Address by RW Bro Alan Englefield, Grand Chancellor at the Quarterly Communication of the United Grand Lodge of England on 12 September 2007

MW Pro Grand Master and brethren, thank you Pro Grand Master for inviting me to address Grand Lodge on the subject of my new office as Grand Chancellor.

From time immemorial – or from at least the 1750s! – Grand Lodge’s relations with our sister Grand Lodges have been managed by a combination of  the Board of General Purposes (and its predecessors), the Grand Master’s advisers and the Grand Secretary. For much of the period up to the late 20th century external relations was a gentle art which took up little time. Occasionally there were explosions of activity – examples being: the decision in 1876 by the Grand Orient of France to drop the requirement that candidates must have a belief in a Supreme Being and to remove all references to the Great Architect from their rituals and the proliferation of new Grand Lodges in Europe with the re – drawing of the map of Europe after the cataclysm of the First World War – but in general it was simply a case of occasionally having to decide whether or not a new Grand Lodge met our standards of regularity and could be recognised as part of the world wide family of Freemasonry.

That all began to change in the second half of the 20th century. After the Second  World War the map of Europe was again re – drawn into the Eastern and Western blocs, leading to a reduction of Freemasonry in Europe when it was forced underground in the Eastern bloc countries. At the same time in what was becoming an increasingly politicised world there was a growth of irregular Freemasonry with bodies springing up claiming to be Masonic but not accepting our Basic Principles, in particular the bar on Grand Lodges or brethren in their Masonic capacities making public statements on matters of religious, political or social policy.

As the oldest Grand Lodge, we in England have had thrust on us the role of being the guardians of regularity and in many ways are expected to police what is regular and what is not – in quiet moments I have wondered if that is why an old Oxfordshire “bobby” has been chosen to be the first Grand Chancellor! Those are not roles that we have sought and we cannot be an international policeman solving problems within and between Grand Lodges. What we can do is to listen and to offer advice from our long experience of external relations, but it is a very fine line between offering advice and interfering in the internal workings of a sovereign body.

Our role as the guardian of regularity came very much to the fore in the 1990s after the demise of the Eastern bloc, the return of democratic institutions in those areas and the resultant, and very welcome, re – establishment of dormant and making of new Grand Lodges in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic States. The huge amount of activity going on in Europe alone brought heavy pressure on the Grand Secretary who had to spend increasing amounts of time dealing with urgent external relations matters, sometimes to the detriment of other maters under his care. A simple statistic brethren: in 1989 we recognised 17 regular Grand Lodges in Europe, today we recognise 34 with another four under consideration!

It was for that reason that the Rulers and the Board of General Purposes took the bold step last year, when the role of the Grand Secretary was under consideration, to relieve him of the pressure of external relations and create the office of Grand Chancellor. The main roles of the Grand Chancellor are to Chair the External Relations Committee; to advise the Rulers, the Grand Master’s advisers and the Board of General Purposes on all matters relating to other Grand Lodges; to ensure that Grand Lodge’s policy on external relations is carried through; and to ensure that all correspondence in this area is dealt with in a timely fashion. As the Grand Chancellor is not a full time employee – I have not yet succeeded in persuading my wife about that! - I shall be assisted by our Director of Communications, John Hamill, and our long term External Relations Adviser, Peter Roberts, who between them will manage the administration on a daily basis and, from their long experience in this area will provide me with valuable background and advice.

The Grand Chancellor will also have the pleasure of assisting the Grand Master and the Rulers in representing Grand Lodge on formal visits to sister Grand Lodges and at international gatherings of regular Freemasonry. I see this as an important part of maintaining and strengthening the close relations with our long established friends and of building close relations with those Grand Lodges which have been recently re – established or have been newly formed in areas where Freemasonry has not existed for many generations. With the revolution in fast communication systems and the ease and reasonable cost of travelling today the Masonic world is coming closer and closer together and intervisitation and the regular exchange of information can only be good for the future of regular Freemasonry in general. I look forward to playing a part in fostering those good relations.

As there seems to be a little confusion over what constitutes External Relations and what role the Grand Secretary will have in Freemasonry overseas, now is perhaps the time to explain. External relations covers our relations with other Constitutions outside our own. They are the responsibility of the Grand Chancellor. Because of our rich heritage England still has over 800 lodges meeting outside these islands under District Grand Masters, Grand Inspectors or being governed directly from London. Although many of them are separated from us by great distances, they are still very much an important part of the United Grand Lodge of England and will continue to come under the jurisdiction of the Grand Secretary and, in normal circumstances, when they are visited by a Ruler the Grand Secretary will accompany them, not the Grand Chancellor. He has already visited Ghana and in the autumn he will accompany the Pro Grand Master when he visits our Districts in India.

There are also areas where the Grand Secretary and Grand Chancellor will work together. During the summer we had our usual tripartite meeting with Ireland and Scotland. Because that meeting involves both practical matters of Craft administration and jurisprudence as well as the discussion of relations between the Home Grand Lodges and other Grand Lodges, both the Grand Secretary and I were present. The same applies with the annual meeting of the European Grand Secretaries and Grand Chancellors. Co – operation between the two of us becomes even more important in those areas overseas in which we share territory not only with Ireland and Scotland but also with a local sovereign Grand Lodge. Although Freemasonry grew out of an operative system for controlling the operative masons Craft, I can promise you brethren, there will be no demarcation disputes between the Grand Secretary and the Grand Chancellor!

We live in challenging times, brethren and Masonic external relations are crucial to the future harmony and stability of Freemasonry on a global level. As many of you will know we are hosting a major meeting in London in November to which we have invited the Grand Masters of all the regular Grand Lodges in Europe. Our intention is to reaffirm those basic principles which have defined our relations with the rest of regular Freemasonry, and to discuss how we can cooperate to ensure the continuance of warm relations throughout. I feel immensely proud and honoured that through the new office of Grand Chancellor I have been invited to be a part of that great task.