The Annual Meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge took place at the Royal Hall, Harrogate on Tuesday, 4 May.
The meeting was attended by over 1000 Freemasons from the Province, together with 50 distinguished visitors from other Provinces. During the meeting the RW Provincial Grand Master, John Clayton, invested the Acting Officers for the year, and promoted or appointed other Brethren. In total some 260 brethren received Provincial Honours.
Also during the meeting the RW Provincial Grand Master presented cheques totalling £100,000 to the recipients of the Provincial Grand Master’s Fund Major Grants. This year six non-Masonic Charities and organisations received grants these were:
£35,000 to the Wakefield Oncology and Leukaemia Fund (WOLF) to purchase Chemo-care equipment
£25,000 to upgrade the St James community Hall at All Saints Church, Wath on Dearne
£15,000 to Caring for Life charity to purchase equipment
£15,000 for communication equipment at Milton School for Autistic Children, Swinton
£5,000 to the Friends of New Lane Park, Sprotborough to purchase play area equipment
£5,000 for Meltham Pre school Play Group to assist in building conversion work
Photographs by David Wright – thewrightphoto@hotmail.co.uk
Provincial Grand Master’s Address
In his address to Provincial Grand Lodge the RW Provincial Grand Master said:
“Last year, I made reference to the difficult economic climate and how it may well affect our membership. You will have seen from the Provincial Grand Registrar’s report that we have lost, in net terms, 190 Brethren. Whilst this appears and indeed is, disappointing, it is of course, less than one per Lodge.
There is some heart to be taken from the figures in that in 2009, there were fewer resignations than in 2008. Of the resignations, however, the largest proportion of those resigning fell between 1 and 5 years. I am inclined to agree with the Provincial Grand Registrar’s conclusion that whilst the mentoring system appears to be working in the first year, perhaps our dedicated band of mentors should be just as active in the following years.
We do notice that again, the age profile shows that the younger man is showing an interest in Freemasonry and almost 70% of initiates were under the age of 50 years and almost 35% fell between the ages of 21 and 40 years. All, therefore Brethren is not lost if we make appropriate selection of candidates and maintain their interest.
It is important that we must all play a part in retention of members. It is of vital importance that we should contact those Brethren who no longer attend on a regular basis and the comment of “are you a visitor?” is not very helpful in attracting a poor attendee to come along more regularly and in fact is more likely to attract his resignation.
Brethren, I hope by now that you have viewed the Charity DVD. Much time and effort has been put in, in creating the DVD and launching it Province wide. I sincerely hope that the information contained on the DVD and in the accompanying leaflet has now been disseminated throughout the Province.
The introduction of a confidential telephone number has already attracted over 50 legitimate calls which have been “processed“ to further help the Brother or his dependent. You may feel that 50 is not very many calls but I may say that it is 50 Brethren who may not perhaps have felt able to seek help. It remains therefore a vital service in the Province. Already, there has been an increase in assistance from the central charities which is in part due to the dissemination of information about our Charities.
From the point of view of our own Charity, we have continued to provide valuable support for our beneficiaries throughout the year. We continue to rely on the support of all of you and I do thank you all for your generosity. We can, however, only continue to offer the support at this present level if the funds, particularly the PGM’s Fund, are fed by yourselves. I am aware that some Masters, in their year in the Chair are nominating a charity that they wish to support. We are proud of our record of continuous giving in this Province and I would therefore ask that Masters do reconsider what is becoming an increasing practice and divert there funds through WRMCL. I would also remind you of the direction from Grand Lodge that it is irregular for any appeal to be made to the Craft to support a particular cause or objectives, however laudable, unless approved by myself. I receive a number of requests to give approval to such appeals, and Brethren, I have to say I find it very difficult to give my support when I consider the impact it may have on the ability of the Province to continue supporting various non-Masonic charities in a manner for which we are rightly proud. As witnessed earlier in our proceedings.
Brethren, Freemasonry is not the only organisation to suffer as a result of the difficult economic climate. Firms and businesses are cutting back on advertising. As many of you will realise, this has an adverse effect on the White Rose publication since some of our long standing advertisers are no longer able to support us and of course it is more difficult to attract new advertisers. We have however a team of dedicated Brethren who are working hard to obtain new advertisers and we are all hopeful that the publication will continue in its present form. May I ask you all to think about possible advertisers and to communicate the names to either the Provincial Office or the Area advertising Co-ordinators.
On a different note, Brethren, there is one Lodge in the Province, the first since 1989, who is almost certain to hand in their warrant. Brethren, there is no shame in that, and this Lodge has approached the issue of their future in a sensible and considered manner. I firmly believe that it is often better to allow a Lodge to die than to manufacture an amalgamation which may not be to every Brother’s liking. Amalgamations have to be worked at to ensure peace and harmony prevails. The biggest stumbling block to some is argument, (sorry, discussion) about the ultimate name and number of the newly formed Lodge. Brethren, I can quite understand the feelings for the history of an old Lodge but in the broader scheme of freemasonry, does it really matter? Does it affect the practice of your freemasonry and your principles.
It is clearly not for me to point you in one direction or the other. Requests for advice and assistance must come from the Lodge.
I am sure that some of you will have noticed that today, for the first time in recent history, two standards were paraded when I entered Provincial Grand Lodge. I have had concerns for some time that I was being outdone by my colleagues in other Provinces have two standards, in some cases one of them being their personal standard. We did explore the possibility of a personal standard for myself, but we thought that the prospect of having certain surgical instruments and procedures depicted in a heraldic device may prove too squeamish for you. So I have reverted to this standard, which bears the coat of arms of Grand Lodge and was used by some of my illustrious predecessors. I am most grateful to W Bro. Paul Healey for his skills with wood in manufacturing new poles for both standards, together with a stand and case for them. Also for the work that he and Mrs Healey have undertaken in refurbishing the banners. I am sure the Provincial Secretary will write to them expressing my thanks and those of the Province for their work and generous gift.
Since the last meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge the work on the historical records project has been completed. This has been one of largest projects ever undertaken in this Province and I am most grateful to everyone who contributed to the work. I am delighted to report that we were one of only a small number of Provinces who submitted a 100% return from all our Lodges and Chapters. I wish to place on record my thanks, and those of the Province, to Martin Stray for leading the project, and to Peter Smith and Stuart Ross for their tremendous work in co-ordinating the returns from Lodges and Chapters and their submission to London.
Congratulations to all of you who have received your first honour or indeed a promotion in Provincial Grand Lodge today. The honours do of course come with the usual health warning in that they are not only for what you have done in the past but also for what I hope you will contribute to your own Lodge, the Province and the community in the future.
For a few of you, there may be more in the shape of Grand Honours as you will gather happened for those Brethren I introduced to you earlier.
I offer my sincere thanks to those who serve on my panel of representatives at Installation Ceremonies and to those offices who retire from acting rank today. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed your year in the Masonic spotlight and can only say that your support of me and the Province has been tremendous and very much appreciated.
In January of this year W Bro. Jim Batty retired as an Assistant Provincial Grand Master. He has served this Province and Area 5 in an exemplary manner for the last 5½ years. Jim’s special remit was to oversee the training needs of the Province and I am sure you will all recognise what a splendid job he has done, with our education programme growing from strength to strength. I do thank you Jim most sincerely for all the hard work you have put in on behalf of the Province, and in particular for your wise counsel and the support you have given to me. As a small token of my thanks and appreciation, I would ask you to step forward so that I may present you with your PAPGM’s collarette.
Brethren, thank you for your attention. Let us leave here and continue to enjoy our Freemasonry.”
Posted in Charity News, Provincial News on May 24th, 2010
