Quarterly Communication Speeches

April 2013 - Pro Grand Master’s Address

ANNUAL INVESTITURE

24 April 2013

An address by the MW The Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

I congratulate all those of you that I have had the pleasure to invest today. This is, I hope, a memorable occasion and an important milestone in your Masonic life. I trust that you will carry your Grand Rank with humility and continue to support your fellow members to the best of your ability.

I have consistently stressed both the importance of recruiting high quality candidates and then ensuring that they understand what masonry stands for and how enjoyable it can be. If we are successful in this we stand every chance of retaining them. Clearly good mentoring plays a key part in retention and here I see all Grand Officers playing a significant role.

Continue reading April 2013 - Pro Grand Master’s Address…

March 2013 - Pro Grand Master’s Address

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

13 March 2013

An address by the MW The Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

I have recently finished the two yearly Regional Conferences that I have with Provincial Grand Masters. These are relatively informal affairs and cover a wide range of subjects. I find them extremely useful and they are kind enough to say the same – but, of course, what else could they say!

One theme that ran through them all was a determination to see our numbers on the increase by 2017. Indeed, in one or two cases, this has already started. This means that perhaps we are getting some things right.

I have said frequently that we must not be looking for new candidates simply for the sake of increasing numbers, but if we can start this increase with the right candidates there should be a knock on effect.

Continue reading March 2013 - Pro Grand Master’s Address…

March 2013 - ‘The Ruspini Legacy’

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

13 March 2013

An address by VW Bro Mike Woodcock, President, and W Bro Les Hutchinson, PAGDC, Chief Executive, Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys

‘A celebration of 225 years in supporting children by the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys’

Brethren,

Brethren, on the ceiling frieze above the senior warden’s chair, is an image of Pythagoras. It reminds me that the antient Knights of Pythagoras had a saying “that a man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child”. Today, we want to tell you about a freemason who put that saying into action by creating the first central masonic charity 225 years ago.

Continue reading March 2013 - ‘The Ruspini Legacy’…

December 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

12 December 2012

An address by the MW The Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

I have recently finished the two yearly Regional Conferences that I have with Provincial Grand Masters. These are relatively informal affairs and cover a wide range of subjects. I find them extremely useful and they are kind enough to say the same – but, of course, what else could they say!

One theme that ran through them all was a determination to see our numbers on the increase by 2017. Indeed, in one or two cases, this has already started. This means that perhaps we are getting some things right.

I have said frequently that we must not be looking for new candidates simply for the sake of increasing numbers, but if we can start this increase with the right candidates there should be a knock on effect.

Continue reading December 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address…

‘Still Yet more of our Yesterdays’

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

12 December 2012

A speech by VW Bro Graham Redman, Assistant Grand Secretary, and VW Bro John Hamill

GFR: MW Pro Grand Master and Brethren, a year ago we left the Antients or Atholl Grand Lodge on the receiving end of a stiff letter of complaint from the Moderns Grand Lodge at the lack of progress towards a Union. The Minutes of the Antients for March 1812, record:

Ordered that six hundred pounds three Percent Consolidated Bank Annuities be purchased in the names of the Trustees, viz. R. Bros. Thomas Harper, James Agar, William Comerford Clarkson and James Perry Esq. in trust for the Charity funds of the Grand Lodge.

Ordered that the Masters and Wardens of the Lodges in and adjacent to London and Westminster do and shall forthwith make out and deliver to the Secretary a list of all and every of the Past Masters entitled to sit and vote in Grand Lodge, with the dates when they respectively served the office of Master and that a printed circular letter be issued for such return and to be filled and returned in thereon.

Continue reading ‘Still Yet more of our Yesterdays’…

September 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

12 September 2012

An address by the MW The Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

It has been an exciting, if somewhat wet, summer throughout the country and I trust you have all come back refreshed for the new Masonic season.

I have just started the first of four regional business meetings with Provincial Grand Masters. Clearly this is an ideal opportunity to talk about the current initiatives we are all involved in and to share thoughts and ideas. Importantly, we are all united in our mutual commitment to recruit and retain the best people – men of quality.

As the Masonic fraternity is a single, indivisible fellowship which is neither divided nor affected by local or national boundaries within our Constitution, the word united is extremely appropriate – not only for what we are all doing together today – but especially as we move forward to our three hundredth anniversary celebrations in 2017.

Continue reading September 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address…

‘Assuring the Future of Freemasonry: Making the Craft Relevant to all Generations’

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

12 September 2012

An address by W Bro CE Lord OBE PAGDC and W Bro JR Soper PAGDC

Most Worshipful Pro Grand Master and Brethren,

As the National and the London Chairmen of the Universities Scheme, we were honoured to be asked to give thought to this crucial topic of how we make the Craft relevant to all generations.

