The Toast is the Gavel and Staff Lodge

A new lodge that proved to be the toast of Freemasons’ Hall in London was consecrated by the Metropolitan Grand Master Lord Millett – Gavel and Staff Lodge No. 9835.
     There were 740 masons present from all over the UK, Europe and the US for the consecration, formed by Toastmasters and livery company Beadles, with 34 founders.
     The lodge members were given special dispensation by Grand Lodge to wear their red Toastmaster jackets at their meetings. The red jackets and Beadle black gowns were in evidence at the consecration.
     Lord Millett entered the Grand Temple to a fanfare by the State Trumpeters, and during the ceremony there was singing from the Sheffield and District Masonic Choir, who had travelled down from Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
     After the consecration, Metropolitan Deputy Grand Master Russell Race installed Mike Hyman as the first Master. The lodge is sponsored by Chelsea Lodge No. 3098, noted for the many famous entertainers who have been among its members.
     Chelsea Lodge member Ron Smiley presented the new lodge with a ceremonial gavel.
     Information about the lodge can be found at www.gavelandstaff.org.uk

Appeal Raises £40,000 for Families of Tragic Fire Heroes

An appeal launched by Fire Service Lodge No. 8401, for the families of the four Warwickshire firefighters who tragically lost their lives while tackling a major fire at Atherstone-on-Stour in November, has raised more than £40,000.
     Although the lodge has members from all over the country, they meet at Stratfordon- Avon, in the area which was protected by the four lost firemen. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire donated £5,000 and Provincial Grand Master Michael Price made it a Province-wide appeal. The Grand Charity donated a further £5,000. A cheque for £31,640 was presented by Michael Price to Warwickshire Chief Fire Officer William Brown.
     The lodge also arranged a memorial Open Day attended by the public, civic leaders, fire service members and many masons at which a further £5,500 was presented to Deputy Chief Fire Officer Glenn Ranger. Money is still coming in, now in excess of £40,000.
     Mr Ranger commented: ‘The fire service in Warwickshire will never forget the generosity of the Freemasons and the Fire Service Lodge in particular.’

Norfolk Raises £12,000 for Afghan Veterans

Local Freemasons joined with thousands of Great Yarmouth residents in welcoming back members of the First Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment returning from their sixmonth tour of duty in Afghanistan.
     At a service of thanksgiving which followed the Freedom of the Borough parade and flypast, an estimated 3,000 people packed St Nicholas’ Parish Church to hear the Mayor of Great Yarmouth, Councillor Paul Garrod, the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk and the Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Norfolk, Stephen Allen, express their gratitude to the returning soldiers whilst remembering their absent colleagues.
     Stephen Allen went on to present a donation of £12,200 to Major Dom Biddick, Commander ‘A’ Company, Royal Anglians for the 1st Battalion’s Afghanistan Memorial Fund.
     Responding on behalf of business and voluntary organisations in the Borough, and as the father of a son who had recently returned safety from a tour of duty with the army in Iraq, Stephen Allen said: ‘One tangible example of the high regard with which the Royal Anglians are held by our local community can be shown by the response of members of my own organisation – the Freemasons.
     ‘On hearing, just before Christmas 2007, that a charitable fund had been set up to build a memorial to the soldiers who had died and help rehabilitate those most seriously injured, members from Great Yarmouth lodges and the surrounding villages spontaneously started raising funds. What began with a small donation of £200 escalated to over £12,000.’

Prestonian International Connection

There was an interesting international connection when the 2007 Prestonian Lecturer Dr R B F Khambatta gave his lecture to Lodge Faith No. 2438 at Ipswich in Suffolk.
     The lodge was revived in Ipswich in 1986 following the suspension of Freemasonry in Karachi in 1973. Dr Khambatta was the first Master of the lodge after its revival. He followed in the footsteps of his father, who had been Master of the lodge in Karachi in 1926.
     The subject of the lecture, Grand Secretaries of the United Grand Lodge of England, 1813-1980, was presented at an emergency meeting of the lodge, held at the Suffolk Agricultural Showground.

