January 11, 2005
Brother Scott Lowery passes away
[This posting was originally made by Chris Hodapp on Hiram's Forum.]
Brother Scott Lowery
It is my very sad duty to report that our friend and brother Scott Lowery has been called to the Celestial Lodge at the age of 37. His mother found him dead in his room Saturday night. Scott had been having terrible leg pains for months, and had been unable to walk without a cane, but in the last few days, he seemed to feel better and put aside the cane. She found him slumped over the computer, and does not know yet whether it was a blood clot or a heart attack.
Scott became a Freemason in 2003 and joined Broad Ripple #643. I exchanged e-mails with him before he joined, and I had the honor and pleasure of presiding over some of his degree work. The one thing Scott enjoyed was that this big, disparate group of men, who might otherwise have been kept at a perpetual distance by their religious and political beliefs, could come together every week and just enjoy each other's company.
There is a very old ceremony for a Lodge of Sorrows, from the mid-1800's. The ritual is no longer used in this form today, but I wish it was. The old words say so much about Scott:
Man judgeth not of man. He whose infinite and tender mercy passeth all comprehension, whose goodness endureth forever, has called our brother hence. Let Him judge.In ancient Egypt no one could gain admittance to the sacred asylum of the tomb until he had passed under the most solemn judgment before a grave tribunal.
Princes and Peasants came there to be judged, escorted only by their virtues and their vices. A public accuser recounted the history of their lives, and threw the penetrating light of truth on all their actions. If it were adjudged that the dead man had led an evil life, his memory was condemned in the memory of the nation, and his body was denied the honors of the sepulcher. But Freemasonry has no such tribunal to sit in judgment upon her dead; with her, the good that her sons have done lives after them, and any evil is interred with their bones...
The good Scott has done shall indeed live after him, in the hearts of his friends and brothers. Please keep his mother Nancy in your thoughts and prayers.
The brethren of Broad Ripple Lodge will perform a Masonic funeral service for Scott this Saturday, January 15th at the Flanner & Buchanan Mortuary in Carmel at 3:00PM. We know that Founder's Day will still be going on, but if you are able, please join us in this final farewell to our friend and brother, and in discharging our duty to his mother.
Posted by Nathan Brindle at January 11, 2005 12:03 PM