Supreme Grand Chapter

At the Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter on Wednesday, 10 November, significant changes to the working and administration of the Royal Arch were agreed.

The votes in Grand Chapter were the culmination of a two year process of consultation during which many Provinces, Chapters and individual Companions and the various governing bodies of the differing Royal Arch workings made valuable contributions and comments which greatly assisted the Royal Arch Strategic Working Party and its Ritual Committee in their deliberations and consequent recommendations.

The motions agreed in Grand Chapter fell into two groups: those relating to ritual and those affecting administration.

The ritual changes agreed were:

(a) that all references to the Royal Arch being the completion of the Master Mason's degree be removed from the ritual
(b) that the traditional dates attributed to the three Original Grand Lodges be removed from the Historical Lecture; and
(c) that Chapters be permitted to use the additions and variations to the ritual of the Royal Arch and the Lectures of the Three Chairs set out in the Annex to the paper of business.

Changes (a) and (b) are mandatory and take effect immediately. Change (c) is optional and it is up to each Chapter to decide whether or not it wishes to use the revised Lectures, continue with the traditional versions or "mix and match" from both sets.

The approved variations to the ritual and the Lectures were printed as an Annex to the paper of business and were circulated to all Grand Officers and the Scribe E of each Chapter.

The major administrative change is the removal of the requirement that a candidate for the Third Principal's Chair must be an Installed Master in the Craft. The Royal Arch Strategic Working Party believed, and Grand Chapter by its vote agreed, that the Installed Master's qualification was an artificial barrier to progress within a Chapter. Its removal does not mean that a Master Mason is automatically entitled to become Third Principal, and the change does not remove the overriding necessity for the senior members of the Chapter to exercise their judgement before recommending anyone for such a promotion.

The administrative changes also included a new provision regarding petitions for new Chapters. Historically a petition for a new Chapter had to be recommended by a Craft Lodge, whose number, and except in exceptional cases, name, the new Chapter would bear. The amendment to Royal Arch Regulation No. 45 now allows for a petition for a new Chapter to be proposed by an existing Chapter, and it will also be possible for a Chapter which becomes detached from its sponsoring Lodge for any reason to remain unattached if it so chooses.