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Pro Grand Master's address - December 2019
Quarterly Communication
11 December 2019
An address by the MW the Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes
Brethren. If you look up, you will see one of the finest mosaics in London. It took Italian craftsmen 10 man-years to create and, like so much of our Craft, it is laden with symbols, allegory and meaning. But look more closely, especially in the South-West and you will see that all is not quite as it should be. Cracks have been appearing over the last few years. Tesserae have fallen, and the Grand Superintendent of Work's brow has furrowed, but he informs me that you are not in immediate danger!
After extensive research, chemical analysis, ultrasounds, X-Rays, thermal studies, endoscopies, not to mention all manner of expert opinion, we are now able to confidently conclude that we have no idea why. We do know the many things that are not responsible for these cracks, and contrary to scurrilous rumour, hot air from this chair has nothing whatsoever to do with it, but pinning down the exact cause has proved elusive. Take a good look Brethren because in a few weeks' time, it will be shrouded in scaffolding, and for the first time in nearly a hundred years, men, and probably women, will begin work on restoring it to its former splendour.
We recently heard from the Grand Superintendent of Works about his role within the organisation and some of the work being done by his team to ensure that not only this building, but all of our masonic halls up and down the country are up to scratch. A huge amount of work has been put into producing the Masonic Halls Guide, available in the members' section of the UGLE website, to provide a 'Best Practice' guide to help Lodges and Provinces improve their Halls and meeting places, and how they are managed.
I was recently told of a Lodge in Cambridgeshire (Stone Cross) which has transformed its own hall from a rather dingy affair to something the whole community can be proud of. Members, under the guidance of more expert Craftsmen – also members of that Lodge – have spent weekends, and time over consecutive summers to transform it into a venue that they can all look forward to using – and it has made a huge difference to the first impressions and attendance of new members.
As we actively seek out new members to join us, we should ensure that we are examining what it is that we would expect them to find – not just in the physical spaces we occupy, but in our Lodges too.
Many of us find a great deal of fulfilment in volunteering and giving of our time for the benefit of the community at large. We will shortly be sending out a survey to estimate just how great an impact we, as Freemasons have within our local communities – our last estimate was that our members contribute over 5 million hours volunteering for worthy causes.
We must be unique as an organisation in that we have premises embedded in almost every community in the Country. Just as we draw our members from all walks of life and all backgrounds, so our halls are found in village and cities, in areas rich and poor. Over the next few months, the Communications Working Party of the Board, made up of Provincial Grand Masters from each region of the country, will be looking at what we might do to raise our profile by putting these to better use – not only for ourselves, but also for those communities from which we are drawn. What does your Hall say about you, and the wider organisation, to a person seeing it for the first time and, indeed, to that potential new member, or that member of public giving blood, being screened, or just looking around?
Many of our Halls are both precious and beautiful; some, cracking a little around the edges and in need of loving care. But I'm sure, Brethren, we all feel like that at times. Let us remember that we are custodians not just of the Craft and its heritage and traditions, but also those meeting places which have, for generations, inspired our members.
I wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas period and I look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.
Norfolk Freemasons present Compiled History of their Lodges to the Museum of Freemasonry
As part of the Tercentenary celebrations back in 2017, Norfolk Freemasons decided to create a single source containing a definitive written historical record of all their lodges
To that end a small committee was formed with the aim of gathering together and compiling all available histories into a single document. The overriding brief being that the histories included must have been produced by and for the Lodges – their own histories, in their own words.
The resultant three-volume history of their individual lodges provides a comprehensive overview of Freemasonry in Norfolk and includes all available material to 31st December 2018.
Ahead of Grand Lodge Quarterly Communications in September, the Provincial Grand Master for Norfolk Stephen Allen, together with other members of the Norfolk Provincial Executive and two members of Norfolk Blues, their group for newly joined Norfolk Freemasons, were pleased to present a copy of the Compiled History of Norfolk Lodges to Martin Cherry, Librarian at the Museum of Freemasonry, at Freemasons' Hall.
Martin Cherry said: 'It was a real pleasure to meet Stephen and his team to receive this fantastic record of Norfolk Freemasonry into the Museum collection.'
Pro Grand Master's address - September 2019
Quarterly Communication
11 September 2019
An address by the MW the Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes
Brethren I have been a Freemason for nearly 50 years and there have been so many changes during that time that one might think it has been all change. However, that is not the case and the principles emphasised at that time are still very much at the centre of what we all do and strive to pass on today.
What has changed, and I hope very much for the better is our ability to discuss our membership and what we do, with non members, as well as a greatly improved internal communications system.
Since my first involvement at Grand Lodge there have been four Pro Grand Masters, Lords Cornwallis, Farnham and Northampton and myself. Those three predecessors were acutely aware of the need for change, as, indeed, were their senior advisers. They, with the tremendous and very much continuing support of the Grand Master, started and continued the process. Where I have been lucky is that so much of it seems to have come to fruition on my watch. It would be very easy for me to claim credit for this. However, I hope that those of you who know me well enough, appreciate that it is not my style, but, much more importantly, it would be totally untrue.
Very little gets done in the world in general and certainly not in Freemasonry unless it is overseen by a strong team and I have been fortunate in having had excellent support from exceptional people throughout my period of office.
It is, perhaps, now a rather hackneyed expression, but Mark McCormack's saying that there is no 'I' in team still rings true. Everything works better when there is collective responsibility and everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.
In Freemasonry we should look at the whole membership as one team. Provinces and Districts are teams in their own right, as are individual Lodges and I would go further and say that the executives at the head of all these bodies should consider themselves teams. We must all pull in the same direction and support each other.
Reverting to the team theme, there will, inevitably, be some decisions made with which not all in the team agree, but again there should be collective responsibility and support should be given.
If this is not the case, we run the risk of being 'picked off' by ill wishers both externally and, dare I say, internally as well.
Of course, we won't all agree on everything, but mutual support and respect goes a long way to finding the right answers, even if there has to be tinkering along the way.
I really do believe that during the last 10 years we have made giant strides in the right direction, but I do stress again that this was enormously helped by the building blocks that had started to be put in place earlier. We have a long way to go, but I can't remember a time when I have seen so much enthusiasm around the world and I am primarily, but by no means solely, referring to UGLE members because they are the ones that I meet most. We have a large number of visitors from other Constitutions with us today and I hope that they would concur with what I have said.
Wherever I go in the world I find our Brethren openly talking to non masons about their membership. There is no embarrassment and no secrecy involved. I even had a most convivial conversation with the Passport Control Officer in Kingston, Jamaica. I didn't manage to sign him up, but he showed great interest in our visit to the Jamaica Cancer Charity.
Brethren we should all consider ourselves lucky to be members of our Order at this exciting time, but I make no apology for repeating that the current positive situation is very largely down to team work in every aspect of what we do, most certainly not forgetting the incredible teams who raise money for and manage our Charities. Please don't forget Brethren that when anything has gone well, none of us should say 'I have done such and such' we should say 'we have done such and such'. I feel certain that I have just made a rod for my own back and, no doubt, I shall fall into my own trap perhaps even later today, and I can think of a few people sitting not far from me who will delight in picking me up on it.
Brethren, please forgive me if I finish by saying I know that I have spoken for quite long enough and WE must go to lunch.
Thank you, Brethren.
Project Hermes talk - Stephen Blank
Quarterly Communication
11 September 2019
A talk by RW Bro Stephen Blank, Provincial Grand Master for Cheshire and Chairman of the Hermes 'To Be' working party
I am grateful to have the opportunity to say a few words about Project Hermes which will revolutionise the work of the Lodge Sec and Chapter Scribe Ezra. From now on I will just refer to the Lodge Sec but please understand this applies to Chapters as well. I will also lapse occasionally and only say 'Provincial' when I mean 'Metropolitan' and 'District' as well!
