Fraternal Greetings: Pythian and Masonic Leadership Meet in Missouri

Grand Chancellor Jordan Brizendine, Knights of Pythias of Missouri, clasps hands of fraternal greetings with MWB Emmett Bryson, Grand Master of Missouri AF & AM.

Grand Chancellor Jordan Brizendine, Knights of Pythias of Missouri, had the pleasure of greeting Most Worshipful Grand Master Emmett J. Bryson, AF & AM, during the latter’s informal visitation to California Masonic Lodge #183 A.F. & A.M. in California, Missouri, on the evening of October 14th, 2025. GC Brizendine was pleased to deliver a letter of fraternal greetings to MWB Bryson, as well as an application and brief history of the Pythian Order, which the two leaders agreed should lead to cooperation and collaboration in the Missouri Domain to the benefit of each. Freemasonry precedes Pythianism in Missouri by several decades; the first Masonic lodge in the Show Me State was instituted in 1807 in Ste. Genevieve, and the first Missouri Pythian lodge was chartered in 1870 in Kansas City. Likewise, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Missouri was founded in 1821, and the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias of Missouri, was founded fifty years later in 1871. It is nonetheless remarkable that the two fraternities have their respective roots in Missouri within a single lifetime, and one may imagine the good work and advancement that will come from renewed relations between the Missouri Grand Lodges in the years to come.