Royal Arch News
A date for your diary, at the First Principals’ Chapter on Thursday 3rd September 2015, we will welcome the demonstration team from the Province of Bristol who will perform the Ancient and Original Passing of the Veils. This is not a ceremony that you see very often because it is rarely performed outside of the Province of Bristol.
This meeting will be open to all Companions and is certain to be very popular. This poster has further details and booking forms from the Provincial Grand Chapter office will follow very shortly.
Our Grand Superintendent, E Comp Wayne Williams, commented:
We are privileged to be hosting the Bristol Demonstration team at our FIrst Principals' Chapter in September. Space will be limited but ALL Companions are invited to attend.It will be a unique occasion for us and a unique demonstration, rarely seen outside the Province of Bristol and who are the only ones allowed to perform it. Check out the history of the Veils ceremony; there was early reference to the "veils" from the 1750s onwards as practiced in the Province of Bristol as a preliminary to the Exaltation ceremony. Since then, the Royal Arch ceremony generally has seen many changes and with a revision of the English ritual in 1835, the "Passing of the Veils" ceremony was removed. Bristol however managed to escape most of the changes so that, today, the Province is the proud possessor of some very old Royal Arch ritual which it will demonstrate and perform for us on Thursday 3rd September at Sheaf Close. Try and be there!
- Written by: John Fergusson
The Provincial Appointments and Promotions have been announced and full details can be found here. We congratulate all those Companions who are being appointed and promoted. We look forward to seeing you at Provincial Grand Chapter in June.
- Written by: John Fergusson
Our Chapter Executive will be changing at Provincial Grand Chapter in June. E Comp David Jackson who has contributed and supported the Holy Royal Arch in this Province over many years will be stepping down with E Comp Mike Coleman being promoted from 2nd Provincial Grand Principal to Deputy Grand Superintendent.
E Comp George Clayton is promoted from 3rd Provincial Grand Principal to 2nd Provincial Grand Principal. Our new 3rd Provincial Grand Principal will be E Comp Mark Constant.
Following the announcement that E Comp Trevor Boswell will become Deputy Provincial Grand Master, his place as the Holy Royal Arch’s Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies will be taken by E Comp John Payne. Our sincere congratulations to them all and we know that they can count on your support.
Our Grand Superintendent, E Comp Wayne Williams, commented:
The Annual Convocation in June will be a sad occasion in many ways - why break up a winning team you may ask and it will be an awful loss to me personally to see David Jackson stand down. He has been with me from the very outset and has been an absolute rock throughout. He has been my Deputy for almost 8 years but we are charged with the responsibility of ensuring a future succession line and this has to be seen as one of the early steps in that direction. Rest assured, David will still be involved in the Royal Arch in some form of executive role – his experience is too great to lose. I congratulate those who will be moving up the line and welcome to the team, E Comp Mark Constant as 3rd Provincial Grand Principal - he will prove a great addition.
- Written by: John Fergusson
E Comp Richard Stainton SANDBACH PGSupt, OSM
Companions all,
Nearly a week has now passed since we received the sad news that our Past Grand Superintendent, E Comp Richard Sandbach, had passed peacefully away last Saturday morning at the RMBI Residential Home at Devonshire Court and where he and his late wife, Wendy, had spent their last few years together. E Comp Richard was in his 100th year.
We have already written to the family to convey our sincere condolences and to assure them that our thoughts and prayers are with them at this sad time. We understand that a memorial service will be held to commemorate his life in due course.
E Comp Richard was the ME Grand Superintendent of this Province from 1978 to 1990 – he was appointed some six years before being installed as our Provincial Grand Master in 1984. Having been initiated in 1949, he was later exalted into our St Peter’s Chapter No: 442 in 1952. There followed a very distinguished and illustrious Masonic career, not only in this Province of Northamptonshire & Huntingdonshire but also in London and in other Orders of Freemasonry in which he held high office and in which he was greatly respected and held in the highest regard.
In March 2006, he was awarded the Grand Master’s Order of Service to Masonry (OSM) – an accolade afforded to just a privileged few. He was greatly influential in the revision of our Royal Arch ritual in 2004 when recommendations and amendments were accepted and approved by Supreme Grand Chapter in November of that year.
Indeed, we have a great deal for which to be grateful and for which we are indebted to our Past Grand Superintendent. He will be sorely missed by all those that were privileged to have known him but through our amended Royal Arch ritual, his memory will continue to live on. He certainly lived respected and he truly died regretted.
Wayne E Williams ME Grand Superintendent
Royal Arch Province of Northamptonshire & Huntingdonshire.
- Written by: Super User