It is perhaps a little strange that I find myself involved with the workings of the Lodge Sec. In my 40+ years as a Freemason, I have been Lodge Treasurer, Lodge DC – actually I still am – Provincial DC, DepGDC, APGM, DGS and now Provincial Grand Master - but never Lodge Sec. However, all my various jobs have served to make it clear to me that the most important job is that of Lodge Secretary; it is very rare to find a good and successful Lodge that does not have a good Secretary.
After that flattery, and as a matter of interest, would those of you who are or have been Lodge Secretaries put their hands up? Okay, so for the benefit of those who are not, a little bit of explanation may be helpful.
UGLE maintains all of our details, including those of past members, on a database system called ADelphi, which is Greek for brother. This records our Lodges and Chapters, the offices we have held within them and, if relevant, our Provincial and grand rank. It records your passing and raising dates and the number of your grand Lodge certificate. Of course, it also records your contact details and your Lodge's details, such as Lodge officers and where and when the Lodge meets.
It is a web-based system available to MetGL, Provinces and Districts. Typically, only the ProvGSec, PGM and designated Met / Prov / District leaders have access plus Prov office staff or volunteers.
ADelphi is 'fed' by all the various forms which the Lodge Secretary has to prepare; the form M/P/A for new candidates, the Annual Return, the Installation Return. The Annual Return is created by ADelphi and is the basis for the request for payment of dues that UGLE - and many Provs / Dists - make every year to every Lodge and Chapter. The Secretary also has to create the summons for each meeting.
In doing all of these tasks, the Sec has to ensure all of his work complies with the Book of Constitutions. And when it doesn't, he gets an email from his Provincial office – or Prov office gets an email from Registrations dept here at GQS and then Prov office emails Lodge Sec telling him to put it right.
Two examples of problems that the Lodge Sec can encounter. Rule 158: if someone applies to join a Lodge but doesn't live or work in that Province, the Lodge Sec has to make enquiries of that person's local Province. How the other Province responds – and when – is out of his control.
Let's look at rule 163 specifically rule 163(c). When an existing member wants to join a new Lodge, the joiner must obtain clearance certificates to show to the Lodge Sec that he doesn't owe subs to another Lodge because, if he does, rule 163(d) says that the new Lodge is liable.
That means the Sec must be told all the Lodges of which he is and has been a member, whether within the same Province or not. Some of those Lodges may have closed. And for some of us, remembering all the Lodges we are and have been members of can be a problem. When I applied to join my first Cheshire Lodge, I forgot one and started life in trouble with my Prov office! But this information is all on ADelphi; the catch being that the Lodge Sec does not have access to ADelphi and, thanks to GDPR, even ProvGSecs don't have access to other Provinces' data.
Last year, the process whereby PGMs apply for grand ranks for their members was automated via ADelphi. There are, as you might imagine, rules as to who is eligible which are very convoluted. In the original system, emails and forms went in to GQS and if you transgressed, as I did - accidentally - in one year, I received a polite letter two weeks later suggesting that I rethink. Then I had to revisit my plans in a hurry. In the new system, the PGM does it online and his request to the mw the gm is validated as he enters it. This saved me and those who manage the process within UGLE a huge amount of time.
The GSec wants the same ability for Lodge Secs when it comes to creating their summons, at least for matters covered by the BoC. When the Sec enters a potential joining member, any decent modern computer system should instantly look him up and flag him as 'clear' i.e. not in arrears anywhere in the constitution. It should 'talk' the Sec through the application process. Rather than relying on the Prov office to key in a candidate's name and address or date of birth from a handwritten form, the candidate himself should do it and have it validated by the Lodge Sec.
We should do the standard id checks to protect ourselves and our members and capture photos while we're at it as well. Updating Lodge records should be made easy and flow straight from the summons – so if a resignation is on the summons, the resignation process is triggered – copy to Prov retrieval officer - and once confirmed after the meeting, the member doesn't appear erroneously on the next annual return. So, the annual return will be accurate.
My Province's reported exaltation numbers for 2018 changed only last month as a form relating to an exaltation in 2018 was finally submitted correctly by the se in July! This makes monitoring progress in anything like real time very hard. Hermes will make this virtually impossible and, perhaps more importantly, there will be no reason any more for the Lodge Sec to delay.
So, I hope you are all convinced this is worthwhile; how are we going about it?
The present version of ADelphi went live in the summer of 2015 which is more or less when I became PGM of Cheshire. It is fair to say that the launch did not go well. As I have been involved in trying to make computers work in organisations for over forty years – although always from the business perspective rather than the technical side – I found myself becoming very voluble about its shortcomings. When you do that in freemasonry you usually find yourself on a committee charged with sorting matters out and that is exactly what happened to me.
That committee, the ADelphi senior user group was set up at the end of 2016 by RWBro David Macey and is now chaired by RWBro Ian Chandler. It records and prioritises developments of new features and bug-fixes requested by Provinces or UGLE and has been bringing about improvements to ADelphi ever since.
In 2018, the GSec presented his proposal to the BGP, to extend ADelphi's availability to Lodge Secs where, I am told, it was readily accepted. But we had learnt the lesson from the ADelphi launch and did not rush into coding. Instead UGLE formed a steering group and recruited two people to work exclusively on Hermes: tony Keating, a project manager, and Nigel Codron, a business analyst and senior Middx freemason.
One early decision was that we would not, in fact, extend ADelphi itself to Lodge Secs. ADelphi was designed as a tool for Provinces, aimed at people who would work with it all day every day. Instead we would commission a new web-based system designed to be intuitive for Lodge Secs, we call it the Hermes front-end or just Hermes.
We will provide on-line training, but the expectation is that this will be as easy to use as amazon or your on-line banking system. The two systems, Hermes and ADelphi, will talk to each other so updates by Lodge Secs will require validation by UGLE or Prov offices before they actually update ADelphi. But if we get the summons creation right, there won't be a need for too much validation.
A second early decision was that, before we started creating new digital processes, we should make sure we understood the existing paper processes, especially who does what and where interactions with BoC take place.
Well, I said 'paper processes', but that implies they existed on paper. In fact, they exist in a bio-computer running on the oxford classics operating system – UGLE's Deputy Grand Secretary Graham Redman! – so, we have spent many months carefully documenting the 'as-is' processes as we call them by talking at length to brother Redman himself, bro Andy Croci in registrations and a sample of Provincial, Lodge, and Chapter Secretaries.
A third early decision was that we could not engage simultaneously with every one of the forty-seven Provinces and MetGL not to mention the Districts overseas. So, we formed a small group termed the pilot Provinces consisting of MetGL, Hampshire and the isle of Wight, Cheshire and Bristol plus the Districts of Cyprus and eastern archipelago who in turn formed their own little consulting groups of selected Lodge Secretaries and Chapter Scribes E. These are the ones we consult on a regular basis to keep us 'real', as they say.
The results of documenting the 'as-is' processes can be viewed on flowcharts with swim-lanes for each relevant department.
The complexity of all of this meant that we were only ready to start thinking about the new way forward at the end of June at which point a working party was formed, known as the 2b working party and, since I was out of the room at the time, I was designated its chairman. As well as Tony, Nigel and myself, the members of the working party are: Richard Gardiner, Neil Tomkinson, Prity lad and David bell.
Richard fulfils a dual role; he is a pivotal member of the ADelphi senior user group, designated the Provincial and metropolitan user representative, but he is also a senior member of MetGL and an experienced met Lodge and Chapter Secretary. I will come back to the position of MetGL in a minute. Neil Tomkinson is the ADelphi guru from UGLE's ICT department; Mrs Prity lad is director of member services and David Bell is the interim finance director of UGLE.
