End of Season Reflections
Another Masonic year has drawn to a close with our Annual Convocation towards the end of June just past. With our new ME Second Grand Principal, E Comp Russell Race, as our principal Guest, it was a fitting end to another thoroughly enjoyable and successful year.
Preparations for the new season 2016/2017 are already well advanced with early focus on our First Principals’ Chapter who stage their first meeting at Peterborough on September 1st. On that occasion, we shall be hosting as our Guest Speaker the Grand Director of Ceremonies for both Supreme Grand Chapter and Grand Lodge, E Comp Oliver Lodge TD. An interesting evening is in store therefore!
Before we embark on the new season ahead and to respond to one or two questions raised recently regarding our positioning in Freemasonry and for the benefit of our younger members, let’s just recap. When the two opposing Grand Lodges (the Antients and the Moderns) came together in December 1813 under the Act of Union, it was declared that Pure Antient Masonry into which we were all initiated consists of just three Degrees and no more – the Degree of the Entered Apprentice, the Degree of the Fellow Craft and the Master Masons’ Degree, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch. Now that’s pretty emphatic! The Holy Royal Arch therefore is the fourth phase of Pure Antient Masonry after the three Degrees of Craft; it is not the completion of the Third Degree as some might innocently have you believe but it is the completion of Pure Antient Masonry, the very completion of Craft itself. Under the Constitution of the United Grand Lodge of England therefore, the proper course for every candidate’s Masonic journey should always be through the three Craft Degrees of Pure Antient Masonry, to include unquestionably the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch as the fourth phase, perhaps after a short interlude.
Some refer to the fourth regular step in Freemasonry which you will only find in the domain of the Mark Master Masons’ Degree – another fine Order in Freemasonry which comes highly recommended and to which you may wish to aspire in due course. You will find it another advancement on your journey of Masonic discovery.
E Comp Wayne E Williams
ME Grand Superintendent