Nigel Brown is also Grand Scribe Ezra in the Royal Arch
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It is always good to hear exciting news. The announcement,
by the Pro Grand Master in his speech at the September
Quarterly Communication, that MQ and Freemasonry Today
are to merge, is indeed exciting. The merger has been planned
for some time and further underpins the positive initiatives
of the Pro Grand Master to communicate with you, your
families and non-masons.
You might wonder why we are using the title
‘Freemasonry Today’ for the new magazine, especially as
this is a merger and will be the magazine of the United Grand
Lodge of England. The answer is simply that it is a good title.
You will also be interested to know that the Grand Secretary,
on behalf of the Board of General Purposes, will act as ‘compliance
officer’. That means that all editorial, now to cover
a wider range of topics, will be approved before publication.
This then, is the last issue of MQ. The first issue of the
new magazine will be published in January 2008 with your
free copy being distributed in the same way as MQ was.
At the Tripartite meeting held at Freemasons’ Hall in
June I had the opportunity to meet my opposite numbers
in the Grand Lodge of Ireland and Scotland, Barry Lyons
and David Begg respectively. We liaise very well and it was
a pleasure to meet them.
In July the Assistant Grand Master traveled to Sri Lanka to
celebrate their centenary and to install the new District Grand
Master and Grand Superintendent. As part of my remit to
look after the Districts under our jurisdiction, I had the
privilege of accompanying him.
We met many of the brethren and their wives. The
Assistant Grand Master was also interviewed for the District
magazine called The Banner. The interviewer was pleasantly
surprised about our openness and the clear direction our
Rulers have set.
I accompanied the Pro Grand Master on the third of his
four Provincial meetings. These continue to be extremely
successful. I cannot put enough emphasis on how important
are our Provinces and Districts.
On that point, the Grand Chancellor gave an excellent
talk at the last Quarterly Communication clearly confirming
how successfully our respective roles were working out.
In particular, re-emphasing how his role allows the Grand
Secretary to now concentrate on the Provinces and Districts,
whilst he can concentrate on matters regarding Grand Lodges
not under our jurisdiction.
Any thoughts that I may have had that August was a quiet
month at Freemasons’ Hall London were soon dispelled.
Clearly, from a ceremonial aspect, things do go quiet.
However, in all other respects it is as busy as ever. On top
of this, the building works continue and we all look forward
to their completion and to welcoming the Charities into
Freemasons’ Hall. I am happy to report that our discussions
on their move have already given us the opportunity to
establish a very good relationship.
This is a wonderful and inspiring time for Freemasonry
and we look forward to keeping you up-to-date with all
the initiatives in the new Freemasonry Today.
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