Ritual Excellence
Overview
Welcome to the Ritual Excellence Program! This guide will help you to understand the program and serve as a resource for those who would like to partake in the program. There have been many changes since you may have last known about the program and Connecticut DeMolay encourages all its members to participate in this wonderful program. Since the last release of the ritual excellence program there have been some pretty substantial changes. There are now two pathways within the Ritual Excellence Program, the Ritual Knight Pathway, and the Ritual Apprentice Pathway. This guide contains a breakdown of each of the individual pathways, their respective parts lists, and a few commonly asked questions. Be sure to read this in its entirety to best understand how this program works. Good luck and Connecticut DeMolay cannot wait to see what members are ready for this challenge!
Ritual Knight Pathway
The Ritual Knight Pathway is directed to DeMolay members who have exceeded the Ritual Apprentice Pathway. There are four levels to this pathway, Junior Ritualist, Senior Ritualist, Master Ritualist, and Ritual Knight. To move up the levels, members will need to complete a certain number of ritual parts and perform a select few parts publicly.
Official Ritual Knight Pathway Parts List:
| Master Councilor: Initiatory Degree | 4th Section DeMolay Degree | |
| Senior Councilor: Initiatory Degree | Master Inquisitor | |
| Junior Councilor: Initiatory Degree | Senior Inquisitor | |
| Senior Deacon: Initiatory Degree | Junior Inquisitor | |
| Marshal: Initiatory Degree | Jacques DeMolay | |
| 1st Preceptor | Geofrey de Charney | |
| 2nd Preceptor | Lord Constable | |
| 3rd Preceptor | DeMolay Degree Obligation | |
| 4th Preceptor | Flower Talk (Public Presentation) | |
| 5th Preceptor | Mother’s Watch (Public Presentation) | |
| 6th Preceptor | Shield Talk (Public Presentation) | |
| 7th Preceptor | Ceremony of Light (Public Presentation) | |
| Initiatory Degree Obligation |
Junior Ritualist
The first level of this pathway is the Junior Ritualist level. To achieve this rank, DeMolays must complete 4 parts from the Official Ritual Knight Pathway Parts List with a combined word accuracy and presentation score of 85% or higher. The award for this level is one dropdown sword on the ritual excellence pin as well as 5 Beals’ Bucks.
Senior Ritualist
The Second level of this pathway is the Senior Ritualist level. DeMolays must have obtained their Junior Ritualist level before continuing onto this level. To achieve this rank, DeMolays must complete 4 parts from the Official Ritual Knight Pathway Parts List with a combined word accuracy and presentation score of 85% or higher. The award for this level is an additional dropdown sword on the ritual excellence pin as well as 5 Beals’ Bucks.
Master Ritualist
The third level of this pathway is the Master Ritualist level. DeMolays must have obtained their Senior and Junior Ritualist levels before continuing onto this level. To achieve this rank a DeMolay needs to complete a total of 16 parts from the Official Ritual Knight Pathway Parts List with a combined word accuracy and presentation score of 85% or higher. The award for this level is the final third dropdown sword on the ritual excellence pin, 5 Beals’ Bucks and a custom engraved Knights Templar sword!
Ritual Knight
The final level of this pathway is the Ritual Knight level. To become a Ritual Knight, DeMolay’s must complete all the parts from the Official Ritual Knight Pathway Parts List with a combined word accuracy and presentation score of 90% or higher. The award for this level is a Knights Templar engraved shield.
Ritual Apprentice Pathway
The Ritual Apprentice program is directed for the members who have just joined DeMolay and are eager to participate in the Ritual Excellence Program. In this program there is only one stage: the Ritual Apprentice level. Once a DeMolay has passed this level, they can move on to the Ritual Knight Pathway.
Ritual Apprentice
To achieve the one and only level in this pathway, a DeMolay must complete 4 parts from the Official Ritual Apprentice Pathway Parts List with a combined presentation and word accuracy score of 80% or higher.
Official Ritual Apprentice Pathway Parts List:
Master Councilor: Opening Initiatory Degree
Senior Councilor: Opening Initiatory Degree
Junior Councilor: Opening Initiatory Degree
Junior Deacon: Opening Initiatory Degree
Senior Steward: Opening Initiatory Degree
Junior Steward: Opening Initiatory Degree
Master Councilor: Opening DeMolay Degree
Senior Councilor: Opening DeMolay Degree
Commonly Asked Questions
Can the parts I have already done count towards my next level or do I need to learn that many new parts?
In the ritual excellence program when a DeMolay moves up each level in either pathway the parts that they have already been scored on count towards the total necessary part count for the next level. For Example: If a DeMolay just finished learning the 4 parts, they need to reach the Junior Ritualist level in the Ritual Knight Pathway they only need to learn 4 more new parts to have their total of 8 for the Senior Ritualist Level, this means they do not need to learn 8 new parts after receiving their Junior Ritualist award. This works for all levels within the Ritual Knight Pathway.
Does this mean my 4 parts from the Ritual Apprentice Pathway carry over into the Ritual Knight Pathway?
Unfortunately, this is not the case, the Ritual Apprentice Pathway is designed with a parts list that is friendly to new members and none of these parts are on the Official Ritual Knight Pathway Parts List, meaning that they do not transfer over, and you will have to start the Ritual Knight Pathway with 0 parts.
How am I being judged?
In the Ritual Excellence Program each member who wishes to participate will be judged by 2 State Officers. During the judging process the member will face the state officer who will be judging the presentation aspect and will not face the judge who is scoring word accuracy. Your presentation score will be based on your decorum, your ability to perform the ritual clearly, and your ability to clearly convey the important lessons that are in the ritual. For word accuracy you will receive three types of errors; omissions (words you have left out), additions (words that you may have added), and prompts (each prompt is worth three-word errors). After you are done speaking the judges will calculate their scores and average them together to give you your final score. Remember if you do not pass the first time just try again there is no limit to how many times you can attempt any one part.
What is (Public Presentation) and What Does it Mean?
In the order of DeMolay, we have several ceremonies that are typically performed publicly such as the Flower Talk, Mothers Watch, Shield Talk, and Ceremony of Light. It is fitting therefore that in the Ritual Excellence Program those parts are still performed publicly to accurately demonstrate your proficiency and presentation skills. On our parts lists you may have seen that some parts have (Public Presentation) next to them, what this means is that for this part to officially count it needs to be scored and performed publicly. The scoring and judging process is still the same but parts with this requirement only require you to get a combined score of 80% no matter what level you are working towards.
Current Holders of the Master Ritualist & Ritual Knight
Master Ritualist (2015) – Nicholas Carpenter (2015), Michael Gendreau (2015), James Cavanugh II (2015), Andrew Birdsall (2015), Keith Schmidt (2017), Matt Kling (2017), Sebastian Pesquera (2018), Ryan Smith (2020), Dominic Rowland (2021), Matthew Sprouse (2021), Owen Plourde (2022)
Ritual Knight (2021) – Sebastian Pesquera (2021), Dominic Rowland (2021), Matthew Sprouse (2021), Owen Plourde (2023)
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Ritual Excellence Program has changed quite a bit and it would not be possible to answer all your questions with this one guide so if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact any of the state officers or Dad Beals for more information. This program is meant to push your ritual skills to the limit. Do not be discouraged if you have a challenging time moving through the levels, just try again and eventually you will reach your goal. In addition, this program is unique to every member you do not have to complete the whole program. Our best advice to a person currently in the program or just getting started is to set a goal, work towards it and when you reach it evaluate if you’d like to continue in the program. Good luck to you all and we can’t wait to see what great ritualists arise for Connecticut DeMolay.
