Masonic Resource: Paul Bessel's Website

As a follow-up to my previous post Masonic Education Programs Basics, I will be writing a series of articles focusing on various Masonic Resources on the web. These resources should help brothers to get ideas for Masonic Education Programs and to serve as resources for these programs.

One of the best Masonic Resources on the internet is the website created and maintained by Brother Paul Bessel. Brother Bessel is a Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Washington DC and holds a multitude of honors (all of which can be found here). He is an author of a wide variety of Masonic books, articles, talks and papers. His knowledge of the craft is impressive, but his willingness to spread this knowledge to others and to take the time to make this knowledge available on the internet is truly extraordinary.

Since 1998, he has faithful compiled a site that pulls together his original Masonic research, statistics from the Masonic Service Association, information from Grand Lodges around the globe and much, much more. All of this information can be an invaluable resource for Worshipful Masters and other brothers who need to develop a program for a stated communication. Here are just a few papers and articles listed on his site that would make great presentations to a lodge for Masonic Education:

• Freemasonry and Pearl Harbor
  
• Masons at the Battle of Gettysburg
  and the Masonic Friend to Friend Monument
  
• Freemasonry and Judaism
  
• Freemasons & the U.S. Constitution
  
• Paul Revere - His Ride & Associations with Freemasonry
  
• U.S. Capitol Cornerstone Laying Ceremony
  

Overall, this is a great site with lots of information. As a warning, the navigation of the page can be a bit tricky at times and it still has the look and feel of a website from 1998 (No special CSS, social features or anything Web 2.0-like). A brother can literally spend hours or days looking through the site, finding out something new with each click of the mouse. Spend some time there, learn something new and bring it back to your lodge!