What became clear very quickly is that significant changes will also be required to ADelphi itself which is why Neil Tomkinson's presence on the 2bwp is critical. He regards it as so important that he put on a tie especially for this photo – the first time he's worn one in 20 years, he said. Many of the changes needed were already logged as feature requests with the ADelphi senior users' group and have been passed over to form part of the Hermes requirements catalogue.
UGLE's overall strategic imperative is to start our membership growing again and Hermes has to contribute to this, and more directly than just by making the Lodge Secretary's life easier, important though that is. This is Prity's department. More and more new members are finding us via the internet rather than traditional routes and we must be able to track what works and what doesn't. We also have to retain them. We want to capture more information such as where the candidate heard about us, members' attendance or, more significantly, non-attendances at meetings, a key indicator of problems building up.
Many Provinces send particular letters to candidates at certain stages of their masonic journey; the updated ADelphi system will be 'told' by Hermes when it has happened and then do this automatically or at least prompt the Province to action.
For the first time ADelphi will interface with UGLE finance by creating requests for payment for dues, registration fees and dispensations together with bacs references for each as they are generated.
On an opt-in basis, it will interface with Provinces' finances as well. Mentioning that, can I give a big thankyou to my colleague PGMs up here? I sent out a questionnaire via bUGLE on 19 July with a series of questions about how they charge their Lodges, asking for a reply by 31 July. Every single craft Province responded within the time scale. This was greatly appreciated and enabled the 48 responses to be analysed by my office manager, Liz wright, so they could be discussed in detail at the 2bwp meeting on 6 august last.
When those of us in the Provinces consider the changes that Hermes will bring, it's easy to overlook the effect on MetGL. Yes, it's a lot bigger than any of us with 30,000 + members. But it is MetGL that will see the biggest change brought about by Hermes. Once upon a time, London's Lodges were dealt with by UGLE itself and that of course included all their registration processes i.e. feeding ADelphi. When 'London' was devolved into MetGL these processes were left with UGLE – where they remain today. When Hermes is launched, MetGL will govern all of its own processes just like the Provinces – only bigger.
This working party has been tasked by our GSec and CEO with thinking outside of our current boxes. Our ideas and plans will of course be discussed with and validated by the DepGSec, the registrations department and the pilot Provinces before any coding starts. When we have obtained a consensus on the ways forward from that relatively small group, a process that is well under way, they will be exposed to all Provinces for their comments.
We anticipate that changes to the book of constitutions will be required and a separate committee has been set up to consider and draft them; I will leave you to guess who the chair of that committee is! Of course, the final decisions will rest with BGP and this, the grand Lodge
Let me finish with two examples of the new approach we are planning. Rule 158 may be tricky to administer but can flush out timewasters. There are people who start applying but then go radio silent. A few years later they decide to have another go and apply to a different Province. There are even people who are initiated in one Province, stop attending, then try and get initiated again somewhere else. GDPR prevents one Province from having access to the records of another Province.
We propose to have a database of enquiries available nationally, so anyone expressing interest via a website or open day will have his basic details captured and held for, say, 10 years. If the PMO assigns him to a Lodge those details form the basis of his application form. If it goes nowhere, it will be noted but he will remain on the database and if he approaches another Province or Lodge, those details will appear.
Clearance certificates are a little tricky because neither ADelphi nor Provinces record details of payments within Lodges; they only deal with payments by Lodges. So, we propose that as part of each attendance register that the Lodge Sec populates after each meeting – using a dropdown list of members – he also marks any members who are in arrears according to his Lodge's bylaws. The existence of this flag will be picked up by any other Lodge he applies to join and the applicant invited to 'check his records'.
Cheshire Freemasons cycle to Freemasons' Hall from Chester and raise over £22,000 in style
Last year, Cheshire's Provincial Grand Master Stephen Blank set a challenge to members to organise an event promoting awareness and building support for the Cheshire Freemasons Charity
John Miller was first to step forward and so developed the idea of organising a sponsored bike ride from Chester to London, utilising only the intricate canal network and towpaths that weave between Cheshire's' county town and capital city.
The route was agreed from the Masonic Hall in Queen Street, Chester, to Freemasons' Hall at Great Queen Street following the Shropshire Union Canal to Wolverhampton, then the routes through Birmingham, picking up the Grand Union Canal near Solihull and following that into the heart of London, some 230 miles and crossing several masonic Provinces.
The team consisted of 16 riders with a support team of two and given the rough terrain and general riding conditions it was agreed to limit each day to between 40 and 50 miles allowing the challenge to be completed within five or six days. Riders were tasked with raising sponsorship and several Cheshire businesses sponsored the exclusive team shirts produced in order to support logistical costs such as travel, accommodation and food.
A black tie benefit event was also held within the Province which greatly contributed to the costs of the task ahead. To make the most of the fine English weather, the departure date was set for 6th June and the Deputy Provincial Grand Master David Dyson was present to see the team off safely from the Chester start point, and the Provincial Grand Master put a date in his diary to meet the exhausted riders outside the doors of Great Queen Street on the 11th June, what could possibly go wrong? The answer is Storm Miguel – which for three days of the journey tested each and every rider for their tenacity, and for how waterproof their kit truly was.
In the main the team discovered that waterproofs aren't that effective in the face of a tropical storm, and indeed for two of the riders who managed to fall in to the canal, and are now affectionately referred to as the 'Cheshire Splash Masters'. Cheshire's Provincial Office reached out to Provinces that the riders would pass through en route.
Shropshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire were all kind enough to offer a warm welcome and kind words of encouragement, as well as contributions, a true reflection of communication, commitment and teamwork by Freemasons. It is noteworthy that during the ride, many conversations with members of the public took place, lifting the profile of Freemasonry in general, and additional contributions were made by many of these non-Masons met along the way in support of the rider's objectives.
A joint effort between the riders and HQ meant the Communications team were able to promote the event on social media platforms, using the dynamic mapping of GPS, daily blogs and great pictures sent by the riders each day.
Followers loved watching the daily progress made by the cyclists. The event organiser, John Miller, was keen to ensure the fundraising aims were kept clearly in the spotlight throughout the event via the online donation link and 'interviewed' members of the team at each overnight stay so this could be broadcast. The ride ended with the entire team completing the journey.
The total fundraising was then announced that over £22,000, which this was increased at Quarterly Communications the following day when the Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes made a donation to the Cheshire Freemasons Charity of a further £1,000.
Pro Grand Master's address - June 2019
Quarterly Communication
12 June 2019
An address by the MW the Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes
Brethren we have a number of firsts today. It is June and, therefore, the first meeting of Grand Lodge since the investiture of the new team of Acting Grand Officers. Some old hands, some new, including, of course, the Grand Director of Ceremonies. We wish them all well and hope they enjoy their term of office how ever long that may be.
Another first is the luncheon arrangements. This is not the place to go into the whys and wherefores of the action that the Grand Secretary has taken. Many of you will be aware of the reasoning. What I will say is that the Grand Secretary deserves our support and, whilst I know how reluctant you all are ever to comment on such issues, I am sure that he would welcome constructive comments.
Changing the subject: I was in Stockholm three weekends ago at the Installation of the new Grand Master of the Swedish Order of Freemasons. In his address the new Grand Master laid out his vision for the future which included ensuring that all new candidates who wished to join their Order were properly interviewed and briefed prior to their initiation so that they knew what was expected of them as Freemasons and what they, as Freemasons, should and should not expect from their membership. This struck a slight chord with me, Brethren. Are we, perhaps, ahead of the game with Pathway which is now being so widely used within our Constitution?
I am quite certain that Pathway is a 'game changer' for many of our Lodges and I am so pleased that so many of you have embraced it, as it makes attracting new Brethren much more effective and we are far more likely to effectively engage our new members if they have been introduced to Freemasonry in this way.
