6. I will, as the duly elected Grand Master, seat the craft, then immediately declare all offices clear and vacant then return the gavel to you, where you will hold the election.
7. Having placed all relevant documents on the table, I will witness the reuniting of the two factions of my jurisdiction by the election process.
8. After calling back on, you or your representative will lead the Grand Lodge in giving the Grand honors to me as a symbol of my restoration and your apology to me for my years of being shamed.
9. I will make my remarks and then move that the minutes be read and I’ll sit until they are adopted to ensure that the record and my name is clear. Then I will excuse myself and resume my retirement.
10. And you will entertain charges of un-Masonic conduct placed on Jerome Woodward by me.
11. Finally, every member organization of your GGMC should be willing to dig deep to compensate me financially for my years of unjust pain and accumulating expense. The total amount of compensation need not exceed $1,000,000.
- [ ] After I am satisfied, it will be my pleasure to applaud your GGMC publicly as a fair, just and necessary governing body who does not harbor un-Masonic conduct, not even from that of a former President of the GGMC.
Here is my information should you choose to contact me. [email protected] or 429 E Georgia Ave, Memphis TN 38126.
Thank you,
I’ll. Marvie Louis White, 33rd,
Grand Master of Masons of
The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Tennessee AF & AM, Retired.
