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Collarettes
The Committee has for some time been
aware that certain Grand Superintendents
have been presenting retiring Deputy Grand
Superintendents, and in some cases retiring
Second and Third Provincial Grand
Principals, with a collarette, to which is
attached the relevant past rank jewel.
The Committee is satisfied that there
is at present no warrant in either the Royal
Arch Regulations or the Book of Constitutions
for such jewels being worn, but notes that,
in the Craft, collarettes and jewels may
be worn by Past Deputy and Assistant
Provincial or District Grand Masters.
After consultation with Grand
Superintendents generally, the Committee
has concluded that the practice has much
to commend it. It accordingly recommends
that Past Deputy Grand Superintendents
and Past Provincial and District Grand
Principals, as well as their Metropolitan
counterparts (including Past Metropolitan
Group Chairmen), should in future be
permitted to wear the relevant jewels
suspended from tri-coloured collarettes,
but only within the Metropolitan Area,
Province or District in which the
Companion previously served.
Notice of motion to amend the Royal
Arch Regulations was tabled.
Charitable Payments
In accordance with practice in recent years,
the Committee has authorised payments
to each of the four main Masonic Charities
and the Heritage and Educational Trust of
the London Grand Rank Association of
sums for each of the four Charities of £5,000
and the Heritage and Educational Trust
of £1,000.
A Mozart Celebration
To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth
of Bro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a talk
with musical illustrations was given by
E Comp Andrew Pearmain about the
greatest Masonic composer’s life, his
Freemasonry and his music.
Speech by E Comp The Rev Elkan Levy
to Supreme Grand Chapter
The Holy Royal Arch – Enjoyment,
Recruitment, Retention
The Royal Arch is a most beautiful degree.
It stands beyond Craft Masonry as the
culmination of the candidate’s journey
through pure Antient Masonry.
The beautiful lesson that this degree
teaches, places man in the context of
eternity. A brother becomes a complete
Mason when he takes the Holy Royal Arch,
and it is therefore our duty to ensure that this
degree is as widely disseminated as possible.
However, because Chapter deals with a
different set of relationships, it will appeal
to brethren on a different level to the Craft,
and partly for different reasons. To those
who find it attractive, the Royal Arch is
a never-ending source of interest, study
reflection and self-awareness. In many
ways, it is the serious Mason’s degree.
Recruitment is a problem, and this is
for reasons that significantly go beyond
Freemasonry. We live in a world where
people tend not to join organisations, with
the possible exception of the health club.
Religious bodies of all denominations,
Rotary, Scouts, clubs of various types, all
suffer from the effect that television and the
Internet is having on human behaviour.
Isolation and loneliness can readily occur
in the midst of crowds. All of us here know
the warm sense of brotherhood and
friendship that comes with membership
of Freemasonry. The Holy Royal Arch is
known as the friendly degree; we should
stress this when recruiting, and welcome
the candidates with genuine warmth.
Recruitment to the Royal Arch will
increase in proportion to the publicity that
we give to it within our own Lodges, and
the image we project. Chapter should be
seen as something special, and membership
of the Degree as an exaltation, a higher sense
of Freemasonry. Masters of Craft Lodges
should be encouraged to take wine, at least
once a year, with Companions of Chapters –
any Chapter, not just the one moored to
that particular Lodge.
If there is a Chapter closely involved with
the Lodge, the names of the Principals could
be publicised within the Lodge. The respect
that junior brethren tend to feel towards
senior members of their Lodges could then
be channelled into joining those brethren
in the Lodge’s Chapter.
The candidate would be able, should he
so wish, to complete his journey through
pure Antient Masonry in company with
those brethren with whom he is already
familiar. We need to stress the brotherhood
of Masonry.
Retention will often be a question
of involvement. The new ritual, more
comprehensible and understandable, can
easily be mastered in bite-sized chunks.
Not everyone will work the ritual to the
same high standard. Inevitably there will
be variations, but a sense of enjoyment and
participation will carry the Chapter along,
and raise its standards.
Those that need help, will be helped and
encouraged. We need to explain the Royal
Arch to its new exaltees, and we need to
encourage them in a non-judgemental way.
Progress is not always easy – many
Companions can only progress with
difficulty, but we must help them to do
so, even if only an inch at a time.
The more a Companion participates,
the more he gets involved, the more will
he feel a sense of belonging to his Chapter,
and the loyalty that follows from ownership.
Retention will become much easier, and
those Companions who are happy in their
Chapters will themselves bring in their
brethren from the Craft,
Finally, enjoyment. There is no point in
being a miserable Freemason. Freemasonry
in its widest sense, and particularly this
Degree, with its interesting and dramatic
story, its strong sense of morality, its deep
lesson and its happy atmosphere, is here to
be enjoyed, not to be endured.
Freemasonry is important in today’s
society. It encourages mutual respect and
tolerance, qualities that are becoming
increasingly necessary in a progressively
fractured world. It adheres to standards
of morality and behaviour in a society
that seems increasingly unable to tell right
from wrong.
But, most of all, it is fun. The grand
design of being happy and communicating
happiness affects and benefits us all. The
Royal Arch is there to be enjoyed. If we
can communicate our sense of enjoyment,
all the rest – recruitment, retention, growth
– will inevitably follow.
Mozart enjoyed being a Freemason –
so should we!
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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