I have also been delighted to have seen the use of Solomon in a number of Lodges not least on my visit to Cyprus in April. Many of the excerpts are ideal for filling in idle moments in Lodge, when there is a natural gap in proceedings, without extending the overall time of the meeting.
I have said before, but it bears repeating. Time is a precious commodity in most people's lives and becomes more so as time goes on. The time that we meet and the time we spend in Lodge are very relevant. Personally it might suit me very well to meet at 5 o'clock or even earlier, spend two hours in the meeting and then be finished by 9 to 9.30, but that would be a pretty selfish attitude when it comes to the younger brethren and in the case of most Lodges, a sure way of reducing its popularity for new members.
Brethren, let's all be flexible and listen to each others' requirements. If suitable, the meeting times can be varied from meeting to meeting as many Lodges already do, and we should not be afraid to consecrate new lodges that meet the needs of those we hope to attract rather than blindly supporting lodges that don't. Every Lodge has a natural life span.
Brethren that is enough lecturing for one day. The gap between now and our meeting in September has the natural summer break from which I am sure we will all emerge with renewed vigour.
'The Road Back to 1723' presentation - Dr Ric Berman
Quarterly Communication
12 June 2019
A presentation by Dr Ric Berman
Some years ago I was invited to a lodge in Greensboro, North Carolina. Having been seated, my neighbour informed me in a low voice that the ritual – like that elsewhere in North Carolina - was modelled on the form used in England in the early nineteenth century. However, much to my surprise, before the lodge was opened, the master asked the senior warden to order the deacons to 'take the word' from each of those present. And as the deacons walked the lines to receive the whispered password from each attendee, I was thankful that I had recently visited a lodge in Dublin and knew what was required. But rather than focus on my potential embarrassment, the more important point is this: North Carolina's Masonic ritual was not from nineteenth-century England but had descended from the Irish and Antients, with roots dating back another sixty years to the mid-eighteenth century.
This made me think about historical context and how an awareness of the background to our ceremonies and ritual helps inform our understanding of Freemasonry and why we do what we do.
Many people consider that the origins of our Constitutions, published in 1723, lies in the 'Old Charges'. These were the documents that governed the creation and regulation of stonemasons' lodges and guilds, the first known of which – the Regius manuscript, dates from around 1390-1400. The second, the Cooke manuscript, is believed to date from around twenty to thirty years later. And there are more than a hundred such documents that reach from the end of the fourteenth century into the early eighteenth.
Each document follows almost exactly the same format. They begin with a statement of belief in God and the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; continue with a pledge of allegiance to the king and lawful authorities; contain a 'traditional history' of Freemasonry; and conclude with the regulations governing the operation of the guild or lodge.
There is a reason for this structure. Anti-labour legislation enacted by Parliament rendered wage bargaining illegal and in order to circumvent this the guilds need to demonstrate that they were not seeking to disrupt but rather respected the established order of Church and State, and that their demands for 'fair wages' were part of a long tradition that dated back centuries and was associated with leading historical figures.
The Regius manuscript dates the arrival of Freemasonry in England to King Athelstan, an Anglo-Saxon king reigning in the tenth century. He is regarded as the first true English king, a man who united England against the Vikings and an iconic figure to mediaeval Britons. The Cooke manuscript pushed the date back 700 years further to the third century and St Alban, the earliest English Christian martyr. The manuscript notes that 'Saint Alban loved well masons, and gave them … their charges and manner first in England'.
Cooke also states that the level of wage rates the stonemasons were seeking to obtain had been 'approved' by Athelstan, who had also given his imprimatur to masonic guilds and assemblies: 'and he loved well masonry and masons. And he became a mason himself, and he gave them charges and names as it is now used in England, and in other countries. And he ordained that they should have reasonable pay and purchased a free patent of the king that they should make [an] assembly when they saw a reasonable time.'
And James Anderson's 1723 Constitutions appear to follow a similar vein, with Anderson noting that Freemasonry began with 'Adam, our first parent … [who] had Geometry written on his Heart'.
It is important to understand that such histories were not to be taken literally. As with the Old Charges, Anderson's historical account was designed to set a literary context for Freemasonry. By positioning it as an ancient institution linked to icons from the past, the narrative afforded the organisation legitimacy and gave it an aura and attraction that was important in a society that valued tradition.
But although the overall form and structure of the 1723 Constitutions may have been similar to that found in the Old Charges, the substance was fundamentally different.
The most important aspect of the 1723 Constitutions is a section known as the Charges. This was written by Dr Jean Theophilus Desaguliers, a Huguenot, the third grand master and a subsequent deputy grand master. Desaguliers' Charges comprise a set of Enlightenment principles and provide the foundations for the creation of what is now modern Freemasonry. The philosophical outlook that Desaguliers' Charges embrace was radical at the time, and the thoughts expressed remain valid today.
The first masonic charge - Concerning God and Religion - replaced the traditional invocation to the Trinity and formal declaration of Christian belief. As written, the charge obliged Freemasons only to 'obey the moral law' within a framework of 'that Religion in which all Men agree'. It would no longer be the case that a mason should 'be of the religion of that country or nation' where he resided, but necessary only to believe in God and be a 'good man and true'.
The charge was not an avowal of support for a specific religious canon or church. The new Masonic oath was a simple declaration of faith in a divine being without a stated preference for any given form of worship. It was openly latitudinarian, if not almost deist, and represented a denial of the importance of doctrine and of ecclesiastical organisation.
The second charge - Of the Civil Magistrate Supreme and Subordinate - made plain that there would no longer be fealty to a divinely-appointed absolute monarch – instead, a Mason will be 'a peaceable subject to the Civil Powers wherever he resides'. He would also respect civil order – 'A Mason is a peaceable Subject to the Civil Powers … is never to be concerned in Plots and Conspiracies against the Peace and Welfare of the Nation.'
At a deeper level, the second charge echoed the changes to England's constitutional structure in the wake of the 1688 Glorious Revolution. Where allegiance to the crown – 'to be a true liege man to the king' – was core to the Old Charges, the 1723 Constitutions and later oaths would state that Freemasons were subject to the 'supreme legislature'. For Desaguliers and the new Grand Lodge of England, the ideal political structure was that 'which does most nearly resemble the Natural Government of our System'. Grand Lodge and hence Freemasonry would be supportive of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary government aligned with an independent judiciary - the 'supreme legislature'.
The implication was that resistance to the crown could be justified where a king was in breach of his Lockean moral contract with those he governed. This had been the basis of the Glorious Revolution and the justification for replacing James II with William and Mary. It was no longer obligatory for Freemasons to be bound to 'be true liegemen to the King of England without any treason or falsehood'. They would instead 'attend' and 'respect', but be 'guided, not enslaved'.
And in the fourth charge there would be a rejection of patronage, the wheel upon which eighteenth-century Britain turned: in Freemasonry, 'all preferment is to be grounded upon real worth and personal merit'.
Taken as a whole, this was a social and political manifesto born of Enlightenment values and based on Enlightenment philosophical ideas pioneered by John Locke, Isaac Newton and others.
In June 1723, Freemasonry faced a threat to these tenets from one of its own – the Duke of Wharton, the second noble Grand Master. During his term of office the duke had embraced the Jacobites – the supporters of the exiled Pretender, James Stuart. In response, and at Desaguliers' request, the Grand Lodge of England resolved 'that it is not in the power of any man, or body of men, to make innovations in the body of Masonry without the consent first obtained of the Annual Grand Lodge'.
2023 will of course be the tercentennial anniversary of the publication of Anderson's Constitutions and of Desaguliers' Charges. The Constitutions and Charges provide the cornerstone upon which English and much of international Freemasonry rests. And it is not only appropriate but incumbent upon us to mark and celebrate this event. To paraphrase T. S. Elliot, we should explore our past and, at the end of so doing, arrive where we began and know the place for the first time.
