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I welcome you all to this Annual Investiture
today and I offer my congratulations to all
those brethren I have had the pleasure of
investing with Grand Rank or promoting to
higher office. Your appointment today is not
however simply the recognition of the service
you have given Freemasonry in the past but,
just as importantly, an earnest of the work
we expect you to undertake for the future.
The Craft has embraced the policy of
openness with increasing optimism and
the benefits are becoming ever more visible.
Nowhere has that openness been more
apparent than in our charitable activities.
The amount of money raised and the
donations made to both Masonic and non-Masonic charities has been remarkable, and
has contributed significantly to the raising
of our profile and our increasing acceptance
in the wider community.
Nevertheless, charity is not just about
raising money and making donations to
good causes, valuable though these are.
It has a broader and deeper purpose. Apart
from giving alms and providing help by
liberality to those in need or distress, charity
is also defined as love of one’s fellow man, as
kindness, and as leniency in judging others.
Some of our more thoughtful members
have commented recently that our charitable
activities are in danger of becoming onedimensional,
whereas real charity, as I have
just defined it, is multi-faceted. Many of our
brethren and their Lodges already give much
of their time to practical charitable work,
which is entirely laudable, and must continue.
But, as Masons we should all try to
involve ourselves to a greater extent in
activities which bring joy and happiness into
the lives of disadvantaged people, and not
just assume that a cash donation discharges
our obligations.
Helping those in need or distress therefore
has practical as well as financial connotations,
but of course taking Masonry into the
community through charitable activities
means providing tangible assistance to those
in need, and that requires time, a commodity
that is precious to us all. By the use of time
freely given we can show real liberality of
spirit to those who need our help.
We should also spend more time in our
assemblies considering the excellences of
charity and the lessons it has to teach us as
Freemasons, remembering that no less an
authority than St. Paul placed charity in
front of both faith and hope as the greatest
of qualities.
We are also conscious that Freemasonry
rests on the basic tenets of friendship, charity
and integrity, which we know as Brotherly
Love, Relief and Truth.
Friendship is the cement which binds us
together, integrity is a characteristic which
should be inherent in all Freemasons, but
charity in all its aspects is the practical
application of Freemasonry to the rest of
the world. Through our charitable work
and our openness about it the world may
know the happy and beneficial effects of
Freemasonry.
Brethren, in speaking at some length
today about charity I want to stress that
we must not fall into the trap of becoming
dominated by financial charity, nor even
its extension into the aspects of doing good
by some practical means, if that leads us to
forget that Freemasonry is a system of belief
and principle that offers us a framework for
the better regulation of our lives.
Charity is one of the foundations upon
which Freemasonry rests, but we must
ensure that the other basic tenets are not
forgotten or overlooked, and we must look
to what observance of all those principles is
going to achieve for us. That is the way that
we will receive benefit ourselves for what
we do for others.
Brethren, I should like to express my
thanks to the Grand Director of Ceremonies
and his Deputies for the efficient manner in
which they have conducted our proceedings
today. And also to thank the Grand
Secretary’s staff, who work so hard behind
the scenes to maintain this magnificent
building and to ensure that we all enjoy
our Freemasonry.
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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