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BACK NEXT Spring 2010 Issue 52 Letter from the Editor Grand Secretary's Column Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level Grand Steward's Lodge Masonic Education International News Masonic Harmony Freemasons And The Royal Society University Freemasonry Rolling Thunder Initiation The American Revolution Helping Children In South Africa A Manx Masonic Collection Review: The Formula Review: David Nixon - Entertainer With The Magic Touch Review: Let Me Tell You More Review: The Last Templar Letters to the Editor Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge: Board of General Purposes Grand Charity Masonic Samaritan Fund RMBI RMTGB The Value of Freemasonry's Past Copyright 1997-2010 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint

FREEMASONRY TODAY Spring 2010 - Issue 52 - Index Letter from the Editor We are no longer very adept at reading symbols and drawing out their message. Perhaps it all went to pieces during the Reformation when Puritans tumbled and clattered into churches and chapels to destroy the sacred images or to spread dull whitewash over the brightly painted interiors as though colour itself was an enemy of God. They disliked all religious imagery and symbolism; but then, following hundreds of years of ecclesiastical greed, perhaps its true cost had finally become too much to bear. But whatever its origin, we are now affected by this lack of knowledge about symbolism, so much so that we struggle to distinguish between a sign and a symbol. Yet ... Grand Lodge: Grand Secretary's Column Grand Lodge News: Pro Grand Master's Address to Grand Lodge Grand Master visits Worcester Grand Secretary's Speech on Overseas Districts Masonic News and Views: Brian Southgate Faces Up To The Challenge In Mastermind’s Famous Black Chair — Support For Duchess of Kent’s Charity — London Grand Rank Association Centenary — World Champion’s New Milestone — Bringing Cheer To Afghanistan — Surrey Backs Children’s Trust — Guernsey & Alderney Support Women’s Royal Voluntary Service — Prestonian Lecturer Helps Downs Cause — Honourable Fraternity: New Grand Master — Panto Fun For Kids In Birmingham On The Level: Chelsea Are At Home And Away — Bear Necessities At Hereford — Provincial Grand Masters Thank Lord Northampton — Queen Honours Peter Hosker — London Appoints Grand Mentor — Arnhem Hero Is Airborne Again — Grand Charity’s £50,000 For Audio Library — Leicester Clock Ticks Again — Celebrations For 250th Anniversary — Hull Reaches A Milestone Grand Steward's Lodge: Grand Stewards’ Lodge Celebrates 250 Years — Obituary: Rt Hon Lord Cornwallis, OBE, DL Masonic Education: Launch Of Freemasonry And Fraternalism Journal — Canonbury Conference To Focus On Anti-Masonry International News: Grand Charity £50,000 For Earthquake Victims — Cyprus Celebrations For Lord Kitchener’s Lodge — Dan Brown’s Letter To The Ancient And Accepted Rite - ‘Respect And Admiration’ For Freemasonry — Assistant Grand Master Presents Canadian Patent Masonic Harmony Looking back over the last thirty-one years of my masonic career I have realised that my early years in the lodge gave me a sanctuary, an oasis of peace and tranquillity from the busy and hectic life as a construction director of a national company. The lodge room is where one can put aside the strife of life and enter an atmosphere where all is quiet and orderly, where each officer has his prescribed duty and each brother works together with perfect ease and confidence. In the lodge our members meet and get to know one another and to share common hopes and ideals. It is this philosophy of life that Freemasonry has given me and others that has governed our attitudes and actions in life ... Freemasons And The Royal Society On 30 November 1660, Christopher Wren delivered a lecture at one of the regular meetings of natural philosophers who met at the Gresham College in the City of London, and at this meeting it was decided to form a society for the promotion of ‘Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning’. Two years later, with the invaluable assistance of the Scottish courtier Sir Robert Moray, Charles II granted the new body his personal imprimatur ... University Freemasonry The Universities Scheme was established in 2005 by the Assistant Grand Master, David Williamson, following a chance conversation with Lord Northampton. They felt that it could be highly beneficial to the Craft if the United Grand Lodge of England could capture the spirit of enthusiasm for Freemasonry long shown by the young members of Apollo (Oxford) and Isaac Newton (Cambridge) lodges and