But as we look back over three hundred years along the Road to 1723, it is also incumbent upon us to turn and to look forward.
Dr David Staples addresses modernisation and communication at UGLE
Here to serve
From continuing modernisation to clearer communication, Grand Secretary Dr David Staples reveals some of the major improvements being made to the United Grand Lodge of England
You spoke in the Winter 2018 issue about the ongoing modernisation of UGLE. What improvements were made in 2018?
The biggest change has been bringing together masonic and commercial staff at Freemasons' Hall, which started with the Board's appointment of a CEO. This meant that for the first time in a number of years a single person would be in charge of and responsible for delivering for the organisation as a whole.
Staff have taken part in a number of workshops to understand what we stand for and why; what our values are as the 'headquarters' – a distinct organisation separate from UGLE or Supreme Grand Chapter. They have agreed a set of organisational values and goals which have resulted in the introduction of new appraisal processes, mandatory training, pay scales and benefits. Alongside this, regular communication with our staff through 'Town Hall' and departmental meetings has ensured people know what is going on and how this fits in to the bigger picture, all of which will help us attract and retain the best possible staff. A restructuring of the organisation and of the various business functions held within the building has allowed me to establish clear lines of accountability and allowed the new directors to facilitate change and improvement in their respective areas. This work has resulted in us being awarded Investors in People accreditation – a 'kitemark' not only of excellent people management, but also of normality for how a professional organisation is expected to run.
All of this may sound like management speak, but what it means in reality is that we have ensured the 'Centre' is up to the task of both serving our members and representing them effectively in the modern world.
In addition to these changes affecting staff, there have been many other smaller projects aimed at improving how professional we are, and enhancing what we can do and how we deliver. These have touched virtually every aspect of our operations. For example, an archiving project has examined the kilometres of shelving and paperwork stored in Freemasons' Hall and helped us to develop a document retention policy. Clearing shelving from the main office has allowed us to consider exciting new options for the space that has been created.
A web-based booking and payment system has gone live for those attending Supreme Grand Chapter and Quarterly Communications, drastically reducing the number of cheques we need to process and bringing us in line with the modern-day expectations of our members.
In preparation for an increased focus on communications, we have brought FMT in-house and appointed a new editorial team, while the Directory of Lodges and the Masonic Yearbook are now online living documents. We have trained a number of members as media ambassadors to represent us at events and in the press. We have commissioned a communications capability assessment and have undertaken polling of the general public to find out what people really think of us, and what opportunities might present themselves to improve their understanding of who we are and what we're about.
We now have new phone systems and video conferencing suites to improve communications across our worldwide organisation, and these are saving both time and money while improving engagement with our members. The new Events Management Team has been tasked with engaging with our members and encouraging them to use and visit Freemasons' Hall – a home for all English Freemasons, and we are starting a programme of community engagement projects to broaden our public footprint.
We have converted disused flats into three new lodge rooms in response to an ever-increasing demand for temples, and supported the Improvement Delivery Group in the creation of Operational Membership Dashboards, the Solomon online learning resource and the Members' Pathway. All of these will directly inform our drive to improve our attraction to potential members and our retention of existing ones.
We have anticipated changes in the legal framework and have issued guidance on transgender members and data protection. We have blended the Grand Ranks system into ADelphi, thereby saving both our Provinces and Districts days of back-and-forth letter writing.
A huge amount happened in 2018 and has continued to do so in 2019 to ensure that we are a professional, fit-for-purpose and efficient central organisation which is held in high esteem by the membership and the public and which communicates an appealing, confident, relevant and consistent message to the outside world.
What are the key objectives of this process of modernisation?
Simply put, to better serve the members of both UGLE and Supreme Grand Chapter. UGLE needs to be ready for the challenges set by the Rulers and the Board, but also needs to meet the expectations of our members. When I was a lodge Secretary a few years ago, I wanted my Grand Lodge membership fees to be wisely spent, and I wanted to see some tangible benefit for what I pay for in terms of a confident organisation ready to represent itself on the public stage and to stand up for its members. I also wanted to interact with it in a modern and accessible way. That principle still holds true now that I am the CEO.
You also spoke about making the headquarters more 'transparent'. How is this being done and why?
More open communication between the Provinces, our members and UGLE allows us to ensure an aligned approach to our common challenges – how people perceive us; how we represent ourselves to the outside world; how we normalise Freemasonry in the eyes of the public; how we attract and retain members. We are developing a new communications strategy with an appropriately resourced department to deliver it. We have a new Member Services Department to help streamline the relationship between our members and their organisation, and to implement the various initiatives being carried out by those groups with a care for Freemasonry.
What methods will the organisation be using to put a greater focus on attracting new members?
I see this very much in terms of normalising the environment from which our members are drawn in terms of public opinion. I'm a scientist by training and I like to see the evidence for something before we invest resources in it. We know that 87 per cent of the public know of our organisation, and 49 per cent of the public have a firm opinion of us. We also know that the majority of those do not necessarily hold an opinion that we might like! That is despite all the good works we do, despite all the money we raise for charity and despite everything else we are doing to rehabilitate ourselves in the public eye. We recognise that the majority of new members join after personal conversations with those who already enjoy Freemasonry, but we must make sure that those to whom we speak already have a fair opinion of us. To these ends we will be embarking on a focused series of interventions to bring about just that – an understanding of what Freemasonry is, what its values are, what we stand for and why we are relevant in today's society. In conjunction with the newly rolled-out Members' Pathway, we hope to ensure that no opportunity is wasted.
What are some of the more important changes planned for 2019?
We want to find new ways to open up our headquarters to as many people as we can, and to ensure that every one of those contact moments affords those individuals a greater understanding of Freemasonry. Staff will be moving out of the old central office space, which we hope to develop into a public area containing a temporary exhibition space, a café and a very public-facing office for Metropolitan Grand Lodge.
The introduction of an expenses policy, travel policy and purchase order system will improve our financial controls, but the most important change will be our ability to deliver an overarching communications strategy aimed at taking back control of the public narrative on Freemasonry.
In terms of day-to-day processes, you will have already read about our ambition to revolutionise how we administer the organisation. Changes being planned through Project Hermes aim to replace paper forms with web-based systems, removing the need for endless form-filling and drastically reducing turnaround times. In short, we want to make the lives of lodge, Provincial and District Secretaries much easier. We want to streamline our ability to collect dues and improve our ability to analyse and spot trends in membership data, which will help us to identify and propagate best practice wherever it arises. I truly believe we have exciting times ahead.
'Simply put, to better serve the members of both UGLE and Supreme Grand Chapter, UGLE needs to be ready for the challenges set by the Rulers and the Board, but also needs to meet the expectations of our members'
'A year in the life of the Grand Superintendent of Works' talk - John Pagella
Quarterly Communication
13 March 2019
A talk by RW Bro John Pagella, Grand Superintendent of Works
Most Worshipful Pro Grand Master and Brethren
If you want to understand the responsibilities which you have as a Grand Lodge Officer you can do one of two things. Consult the Book of Constitutions, or speak to Graham Redman.
Rule 35 states – 'The Grand Superintendent of Works shall advise the Board of General Purposes when required on any matter in connection with the building and the works. He shall furnish reports on the state of repair of the properties of the Grand Lodge when required'.
When I asked Graham if this meant that I simply had to submit periodic reports on necessary works we intended to carry out to keep this building in repair his reply was to the effect that 'well - you may find that in practice it is rather more than that'
He was right.
I will start with Freemasons' Hall.
