HOME Current Issue Index by Issue Search the Site Translate On-Line Printer Friendly Internet Help Centre Regulars Specials Humour Book Reviews Links Affinity Lodges Subscriptions About FMT ADVERTISING Contact Us

BACK NEXT Summer 2008 Issue 45 Letter from the Editor Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level International News Beyond the Craft Perambulating the Lodge Masonic Dining and Celebration Interview: The Grand Chancellor The Orator Walking the Way of Saint James Abd el-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Province of Cambridgeshire Library & Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Review: Committed to the Flames Review: The Mythology of Secret Societies Review: The Dawn of Astrology Letters to the Editor Internet Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter RMBI Masonic Samaritan Fund Grand Charity RMTGB Canon Richard Tydeman: Looking unto the Rock Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Charity Masonic Charities: RMTGB Festival Forum Proves Huge Success — Lifelites Launch New Web Site — The Freemasons' Grand Charity Gives Special Support to Children's Hospices — New Web Site Launched with Extra Features — New Logo and Old Title for Masonic Samaritan Fund — MSF Sees Medical and Lay Recruits to its Board — Extra Support Given as Grants Reach £3.7M for Financial Year for More than 600 Applicants — First World War Veterans Meet at RMBI Home Reviewing the Charities: the Story of Iain Ross Bryce Iain Ross Bryce, one of the most instantly recognisable figures in English Freemasonry, retired last year after fifteen years as Deputy Grand Master. It is probably fair to say that most Freemasons in England have either met him or heard him speak, but without doubt his lasting legacy to the United Grand Lodge is the way in which he has re-modelled and vitalised the charity system, turning it into a far sleeker, more productive organism ... The Story of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution In the midst of force eight winds and boiling seas with 3-metre waves, Helmswoman Aileen Jones of Porthcawl was instrumental in saving two fishermen from certain calamity. ‘I had a rough idea where he fished,’ she said, ‘so we headed up that way, towards the top of the Nash Bank, which is where we saw him. It wasn’t a nice place to be. The water was coming in at all angles, his engines had failed, none of his anchors would hold. Whatever the sea decided to do to him ... Light of Siam Lodge No. 9791 The overwhelming awfulness was that we knew nothing. You could have been 500 yards from people consumed by the water and see and hear nothing. Forget the image of a cresting wave. The tide just went out and came in. Just very far and very fast. The wave was maybe six inches high, but 100 miles long – that’s a lot of water. The strange thing is the water was black with debris. Most damage was caused by the third wave ... Advancing Medical Science The years between 1830 and 1860 were rich years for Freemasonry, since in that period many of the men were born who later shaped the Craft. But one man, Henry Solomon Wellcome, who was born in that period, went on to be not only an exemplary Freemason, but also the leader of what became a world-wide pharmaceutical empire, and an extraordinary collector and archaeologist. Henry Wellcome was born in Almond ... A Long Term Commitment Charity is a fundamental and vitally important part of masonry. Its practice is a cardinal commitment that we all made on the day of our initiation. The four central charities, each with their separate objects, are the best way that we can pool our resources to discharge that commitment. Each has benefited to a remarkable extent from the generosity of the generations that have gone before us. That has enabled the Charities to take on ... Polished Cornerstones If, “Freemasonry is a system of becoming… something better than you are now1”, then how much truer is this of a school? And if that school also has Masonic connections, then it is doubly apt. The Royal Masonic School for Girls, instituted in 1788 by the Freemason, Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini, began on what is now the Euston Road with fifteen pupils. It moved first to St George’s Fields (1795) and then to Clapham (1852) ... The Mayo Clinic The Mayo Clinic is undoubtedly one of the most famous medical establishments in the world. Since its inception in Rochester, Minnesota, during the 1880s from the medical practice of Dr. William Worrall Mayo and his two sons, Dr. William James Mayo and Dr. Charles Horace Mayo, it has become the largest group practice in the world and is renowned for its comprehensive medical care. During their lives, the Mayos influenced the medical community ... The Heart of the Matter The only immediate treatment for cardiac arrest is defibrillation. Last year The Grand Charity made a £115,000 grant to St John Ambulance to purchase Automated External Defibrillators (AED) for each of its 46 county divisions in England and the Channel Islands. This is laudable, although such action has raised the question of safety and first aid in