Provincial Grand Lodge of East Lancashire><br /> <h1 class=The Past Provincial Grand Master

Address of the RW Provincial Grand Master
17 November 2005

How time flies.

6 months since my installation. It seems like yesterday but brethren we have been busy.

We have had a most enjoyable start to the new Masonic season and I can’t thank the brethren enough for the kind way in which my various deputations and I have been received wherever we go. Perhaps the highlight was a full Lodge room in Rochdale where we welcomed back Bro Harold Woodward as an APGM after his serious illness.

Anyone who experienced the love and fellowship and genuine joy of that evening could ever harbour a doubt that the freemasonry we practice together cannot be something very special. As Bro Woodward said to me at the end of that evening all we have to do is to create those sentiments at every lodge meeting. That is a tall order, brethren, but that must be our goal.

The Lodge conducted a passing ceremony as well and the candidate could not understand what all the fuss was about. “Doesn’t the Provincial Grand Master and his Assistant Provincial Grand Masters attend all the passing ceremonies in this Province?” he said to me afterwards.

I have attended two very happy amalgamation ceremonies one in Bolton and the other in Burnley. There are others ahead of us and next year we will conduct our first Chapter amalgamation celebration. I have also attended hosted meetings to thank the two acting wardens and several district chairmen.

All stimulating and great fun.

In many ways to take over at the end of a Masonic season is a good time. It allows one the summer to realise just what has happened and it has also allowed me to sit down with my colleagues and plan our course. In May, in my Installation Address, I did dwell on each of the main strategies on which my term as your Provincial Grand Master will be based. In the year ahead we are going to focus heavily on two of them -- Charity and Care -- but before I report on those, can I briefly update you on the others?

As I have already mentioned, I have attended two amalgamations and my Assistant Provincial Grand Masters continue to encourage lodges to look at their future and plan for it. From a high of 407 lodges in 2001 we are now down to 345 and it is likely that this figure will be below 300 by this time next year. We have around 8,000 Brethren in the Province of which probably only 5/ 6000 are active and my view is that we need no more than 200 lodges at most - maybe even less.

Brethren, as a guide, let me give you two relevant statistics.
RWBro John Hale, the senior Provincial Grand Master, and who is with us today, presides over a very healthy Province of 4000 brethren in just 82 lodges. In 1913, when the first thoughts were being given to the building of a Masonic Temple in Bridge Street, Manchester, there were approximately 8000 brethren in the Province of East Lancashire in just 148 craft Lodges – food for thought Brethren.

Recruitment is a very wide area as there are so many elements that affect it. I remain convinced that the best method is for our Brethren to talk openly and freely about their membership of the Craft. In the latest edition of the MQ magazine the Pro Grand Master’s address to the Cornerstone Society, should be essential reading for every Freemason. In that address he argues that there is really very little that we cannot discuss with genuinely interested parties.

At the same time we must make our meetings more fun and stimulating, such that younger brethren who are involved can’t wait to tell their friends of the pleasure they derive from their membership. For instance, I was at a meeting in Rossendale a few weeks ago, at a lodge at which several new masons took part in one of the lectures. They were all word perfect and you could see them “purring” at the social board as they were congratulated on all sides on a job well done. Each of them will have travelled home with an experience to cherish.

Retention is probably a bigger problem than recruitment. 40% of those joining the Craft in East Lancashire leave us within 7 years of joining. Retention will be our major focus in 2006/2007 and we want to reinvigorate the whole mentoring programme.

In terms of communication we are in the process of completely updating our Provincial website which, to be honest, is not worthy of this Province. So many people inform themselves today via the internet and we feel that an imaginative and real time website would be an excellent way of communicating both with the brethren of the Province and with the general public. You will see the first signs of the new website in the first quarter of next year. We have made overtures to the three main local daily newspapers in the Province and many of you will have seen the articles in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and the Bolton Evening News.

Bro. Bill Waite and I are being given the opportunity to meet with the editorial staff of the Manchester Evening News on the 30th November, which may or may not lead to an article. Interestingly, each newspaper has now given us a named contact on the news desk to whom we can deliver stories with Masonic content. All the editors have welcomed our decision to be more open about who we are and what we do.

So brethren, I come to the two strategies on which we intend to focus in the year ahead.

In terms of Care we want to ensure that every needy case in the Province is met. We want our brethren and their dependents to feel confident that if they should fall upon hard times then Freemasonry will look after them. The Provincial Grand Almoner has developed an excellent power point presentation which covers all the areas of assistance to whom the needy can apply. On the 23rd September this presentation was given to all the District Deputy Chairmen in the Province in their capacities as District Almoners.

Over the next few months each Deputy Chairman will be meeting with lodge Almoners to make the same presentation. Brethren, in that way we hope to train all the lodge almoners in exactly what funds are available to needy Freemasons and the method of accessing them.

In addition, and to raise the profile of the Lodge almoner, I have taken onboard what I think is an excellent idea from our sister Province, West Lancashire. At every Installation ceremony commencing in January 2006, my representative has been asked to deliver a special address to the lodge Almoner with regard to his duties and the duties of every brother in the lodge to bring cases of need to him. And here brethren, I make a plea for help. Some lodge Almoners do a fantastic job already, some lodge Almoners could do a fantastic job already but need training, and some lodge Almoners are not up to the job and if we were honest with them, probably don’t want the job. Brethren could you please help me in ensuring that the brother who is selected for this important office is someone who really wants it, is full of empathy and understanding for those in need, and can deal effectively with each case. The Province can put in the necessary support structure but it cannot make a success of Care in every lodge unless it is supported by willing and able lodge Almoners. Brethren, as Freemasons, do we not owe that to those less fortunate than ourselves.