You are surrounded in the Grand Temple by the centrepiece of one of this country's foremost art deco buildings with a heritage value sustained by the fact that it remains today in use for the purpose for which it was originally designed and built. We are in the middle of a Conservation Area, and the building itself is Listed Grade 11*. What this means in practice is that anything which we do which affects the exterior of the building requires planning permission, and anything other than very minor like for like repairs to both the interior and the exterior must be notified to, and approved by, the Conservation Officer.
Planning Officers have to work within National Planning Policy Guidelines, and they are required to implement Local Plan Policies. Conservation Officers on the other hand have responsibility for protecting the heritage value of buildings of architectural and historic interest which, by their nature, are individual. They have wide ranging powers, which frequently involve subjective judgements which, even with professional advice, can be hard to predict.
Carrying out work to a listed building which requires, but does not have, Listed Building consent is a criminal offence. As I have no wish to return to address Grand Lodge on my experience as Grand Superintendent of Works after 12 months in Ford Prison I treat the need for works in this building to be approved by the Conservation Officer with the utmost care and respect.
Late and unexpected interventions by the Conservation Officer can be a very real problem, as we discovered when we renewed the West Door steps. To avoid this in the future we are at an early stage in negotiations with the Conservation Officer and Historic England for an HPA, a Heritage Partnership Agreement, which will give pre-approval in principle to specified works which we are likely to carry out, often repeatedly. Examples range from future phases of repairs to the building's steel frame ( Regents Street Disease ), through work to repair and refurbish the many original toilets in the building ( not very glamorous, but nevertheless necessary ) down to the specification of the paint to be used when redecorating some of the more elaborately embellished Lodge Rooms.
HPAs are complex, time consuming, and costly, but the prize is securing for UGLE ownership and control of the timing and phasing of major works of repair which we need to carry out.
Keeping a building in repair can require reacting to the unexpected, but for the most part it can be anticipated through planned property maintenance. We are working to a ten-year time horizon in implementing recommended works within this building so that, for example, phased repairs to deal with RSD will include routine maintenance and general repairs within the same area. As far as possible once we have access to any hard to reach area within this building, or for that matter any area, our aim is to complete all necessary work properly and to a high standard so that an early return is not needed.
I have concentrated up to this point on repair, but the more interesting challenge is working to deliver changes to the way in which Freemasonry needs to use Freemasons' Hall to support the vision of the Craft's place in society today which the Grand Secretary outlined at the Quarterly Communication in December.
Freemasons' Hall is and will remain a Masonic building, but our needs are changing. Many of you will know from personal experience that most of the Lodge Rooms here in Freemasons' Hall, with the notable exception of Lodge Room No 10, were designed to accommodate meetings with an attendance of between 70 and 80. Today average attendance is in the mid 20s.
We cannot subdivide Lodge Rooms in response to this. Their scale and proportions were an important element within the original design of the building, and we know that any attempt to change this would meet with strong opposition from the Conservation Officer.
We can, however, adapt space to form smaller Lodge Rooms from accommodation in the building designed for other uses. Examples of where this has been achieved are the conversion of two committee rooms on the Sussex Corridor to provide two Chapter Rooms, and the three Lodge Rooms created on the third floor in what was originally two caretaker's flats.
While these changes take place we are also looking at how this building can play its part in encouraging a wider understanding of Freemasonry in society. This means improving public access, both generally and through supporting outside hire events. Both encourage improved awareness, while providing the opportunity for education through community engagement.
Improving public access, while at the same time meeting the continuing needs of UGLE as well as those of MetGL, the Library & Museum and the Masonic Charitable Foundation is far from straightforward, and we always have to keep in mind that our ideas and ambitions may not always meet with approval from the Conservation Officer if work is involved requiring Listed Building Consent.
I don't want to overstate the problem. There are projects which receive immediate support, at least in principle.
Freemasons' Hall, like many public buildings, fails to provide enough female toilets. The building was designed to provide toilets for the convenience of members, and the paid employees of Grand Lodge were thought unlikely to include women. How the world has changed.
We have legal obligations to provide facilities for both men and women who work in the building, and if we are serious in wanting to host events such as Letters Live and London Fashion Week we must provide facilities which are as good, if not better, than competing venues. The unisex toilets off the vestibule and those on the floor below meet this need, and as we approach the refurbishment of the Gallery Suite to improve the facilities available for Masonic use and outside hire in what was Lodge Room 1 and its ante room, we will be restoring to their original use nearby toilets on the lower ground floor. These will, however, be designed with flexible male / female use use in mind.
As I and others on the Hall Committee oversee these projects I do so in the knowledge that my responsibilities as Grand Superintendent of Works do not end at the front door.
From the very early years of Freemasonry, Grand Lodge has owned a number of buildings in Great Queen Street. These include the Grand Connaught Rooms and the Sway nightclub, together with most of the buildings opposite on the north side of Great Queen Street. They are in the same Conservation Area as Freemasons' Hall, and many of them are listed, including several which are Grade 11 *.
A diverse property portfolio such as this is by its nature management intensive, and just over 10 years ago the Board of General Purposes received a report from the then Grand Superintendent of Works John Edgcumbe drawing attention to the possibility of selling the properties to reinvest in a modern, well let commercial property which might provide better growth prospects without the need for continuous oversight, and periodic investment in refurbishment and repair.
Mindful of the importance which heritage has to Freemasonry, and the fact that ownership provides control over the setting of Freemasons' Hall, the decision was taken by the Board that the buildings should be retained.
Maximising value by improving tenant mix, and income quality, while refurbishing and modernising the properties where necessary, became a long-term objective of the Property Investment Committee chaired by the Grand Treasurer, Quentin Humberstone. As well as being Grand Superintendent of Works I am a Chartered Surveyor with practical experience of property investment and asset management, and the valuation of commercial properties. With this background I should perhaps have expected that my work would extend beyond looking after Freemasons' Hall to include contributing to the work of the Property Investment Committee.
Pausing at this point it is perhaps worth drawing attention to the fact that the Property Investment Committee's investment objectives have served Grand Lodge well.
The accounts of Grand Lodge are not exactly bedtime reading, but in 2006 the north side of Great Queen Street had a book value in the region of £14.5m. By 2011 an external independent valuation confirmed that the value of the whole portfolio including the Grand Connaught Rooms, and with the benefit of investment in the refurbishment of several of the properties, had risen to £31.1m, and as at 31st December 2017 the figure in the UGLE accounts was just over £56.5m. You must wait for publication of the 2018 accounts for the corresponding value as at December last year, but I can reveal that a further increase in value will be reported.
Given the long-term commitment of Grand Lodge to holding this portfolio improvements in capital value, while reassuring, are perhaps less important than rental income. This is currently just over £2.5m pa. which contributes to the investment income which is available for Grand Lodge to maintain, repair and improve Freemasons' Hall without making a call on individual members' Grand Lodge dues.
Masonic ownership of land and building extends well beyond Great Queen Street to the many Masonic Halls and Centres throughout the country. These are the responsibility of their owners. Whilst Freemasonry is a Craft, running and managing Masonic Halls and Centres is a business. Over the years there have been many successes, but occasionally things have gone wrong, and the accompanying adverse publicity compromises years of hard work in promoting the reputation of Freemasonry for the better.
We have within our membership valuable knowledge and experience of how to manage a Masonic Hall and Centre in a way which is both sustainable, and financially viable. What we did not have until recently was a reference resource which brought together in one place experience and best practice. This gap was recognised by the Membership Focus Group in 2015 which set up a Masonic Halls Working Group tasked with creating a Guidance Manual to share knowledge of best practise.
Unlike the Book of Constitutions compliance with the Guidance Manual is not mandatory, although ignoring advice inevitably leaves room for criticism if things go wrong.
As Grand Superintendent of Works I am now responsible for issuing updates to the Masonic Halls Best Practise Guidance Manual. Working with a Steering Group we issue periodic updates – best practise is not static. It evolves in the light of new legislation, and widened experience. We hold annual seminars here at Freemasons' Hall as a way of making sure that Provincial Grand Superintendent of Works and those looking after Masonic Halls and Centres can contribute their knowledge and experience to the Guidance Manual and its advice.