share it amongst students, graduates and staff of other ... Rolling Thunder The Americans have a word for it. It’s called ‘Rolling Thunder’. It’s when something like a million bikers come to the Commemorative Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC in USA. It’s a movement called Run For The Wall, started in 1989 by two Vietnam Veterans who travelled across America on motorcycles, talking to local media about the thousands of men and women still unaccounted for in wars. They don’t give political speeches ... Initiation Freemasonry is based upon initiation. Yet many of us remain unclear as to what exactly this means. Is it simply an old term for joining something? Or are there depths of meaning behind the word that can tell us something of our masonic heritage? Most ancient cultures had some tradition which sought to show men and women the world beyond the veil of death: the ‘Far World’ as the Egyptians put it. Shamans and ‘medicine men’ had long understood the need ... The American Revolution American Freemasonry was established as early as the 1720s and one of the most important centres for the Craft in the new colonies was Boston, the busiest port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Boston had links to all the major ports in Britain, especially Liverpool and Glasgow, and traded in all manner of products, such as tobacco, rum and tea. It played a major role in the development of masonry and witnessed an incident which resulted in revolution ... Helping Children In South Africa From the first days that Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in 1995 he was concerned about the way society treated its children and youth. He resolved to change this and established a fund dear to his principles: the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. All through his presidency he donated a third of his salary to this fund. His generosity and vision triggered a national and international response which ensured that the fund grew to the importance it holds today. One of the founder members of the fund was the masonic District of South Africa, North, based ... A Manx Masonic Collection Michael Shimmin, Provincial Grand Secretary and a thoroughly Manx man, met us at Douglas airport and transported us through centuries of the Island’s history. He was a man who traces his local roots to the sixteenth century and his passion and knowledge were impressive. In the short detour from the airport to our hotel we drove past ... Review: The Formula Review: David Nixon - Entertainer With The Magic Touch Review: Let Me Tell You More Review: The Last Templar Letters to the Editor Worshipful Secretary — National Memorial Arboretum — Freemasonry and Contrary Governance — Rank and Promotion — The Universal Religion — The Lonely Entered Apprentice — Premier Lodge of the Provinces — Women in United Grand Lodge — The Queen’s Regiment Library & Museum of Freemasonry The Library and Museum has recently purchased a remarkable example of an early lodge jewel which sheds light on the early expansion of Freemasonry overseas. This large enamel and silver gilt jewel is 138 mm (5 ½ ins) high and 104 mm (4 ins) wide. Its size means that it looks rather more like a civic medal than a masonic one. The central enamel plaque is painted with Charity shown as a seated female figure with two children, Faith, a standing female figure holding an open book, presumably the Bible, and Hope shown as an anchor dividing the pictorial space. Behind the figures is a building with a stepped courtyard and statuary mounted on its roof. In the sky above is a sun with ... Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge, 10 March 2010, Report of the Board of General Purposes Masonic Charities: Grand Charity Masonic Charities: Masonic Samaritan Fund Masonic Charities: RMBI Masonic Charities: RMTGB The Value of Freemasonry's Past When I was at our local history group recently the chairman was eager to remind us that ‘history begins now’. What he was keen to preserve was a picture record of our present homes and their surroundings. That, he added, would mean that those who come fifty tears after us can know what living in this village was like in 2009. With that purpose in mind a call to remember that history is about the here and now seems right. There are those, however, who take another view. As I heard on a radio programme a few years ago there are people who think that the only history that matters is what has just happened or will now take place. Information about what took place a hundred ...   Issue 52, Spring 2010 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2010