And lastly, Charity coupled with the Community, and before I start, I have a very pleasant announcement to make. At the meeting of Grand Charity a few weeks ago it was announced that RWBro Raymond Lye will retire as President of the Grand Charity in March of next year and it was also announced that the new President will be WBro Grahame Elliott, CBE, PSGD PAPGM, of this Province.

Grahame on behalf of all the brethren of this Province, I do congratulate you on this appointment and wish you well in your term of office. You bring great honour to our Province.

Brethren my predecessor made it clear that the Province should have a years’ rest from the Festival system - what with one thing and another we have had Festivals around ever since 1982.

During the past year we have considered very carefully how we should proceed. We went to see Yorkshire West Riding, who I thought had a particularly successful system and I am indebted to them for their willing assistance. Giving to their Yorkshire West Riding Charity has become a habit for the brethren of their Province - over 60% of their active masons make a personal donation every year - and don’t forget brethren we are talking here about Yorkshire men.

It was my Deputy’s idea that we should consult with the brethren so that we could agree a way forward. We have held two excellent workshops with all the District Chairmen, the District Charity Stewards and other contributing brethren and I would like to thank them, most sincerely, for their willing contribution and the time they have given to the issue. Interestingly, in every one of the workshops the main feedback was that ELMBI needs re-branding and repackaging. A Benevolent Institution is not exactly 21st century descriptive!

So I can announce that from the 1st January 2006, the name of our Charity will be changed to the “East Lancashire Masonic Charity” - and it will have a new logo which will be the square and compasses signifying its Masonic connection and the red rose of Lancashire signifying its connection with East Lancashire and, in the modern parlance, it will have a strap line which says quite simply; "We are here to care ".

We are here to care for our beneficiaries,
We are here to care for our non-Masonic charities and;
We are here to care for our own East Lancashire Masonic Charity - the ELMC.

And today I want to appeal to the Brethren of East Lancashire to make a personal annual commitment to your own charity.

Over the last 12 months, since the 2004 Festival, Lodges themselves have been quite generous but the level of personal giving has been small. Brethren that is no surprise because we have had a years rest from personal giving and I know that some brethren still have “Gift Aid” to the 2004 Festival, which has not yet expired – but Brethren do join me in making an annual contribution to our own charity and there is another important message to take back to your Lodges.

I don’t want the Brethren to feel that they are being coerced or forced to make this contribution – somehow and together we must create an environment in which it feels the perfectly naturally thing to do.

Now a word about what the Charity plans to do with the funds. In the past almost all the donations from ELMBI have gone to beneficiaries and with generous support of the Grand Charity we are now able to satisfy most calls on our assistance from beneficiaries. So if we are going to increase together the income stream what are we going to do with the extra income.

I want to suggest to you two avenues. The first is to replenish the assets of the ELMBI, or should I say ELMC, which have suffered badly for many years in which we have been dominated by Festivals. The second avenue is to improve the support for non-Masonic charities in East Lancashire, which is already being given by many lodges.

So the second announcement that I would like to make this afternoon is the creation of a Community Fund, in to which the ELMC will place each year, up to one third of its income. The Community Fund will be used to support non-Masonic charities in East Lancashire. Lodges and Districts through their respective lodge Charity Stewards and District Charity Stewards will be able to bid for grants from the community fund for their chosen charity. I anticipate that we will be able to start with this Grant Programme in the next Masonic season – and Brethren, one of the elements we will be looking for, will be a demonstration by the Lodge or District that Brethren are not only making a financial commitment but also that they are actively involved as Freemasons. That does not mean that we will not support charities with no active involvement from the Brethren, but I want to challenge this Province to become actively involved in local charities with a commitment from the centre that we will support you. In this way we can begin the process of reconnecting with our communities, of bringing freemasonry back in to the centre of our communities rather than being seen as some rather odd and secret society on the edge of it.

Training programmes have been developed for District and Lodge charity stewards and these will take place over the next 3 months. I would hope that the Appeal will begin to be felt by the brethren during the first quarter of next year – and, of course now, I have one final and very important plea -- and I made it also for the lodge almoner. We cannot meet this challenge together without committed and energetic Lodge Charity Stewards. Please could I ask you to go back to your lodges and make sure you have a lodge charity steward who really wants the job and is seen as an energetic and effective holder of that office.

If we do all this it might be possible for us in years to come to look back and say this was a turning point in the development of the Craft in East Lancashire - a point at which many more brethren accepted that promise that each of us made on the night of our initiation and a point at which this Province, through your generosity, can make a meaningful impact on the many non-Masonic charities in East Lancashire.

Brethren before I commence the Investiture, I should like to extend my sincere thanks from all of us to the many people who have been involved in today’s ceremony. They have given so much of their time freely and voluntarily and I want them to know that it is sincerely appreciated.

So we will now proceed with the investiture but before doing so I would just like to mention that at the end I will invest those new District Chairmen who do not already hold the rank of Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden with that rank. I have asked the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies to arrange for each of them to be escorted to the platform so that they can be recognised individually and perhaps acclaimed individually. They and all the other District Chairmen do a tremendous job and without them this Province would be unable to function.

Thank you Brethren.