Initiate, 93, Follows in Father's Footsteps

You are never too old to join the Craft, as James McDonald has proved, following his initiation at the age of 93.
     James had never come into contact with Freemasonry until quite recently, although his father Donald was initiated into Coronation Lodge No. 2898 in January 1904.
     However, there is a photograph of his father in masonic regalia hanging in his living room. His father was Master of Coronation Lodge in 1917-1918, but died in 1927 aged 67 years.
     It was through the secretary of Simon de Montfort Lodge No. 9024, which meets at Lewes in Sussex, that contact was made with James. Bob Smith, who lived near James at Horsham, visited him at his home to bring some Christmas cheer.
     He was amazed when James produced some of his father’s regalia, including his masonic case, Grand Lodge certificate and jewels. Subsequently, a white table meeting was held by Coronation Lodge at Clerkenwell Masonic Centre especially for James, who presented his father’s memorabilia to the lodge.
     Among the gifts was a ladies night photograph taken in London during the First World War, with more than 500 people present. It is on permanent loan to Clerkenwell Masonic Centre, where it is to be placed on permanent display.
     There were several other visits by James to the lodge and by lodge members to his house. Eventually he asked if he was too old to join. The answer: his application form was completed and his proposal into Freemasonry was read out in the lodge on the same day. He is now a Master Mason.
     Ian Wilson, Coronation Lodge secretary, said: ‘James still works as a master cabinet-maker, travelling each day to work near his residence. He undertakes private commissions, having his own workshop at home.
     ‘He still drives his car, and the week before his initiation had a cataract operation in one eye and was told he would have to wear spectacles for the rest of his life!’

Ladies Group is Keeping Faith

The Lodge of Faith No. 344, which meets at Radcliffe in the Province of East Lancashire, has waited nearly 194 years for its latest acquisition – a lodge banner. With the lodge bicentenary approaching in 2014, the members felt something special should be provided to mark the occasion, and they decided that they needed a banner.
     Immediately, the lodge ladies’ committee, which was formed more than 60 years ago, promised to provide one. True to their word, it was subsequently handed over and was on show for the first time at the installation meeting in January.
     Provision of the £2,000 banner is only the latest example of support by the ladies. As well as providing the lodge with its first Master’s chain, over the past 10 years they have regularly raised £1,000 a year to support the lodge in its charities.
     The banner was officially dedicated by a team from the Province.

Neptune is 250 Years Old

Neptune Lodge No. 22 has celebrated the 250th anniversary of its first recorded meeting in the presence of the Pro Grand Master, Lord Northampton, in the Grand Temple at Freemasons’ Hall, London.
     Among other distinguished guests were Russell Race, Deputy Metropolitan Grand Master for London, as well as many visitors from Neptune family lodges, Stability Ritual lodges and Athol lodges.
     To add to the occasion, the Master, Graham Thewlis, initiated his son Peter in accordance with Stability Ritual, which is practiced by 16 other lodges and dates from 1813 when the Lodge of Reconciliation was formed.
     The history of the lodge from 1757 for 1799 was delivered by the secretary, Brian Fisher, in the dress of 1757 with questions and comments pertinent to the current history given by assistant secretary Sachin Shah.

Seeing Double for Charity

A promise by the Financial Times to match all donations over Christmas made to international girls’ education charity Camfed, led to £12,000 being raised by Isaac Newton University Lodge No.859, Cambridgeshire Province.
     Camfed, based in Cambridge, has been working since 1993 to solve long-term health, economic and social issues in Africa by investing in girls’ education. Last year, more than 408,000 children in some of the poorest regions of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and Tanzania benefited from Camfed’s education programme.
     Camfed co-chaired the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative from 2005 to 2007, advises the UK government’s Department for International Development. Treasurer Peter Cartwright said he would personally match the total raised by the lodge. The Broken Column produced £375, so the treasurer’s contribution made that £750.
     In the ‘doubling’ spirit, the lodge Committee of Benevolence doubled it again to £1,500. The City & University of Cambridge Masonic Charitable Trust then contributed a further £4,500.
     As a result, a cheque for £6,000 was presented to Camfed. The charity’s financial director, Luxon Shumba, said that the final, Financial Times-assisted, total of £12,000 would provide complete secondary education for 40 young African girls.