Recruitment and retention of members is a key theme that every lodge has high on its agenda and it is important whether a newly made Brother joins us aged eighteen, twenty eight, forty eight or sixty eight!

Inevitably, our own focus has been looking at how we can include younger men in masonry as not only is that the role of the Universities Scheme, but it is also a reasonable proposition that if we can encourage men to join and develop a love of the Craft in their twenties, then we can hope to keep them throughout their lives, …
Continue reading ‘Assuring the Future of Freemasonry: Making the Craft Relevant to all Generations’…

June 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

13 June 2012

An address by the MW The Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

I am pleased that we have had the opportunity today of acknowledging and celebrating, as Freemasons, the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen. Our association with members of the Royal family over the years has always been of great importance to us, not least the privilege of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent being our Grand Master.

Continue reading June 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address…

‘Royal Jubilees and Loyal Freemasons’

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

13 June 2012

An address by RW Bro Dr JW Daniel, PJGW

MW Pro Grand Master, Distinguished Visitors, and Brethren

The last year in which the loyal freemasons of the English Constitution had occasion to celebrate a royal diamond jubilee was 1897. You will recall, however, that in the Charge after Initiation we are enjoined
‘to be exemplary in the discharge of our civil duties…above all, by never losing sight of the allegiance due to the Sovereign of our native land…’
Of course, we demonstrate that allegiance at every masonic banquet when we honour the loyal toast to ‘The Queen’ – indeed, I doubt if there is any other organisation in Her Majesty’s dominions that has drunk her health more often over the last 60 years.

Continue reading ‘Royal Jubilees and Loyal Freemasons’…

June 2012 - The Freemasons’ Grand Charity

Annual General Meeting

13 June 2012

An address by the President of the Grand Charity, Richard Hone, QC, and the Chief Executive, Laura Chapman

PRESIDENT (Richard Hone, QC):
Deputy Grand President and members, welcome to what for the Grand Charity is its 32nd Annual General Meeting, and which is my first as President, after serving nine years on the Council between 1997 and 2006. I want to start by paying tribute to the work of my predecessor, Grahame Elliott, who in his six years of office saw the 25th and 30th anniversaries of the founding of The Grand Charity.

Continue reading June 2012 - The Freemasons’ Grand Charity…

April 2012 - Grand Master’s Address

ANNUAL CRAFT INVESTITURE

25 April 2012

An address by the MW The Grand Master HRH The Duke of Kent, KG

Brethren,

I start by congratulating most warmly all those whom I have had the pleasure of investing today. To attain Grand Rank in the Craft is a very high accolade of which you can feel justly proud. This promotion does, however, come with an obligation always to set the highest example in standards of integrity, honesty, and fairness wherever you are.

Among those I have appointed to acting office are the new Grand Chancellor, the President of the Grand Charity and the Deputy President of the Board of General Purposes, and I want to take this opportunity of thanking their predecessors.

Continue reading April 2012 - Grand Master’s Address…

March 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

14 March 2012

An address by the MW The Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

In December I mentioned that one of the many important aspects of mentoring was to give guidance to our members about how to talk about their involvement in Freemasonry, and Freemasonry generally, to those not involved, particularly their family and friends.

Very often one will be asked how one came to join Freemasonry. We will all have different stories to tell, no doubt, but in most cases it will have been knowing people who are masons and showing an interest in and asking questions about the subject, which naturally leads to the answer, “if you are interested why not come and see”.

Continue reading March 2012 - Pro Grand Master’s Address…

‘Freemasonry and the Media’

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

14 March 2012

A speech by the VW The Grand Secretary Nigel Brown and Jessica Bondy

NB: Most Worshipful Pro Grand Master and Brethren,

I am delighted to introduce Jessica Bondy to those of you who do not already know her. She is our public relations adviser and has been working closely with us on our communications strategy. Put it another way: she probably knows more of what we are all about, and what our aims are, than any other non Mason!

Continue reading ‘Freemasonry and the Media’…

OSM citation for RW Bro Dr. Roeinton Burjor Framji Khambatta

QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION

14 March 2012

Order of Service to Masonry citation for RW Bro. Dr. Roeinton Burjor Framji Khambatta

Bro. Roeinton Khambatta, who was born in September 1924, was made a Mason in Lodge Zoroaster, under the Scottish Constitution, and in 1965 joined our Lodge Faith, No. 2438. That Lodge (then meeting in Karachi in the District of Punjab) was also his father’s and his grandfather’s Lodge. In the Royal Arch he was exalted in Chapter Faith and Charity, under the Scottish Constitution, and joined our Faith Chapter, No. 2438, in 1966.

He had a swift rise in the District of Punjab, which was renamed Pakistan in 1967, and in 1970 was installed as District Grand Master and Grand Superintendent.

Continue reading OSM citation for RW Bro Dr. Roeinton Burjor Framji Khambatta…