The Challenge Ahead – 2016 / 2017:
The new Masonic Year is now well on its way and I hope that you have all “summered” well and that batteries have been recharged so that, together, we can look forward to another happy and successful year of Royal Arch companionship with renewed vigour.
As we head for 2017, we must remember that it is to be a very special year for Freemasonry in general as we prepare to celebrate the Tercentenary of the Craft with celebrations planned for both here in Province as well as in London. Events have already been well advertised and I bear in mind only too well the tremendous support we received from the Craft when celebrating the huge success of our own Bicentenary in 2013. As we are all both Craft and Royal Arch Masons, now will be the time to reciprocate by supporting the Provincial events in particular and, of course, as far as one’s personal circumstances in life will permit. Just as the new Royal Arch season last year started off on an exceptionally high note in Northampton as we hosted the Bristol Demonstration Team at our First Principals’ Chapter and witnessed the original and antient “Ceremony of the Passing of the Veils”, so year 2016/2017 opened on another high note, again at our First Principals’ Chapter but on this occasions at Ellindon, Peterborough, where we were privileged to host the Grand Director of Ceremonies, E Comp and RW Bro Oliver Lodge TD, as our Guest Speaker who gave a fascinating insight into his role as Grand Director of Ceremonies both in Supreme Grand Chapter and the United Grand Lodge of England.
One or two amusing and entertaining anecdotes were included in his presentation and perhaps as a result, we saw a slightly more relaxed Grand Director of Ceremonies away from the formal surroundings of Great Queen Street. Yet he went to great lengths to explain how his role in such a high office is to set and maintain the exceptionally high standards in procedure and ceremonial expected of us as the Mother Grand Lodge/Chapter by so many distinguished visitors who regularly visit our meetings and Convocations from all over the world.
He has a reputation as a strict disciplinarian, a perfectionist in all that he does and his attention to detail is unsurpassed but we did see glimpses of humour in the few hours he spent with us at Peterborough and his participation in our first Royal Arch meeting of the season was so enthusiastically received by well over 100 Companions who attended. It was another superb evening.
And next year, who knows? It is rumoured that, in September of next year, our First Principals’ Chapter will be hosting as our Guest speaker the Most Illustrious Knight Priest Christopher G. Maiden, the Grand High Priest of the Knight Templar Priests and the Order of Holy Wisdom. Now that will certainly be something different and should create considerable interest. Watch this space for further details in due course.
Companions, we are so fortunate in this Province in the way that all the various Orders that work within Northamptonshire & Huntingdonshire share such a bond that benefits us all. We all work in close harmony and we owe so much to a successful Craft and its leadership from which we in turn will continue to grow. But we mustn’t be fooled by our successes; we must be ever alert to counter any signs of complacency as, in the Royal Arch, we are all ambassadors for the Supreme Degree and have a responsibility to grasp every opportunity to raise the profile of the Order to even greater heights and seek out those of our Master Mason friends who have yet to consider the fourth and final stage of their journey through Pure Antient Masonry. Their masonic experience is incomplete until they have rediscovered “that which was lost” at the end of their Third Degree in Craft; the happy ending to our storyline and a better spiritual awareness with their God, their Supreme Being, in whatever form their Supreme Being might present himself to them.
The Book of Constitutions and the Preliminary Declaration of 1813 on Page 1 is quite clear and says it all – we have all embarked on a fascinating journey of enlightenment from “Initiation to Exaltation”, yet there are still too many Brethren who don’t fully appreciate the true purpose and meaning of the masonic storyline and how essential the Royal Arch happens to be in bringing their journey thus far to a happy and successful conclusion.
We want the opportunity to explain it to them; to invite them to become Royal Arch Masons when they see the light and when they are ready to proceed. It’s their choice but the longer they wait, the more they are missing out.
That’s the challenge I set you therefore Companions; identify those who have yet to be exalted and quietly introduce them to the prospects of becoming a Royal Arch Mason. The Masonic legend cannot be allowed to end in anguish and grief – they will hopefully recall the impact of their Third Degree ceremony, so invite them to reflect on its ending as whilst most of us didn’t recognise them at the time, the ceremony of Raising would have given a number of hints and clues throughout that their might be a happier finale to come. Yet, in the intensity of the Third Degree ritual, we would have missed them – I know I did.
So, Companions, enjoy the year ahead - as always we are grateful for the help and support you give us; we thank you for being there, for helping us to spread the word and for being our Companions in every sense of the word. And I, in turn, it must be said, remain so grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to have served as your Grand Superintendent for the last nine and a half years – where has the time gone but what a journey it has been, what an experience!
E Comp Wayne E Williams
ME Grand Superintendent