Sheffield Appoints New Director

Dr. Andreas Önnerfors is the new Director of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry (CRF) at the University of Sheffield. Dr. Önnerfors, who was also appointed as Senior Lecturer at the University’s History Department, succeeds the Centre’s founding Director, Professor Andrew Prescott, who left last February to take up a new post at the University of Wales Lampeter.
     Since its official launch in March 2001, the Sheffield-based Centre has performed high level research into Freemasonry and fraternalism. It has carried out innovative work in a number of areas including lectures, exhibitions and the setting up of databases, and it has also provided researchers with improved access to both published and primary source materials in this field.
     The Centre has also been involved in several conferences, both in Britain and abroad, and a large number of papers and lectures have been delivered on its behalf.
     Dr. Önnerfors, whose main interests lie in the area of the history of science and ideas, was awarded his Ph.D from the University of Lund in Sweden in 2003, and his doctoral thesis focused on German-Swedish cultural encounters in the eighteenth century. Since then, he has carried out the first academic research project on Swedish Freemasonry and its continental European connections during the eighteenth century, alongside research into European press history.
     Dr. Önnerfors has declared his intention to build on the ground-breaking work of Professor Prescott, who has pioneered the academic study of Freemasonry in Britain – a subject that had been largely ignored by British academics.
     And, as Dr. Önnerfors explained, the Centre faces a busy period of its existence, with several new projects in the offing, including the imminent launch of a Master’s degree in the History of Freemasonry and Fraternalism.
     The Centre will also play an important role in the organisation of a second international conference on the history of Freemasonry in Edinburgh in 2009, and the Centre will hold its own conference on fraternalism at Sheffield in 2010. He is also particularly keen to expand the Centre’s international links.
     Dr. Önnerfors gave his inaugural lecture, Press between private and public: Freemasonry as a topic in European eighteenth-century journals, at Sheffield University in March.

Anyone seeking further information on the Centre can sign up to the CRF’s monthly newsletter on its website: www.freemasonry.dept.shef.ac.uk

Masonic MA Course

The History Department at Sheffield University is launching an MA on the History of Freemasonry and Fraternalism. During the academic year 2008-2009 the programme will be taught at Sheffield with a distance learning MA planned for 2009-2010 or 2010-2011.
     The MA draws on the research programme of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry, based at Sheffield University, and provides a range of historic skills, allowing for independent research.
     It provides an introduction to the bibliographical, archival and other skills relevant to this field of study. Taught within the Department of History, the MA is designed to develop a range of generic skills as students follow their core interest in the history of fraternalism.
     These skills can be transferred both to other fields of historical research and to nonacademic endeavours. The opportunity to acquire vocational experience is a unique feature of the Sheffield MA. A taught module entitled Work Placement provides an opportunity to develop history-specific vocational skills in a working environment.
     Within this MA there will be opportunities to work in the Library & Museum of Freemasonry in London, or other local or international archives on freemasonry, public and private.

For further information contact history@shef.ac.uk or telephone 0114 222 2552. web: www.sheffield.ac.uk/history/ma/freemasonry

Universities Scheme is Expanding

Following the announcement in Grand Lodge by the Pro Grand Master, the Universities Scheme is expanding fast, enabling more lodges and universities to participate.
     Recently, five lodges have joined the original nine and several more are well advanced with their plans. The challenge laid down by Lord Northampton has motivated and encouraged lodges of very different origins and traditions to consider full participation in the Scheme. Some have long-standing links with universities, others have no link and so have an added challenge.
     Welcoming the new participants, Assistant Grand Master David Williamson, President of the Scheme, said: “It is a pleasure to see this enthusiasm for participation from all around the country. “As awareness of the Scheme grows, so does the enthusiasm and participation.
     Lodges that want to join us have to be ready to meet the criteria and must be prepared for change. Choosing to participate is a big step for any lodge.
     ‘But the reward is the excitement and new blood that university links can bring.
     When visiting Scheme lodges, I have enjoyed the opportunity to meet undergraduate initiates, many of whom have had little previous contact with Freemasonry other than through the internet. Enabling others to experience and share what we all enjoy is the essence of the Scheme’s objective.’
     Scheme chairman Oliver Lodge highlighted some of the key challenges for participating lodges. “Opening the lodge to undergraduates is an act of great significance and generosity. Enabling them to progress in the very short time that they will have in residence requires planning and forbearance from others.
     “It also needs very efficient use of lodge time, including undertaking multiple ceremonies. Next steps are crucial, too. We have to ensure that when members graduate and leave town, they can join a lodge in their new location that will suit them well.
     “The Scheme committee is working on proposals to assist Scheme lodges in this important aspect. As the Scheme grows and matures, so we have to address the emerging questions.”

Details of participating lodges can be found on the UGLE website (www.ugle.org.uk/how-to/universityfreemasonry.htm). Lodges interested in the Scheme should contact their Provincial Grand Secretary.