masonic centres nationwide. Heart attacks can strike at any age, but there are many masons who fall in the "at most risk" category when one takes age and the pressures and excesses of business, private and masonic life ... Masonic Night at the Palladium A highly successful evening’s entertainment was held at the London Palladium in the presence of the Grand Master, HRH Duke of Kent, which raised over £45,000. The supported charities are New Masonic Samaritan Fund and The Children’s Trust ... Charity on a Grand Scale There is a sense of frustration at the Grand Charity, the flagship of the United Grand Lodge of England’s charitable work around the world. They desperately want to give away more money. Despite donating millions to charity every year – both non-masonic as well as masonic – they believe there are worthy recipients who are not being helped because Lodge Almoners in particular, and Freemasons in general, are not putting names forward ... Boaz and Jachin Riding High Ingenuity has always been a strong point among freemasons when seeking to raise funds or to provide some lasting token in their locality. Such was the case when the question arose as to how Berkshire and Buckinghamshire freemasons could mark the 100th anniversary of the decision to set up two separate provinces. That anniversary was in 1990, and when Buckinghamshire lodges were asked what they were going to do, one idea hit home more than any other. It was a proposal from W Bro Bill Morris, then charity steward of Taplow Lodge No 3111, that the event ... The Masonic Benefit Society From the earliest days of operative Masonry, there has been a tradition of ‘looking after one's own’. Operative masons who had fallen upon hard times could doubtless call upon their better-off colleagues for assistance in a brotherly spirit to help tide them over until their circumstances had improved, and Freemasons were no different. Although an integral part of a Freemason’s life, the first serious attempt to organise a charitable institution for all masons ... One Big Happy Family It would be easy to call upon a myriad of gushing adjectives to describe the care, attention and love the 1,500 staff of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution put into their workaday lives. The fine-sounding ‘statement of purpose’ by the RMBI declares that, “as an organisation offering degrees of care, support and assistance appropriate to individual needs, we are committed to ensuring the individual’s right to dignity, respect, choice and control over their own lives.” Admirable words indeed, but only if the residents of the 20 or so residential and nursing homes run by RMBI ... And Who Is My Neighbour? When former Royal Naval Captain Paul Bootherstone took over the helm of the New Masonic Samaritan Fund in January 1994, he found a striking similarity to his Navy days. After 38 years in the Senior Service he favourably compared its comradeship with that found in Masonry and with his "crew" at 26 Great Queen Street. The Falklands veteran is proud to serve "this great Brotherhood" but is also quick to emphasise the teamwork involved. "I could not function without the help of my staff and brethren" said the man who was awarded the DSC after commanding HMS Arrow in the Falklands conflict ... Grand Charity The Freemasons’ Grand Charity supports masons and their dependants in need. It also contributes to a huge variety of non-masonic charities which address causes of concern to masons and society in general. Richard is a 20 year old who cannot read or write. The only employment he has known since leaving school is helping on his father’s pig farm. Now he is rearing his own weaners for the market. When 87 year old Mrs Smith slipped and fell on her kitchen floor, she was unable to get up again. Luckily she was wearing a signalling device which automatically alerted the emergency services ... Challenges, Not Problems Jane Reynolds practises what she preaches : life is for living and living to the full. As a woman in a distinctly man’s world, the chief executive of the RMBI is very much her own person, possessing an elegance of enthusiasm and vitality, readily admitting to both working and playing hard, devoting anything up to 70 hours a week, including many weekends, to a job she describes as “a way of life”. From an office overlooking Grand Lodge ... Minding Your Head The Grand Lodge 250th. Anniversary Fund stands at over £3 million (depending on the Stock Market) thanks to careful husbandry by trustees who have nurtured the original £504, 891 16s 5d. Income now supports Freemasons’ Fellow Mr. Peter Hutchinson’s research. Two more Freemasons’ Fellows should be named soon. Peter Hutchinson, with head of department Professor John Pickard and others at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Neurosurgery Department, Cambridge, evaluate new techniques involving treatment of head injury and stroke patients. His research measures brain substances thought harmful following brain injury. Two very fine (0.5mm) probes are placed into the brain ...   Charity © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008