As Grand Superintendent of Works here at Grand Lodge I am as much a user of the Guidance Manual as my counterparts in MetGL and across the Provinces.
As you can see Graham Redman was correct when he explained to me that I would be spending my time doing rather more than simply submiting periodic reports to the Board of General Purposes on the condition of this building.
Pro Grand Master's address - March 2019
Quarterly Communication
13 March 2019
An address by the MW the Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes
Brethren, I have recently had the privilege of visiting a number of our Districts, and although each trip was a unique experience, I became acutely aware that they all had something striking in common – how well the local Freemasons are an integral, and highly visible, part of their local communities. This January, the Deputy Grand Master had the pleasure of installing the new District Grand Master for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Amongst the various Masonic activities, he took part in a large procession, in full regalia, to the local Cathedral for the Sunday service. He tells me the sense of pride from the members and their families was overwhelming. This was a group of men who are supported and encouraged by their families, and are warmly welcomed by the communities in which they reside. There was no sense of trying to hide the fact that they are Freemasons or justifying why they are members. It was simply the case that Freemasonry was not just an integral part of their lives, but also the lives of those around them.
Brethren, it could be seen as being fairly obvious that where a member has the support and backing of his family, he will fare better. What is not so obvious is the underlying need to encourage and nurture that support network. Bringing our families, and indeed our communities, into the fold, so to speak, is in my opinion vital to the future success of the Craft and it is telling that a number of Provinces now interview prospective candidates along with their partners present so that they too can ask questions and understand who we are and what we do.
Programmes of events designed to assist and engage with those around us will go a long way towards educating the two fifths of the public who know that we exist, but have no idea what we do, and you will soon hear about some National Initiatives we are planning to accomplish just this. The Districts certainly have a winning formula in this respect. In each District I have visited, families have been heavily involved in the events surrounding our visits. When we bear in mind that the Districts are growing by 10 per cent year on year on average, we may be able to learn a few things from them.
I was thinking recently on how much time Freemasons in the UK spend on unpaid charitable, philanthropic, or civic activities. This includes those things our members do for others with an educational, sporting, charitable, religious or military bent; what they do for others in any spare time they might have when they are not in Lodge or learning ritual!
We have looked into this and it will not surprise you to learn that early indications suggest that our members spend millions of hours collectively giving of themselves for the benefit of others.
I began to think how one might possibly put an hourly 'value' on the contributions that our members make to their communities and the people around them, but then the core values that all Freemasons hold in high estimation cannot be quantified. How can we 'calculate' our contributions? There seems to be a clear link between what we do 'as Freemasons' and what we do as good members of our community.
Returning to the Deputy Grand Master's trip to Antigua, Members, and their families, were proud, and it showed immensely. That visibility, engagement and sense of pride at both being a Freemason and a good person were palpable, and that obvious connection has been passed down through generations of Masons in our ritual – Freemasonry does indeed "rest upon the practice of every Moral and Social virtue".
We all should be striving towards ensuring that we are visible, engaged and proud of our achievements, both as Freemasons and as people.
Brethren, we are referees, volunteer readers in school, church wardens, members of care home boards, Rotarians, poppy sellers and countless other 'volunteer' positions. Most of these will have nothing or very little to do with our Lodges or Province, but they all have a connection to a fundamental aspect of Freemasonry – making a positive impact in the lives of others. And Brethren, we certainly need to be more visible and more proud of these roles if we are to positively define what Freemasonry stands for to the next generation. Also, Brethren, if I were a betting man, which I am not, - well just the odd flutter - I would certainly have a bet that the Provinces that have the most family involvement are those with the best membership statistics. Let us all work on this aspect.


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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Embarrassed (07/19/07)
- TITLE: The "me" I used to be
By Melanie Kerr
I knew what it was, even before I slotted it into the video player.
The opening scene was a finger, encased in a red woollen glove, pushing down the play button on a cassette player. It should have been bagpipes that set the scene, placing the viewer some where in Scotland. The elderly couple in the flat below us didn't have a cassette tape of bagpipe music so we made do with someone playing an accordion, evoking images of Switzerland instead.
A quick tour of Inverness was followed by various scenes of what it was like to be on a gospel outreach team. The year was 1989. I had just returned from an overseas teaching post in a small church school. Settling back into the state school system, where boys wore long hair and earrings, and the courses I had left behind had been consigned to the filing cabinet as new, and supposedly, improved courses had been implemented, had left me feeling somewhat bemused. I wasn't yet an old dog, but reluctant to learn new tricks.
A year out on a gospel outreach team seemed a good idea.
The video tape is a trip down memory lane. There's me in the High Street, with a clip board and a questionnaire, looking very official. We had sat one afternoon generating the questions. On paper they looked harmless, and no one seeing me approach had any idea they were about to be thoroughly evangelised!
That's me doing a sketch board. I took to that like a duck to water. Boxes painted onto a large sheet of white paper, were transformed into letters by adding a line here and a triangle there. I remember this particular one. "Spot the Scotsman". It worked well with the tourists, cameras with their zoom lenses poking out at obscene angles. How did it go? Something about a Scotsman being more than just someone who eats haggis, wears a kilt and tosses cabers around in the backyard. You have to be born a Scot with Scottish parents and all that. Then I went on to talk about what makes a Christian – reading the Bible? Going to church? You can see where it was all heading.
Me again – this time doing street drama. "The Race of Life" Why did I always get the part of the posh lady with the high heels and the handbag? "I give money to charity!" As if that was ever going to get me to heaven!
I looked so much slimmer in those days. I was single then, with no mouths other than my own to fill. I hadn't discovered Lorne sausages and well fired rolls! There was less grey in my hair.
Is that Avril? Gosh, when was the last time I saw her? Parent's evening a couple of years ago. That toddler in the pushchair has just taken her Highers! Avril was one of my potential converts. I say converts in a very loose sense. She wasn't a Muslim or anything – just one of those pew fillers in the Church of Scotland. I had hopes that she would catch a spiritual spark off me and defect to the Charismatic Church.
Oh my! A Sunday morning meeting! So many familiar faces have passed on to greener pastures. I can see me right on the front row, arms held high, hands held out in supplication. The expression on my face – if I knew the camera was pointed at me, would I be so abandoned and lost in praise?
You know, suddenly I don't feel like smiling. This "me", full of exuberance and radiating life, is almost a stranger. I am ashamed that somewhere amongst fifteen years of marriage and a demanding job, buying a house and making a home, planting a garden and stalking bargains on the supermarket shelves – I have lost something.
I am ashamed that I have, so obviously, climbed back into the boat and embraced a predictable and mediocre Christian walk. I feel like the third servant in the parable clutching a decaying leather bag in my hands. The talent inside is tarnished. I just don't remember digging the hole!
Father, forgive me. Please, ignite my spirit again.
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What is Joy in Enough (JiE) really all about? What in practice are we trying to do? And how do we differ from many other organisations, Christian and secular, with somewhat similar aims? These are questions we are frequently asked – and indeed that we ask ourselves in the thirty-strong JiE 'College' – the group of people who are offering us specialist help in developing this programme.
What is our 'USP' (unique selling point) – a question we very frequently raise amongst ourselves?
We also claim to be building a spirited movement. This claim got me thinking laterally…
Can we visualise the JiE programme as a building inspiring a spirited movement?
Here goes.
We are not another faith-inspired climate/environmental action group or network. Faith for the Climate and Operation Noah do that job as well as can be done. We try to complement their work by taking on a wider brief – presenting climate and related sustainability issues as an integral part of a wider more people-focused agenda, an agenda that tends to be more 'centre stage' in the churches. So often green issues are seen as 'worthy' but rather marginal to the churches' mission.
Our thinking is largely based on Jackson's Prosperity without growth, and on Enough is enough, the work of Dan O'Neill and colleagues in CASSE – the Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy. Many of us were also influenced by How much is enough? Written by the Skidelsky father and son.
None of these are explicitly Christian publications – although I expect that at least one of the contributors to all three may be faith-inspired. All were written within the last decade. All highlight the growth of inequality over the last few decades and the consequent lack of economic and social justice.
But, more uniquely, all elaborate on a theme first developed by economist J.K. Galbraith in the 1950s: that the consumer is not King. That the allegedly dominant invisible hand of the market, whereby business responds to the real needs of consumers, has long given way to the sleight of hand of the marketing man. More and more so in recent times as the corporate consumer marketing departments have all the tools of modern information technology at their disposal in their market research, branding, advertising and product promotion, product placement, viral marketing etc, etc. I also include deliberate design for obsolescence as a component of marketing. Net result: not only is the modern economy grossly unequal and awesomely dangerous ecologically. It is also grossly inefficient in using precious resources to produce well-being and the common good. It is a stupid economy, even if run by brilliant people (which of course is part of the waste.)
"That environmental damage turned out to be the price we had to pay to improve human well-being would be unfortunate. That environmental damage is a side-effect from a failed attempt to improve human well-being is potentially tragic."
from Laurie Michaelis and Tim Jackson (2003) 'Policies for Sustainable Consumption' a report to the Sustainable Development Commission (p21)
Different members of our specialist 'College' group may have different emphases, but I think the we are all trying to bring about an economy which emphasises and prioritises the well-being of humanity and all of God's creation above all else: an economy which operates within the planetary boundaries identified by the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
We want to bring these ideas into the churches. We have written a vision document which gives this social scientific analysis a theological and scriptural perspective. We will present this in the morning at the Big Workshop on November 18th. This ten page or so document is intended for church leaders and educators, and for people who think seriously about these issues. We are also drafting shorter pieces – such as this attempt – for the benefit of people who are more time-challenged, as so many of us are.
As we develop our thinking and draft our documents we see it as very important to ensure our work is based on the best social scientific research and on some of the best theological thinking. We are determined not be seen as hobby horse riders or as amateurish re-inventors of wheels. For instance on the social scientific side we are trying to identify:
- The different alternative measures of progress to GDP (gross domestic product) that have been devised
- The most effective methods that have been proposed for ensuring an economy operates within the limits of global life-support systems
- The best methods for ensuring a radically more equal society, with as near to lower and upper limits to income and wealth as is administratively possible; including in this an equalisation of working hours
- How best to control advertising, and more generally limit artificial consumer demand creation.
Joy in Enough is developing a programme or learning guide that might be taken by, for instance by students on an ordinands' programme, a sixth-form or university course; or (perhaps in abbreviated form) by a church Lenten course or house group.
The programme will consist of sessions based on such questions as –
- Would you like your life back? (Looking at the current work/life balance)
- What or who is making us consume this way?
- How do we account for the full cost of the products we buy?
- Is globalisation a force for good in a competitive environment?
- What would an alternative economic model look like and what are the barriers to achieving it?
Sub-text is: What role does faith, or other self-valuation forces have on buying attitudes?
At our Big Workshop in Sheffield on November 18th in the afternoon we will run a piloting trial on the second of these sessions: What makes us consume as we do in particular as many of us do in modern western society? This will be very much an interactive sessions, people working in small groups on tables around the hall, working through various cards with set questions and information sources, each group working with a facilitator – based on the 'café conversations' model.
So we see ourselves working in partnership with any 'fellow travellers' that we see working in the same direction. With Operation Noah, Faith for the Climate and other bodies working explicitly on climate change; with a range of organisations working for equality, for monetary system reform, etc.
We also realise that are many Christian organisations bring together climate and environmental justice, and economic and social justice: the Tearfund's Restorative Economy project, for instance. We are saying something else in addition: that the root problem is not just the externalities arising from our global economic system – environmental degradation); not just the unequal distribution of the systems benefits, the gross inequality in our society. It's the questionable nature of the benefits themselves.
So other close neighbours of ours include the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, the research centre at Surrey University, led by Tim Jackson, and other secular organisations with similar aims.
We also argue that we can experience real joys as we go through the change processes. It is important that we give ourselves the time to share in the experience of joy and wonderment of the kids involved in the crib service on Christmas Eve, of the beauty of the walk in the park on a sunny but cool Spring day, of the first strawberries ripening in the garden, of that concert that your choir performed in. My favourite is the experience of a three generation football game that we had at Crystal Palace leisure centre a few weeks ago! All to be enjoyed on our doorstep, without troubling either your bank manager or the Celestial Manager of your carbon emission count. (More here)
Idealism inspired the early Christians. Was there ever more of a need to model real joy than now?
Our homes are buildings. They are the places that we feel safe and secure, feel encouraged and supported in our care for each other and for the greater common good. On Jesus's departure the disciples went back to the upper room, then were visited by the Holy Spirit. In JiE we get to know each other in an atmosphere of mutual support and challenge – and I for one have often felt inspired by my colleagues in our four-monthly workshops in Birmingham.
Our task now is to further inspire others.
Please send us your comments on this article. And suggest any other rooms or features this building should have!
Tony Emerson
Joint Co-ordinator, Joy in Enough June 2017


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Rock Climbing the Hudson Valley
A Gunks Guide
An AMGA certified rock instructor, PCGI certified Multi-Pitch Guide, and New York State licensed guide. Guides rock and ice climbing for climbers of all skill levels.
Alpine Endeavors
An AMGA (American Mountain Guides Association) accredited guide service in the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains. Offers professional climbing instruction and guiding for rock climbing, ice climbing, alpine climbing, and mountaineering in New York and Connecticut. They also offer guided hikes and snowshoe outings, navigation skills, team building events, and wilderness medicine courses.
Eastern Mountain Sports Schools
Offer rock climbing, ice climbing, and mountaineering in the Gunks, Lake Placid, and Little Falls. They guide all experience levels, ages 5 and up, and they also offer the AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Course. AMGA accredited guides.
HighXposure Adventures
AMGA certified guides. Guiding climbers of all skill levels and ages (as young as five). Offer AMGA certification courses – get certified as a Single Pitch Instructor (SPI) or a Climbing Wall Instructor (CWI).
Mountain Skills Climbing Guides, Inc.
An AMGA accredited guide service based in the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains. Offer ice and rock climbing courses, canyoneering, scrambling, snowshoeing, multi-day hiking, and mountaineering.
Vertical Gains
A PCGI certified Rock Climbing Guide and Rock Climbing Instructor with 20+ years of guiding experience. Guides climbers of all experience levels.


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May 2015 Photo of the Month
- Details
- Valerie Levin photo
Marlborough Hunt Club (Md.) Huntsman Jim Faber below a fleeting rainbow at Dr. Leo Courtney's Windswept Farm a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. A mist rose from the water into the cut corn field as a rainbow formed over the field. Whipper-in Valerie Levin captured this shot just as all the rest of the mist disappeared and the skies became clear blue!


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Oh Baby, it's coooold outside! Yes, I know. Then what the heck am I doing posting something made for the summer months?
Because it's really good!
And we have to take into consideration our fellow neighbors, friends, and company who don't drink coffee, or tea, or cocoa, or eggnog…hey, wait! Eggnog is chilled! I rest my case.
Surfing Pinterest led me to the creator of this drink, Heather Ross. Her husband made it Mojito style, with rum and mint leaves. And you can certainly do that. But I went the virgin route, since I wanted something my kids could enjoy. They loved it! And I do believe this is the first time they actually tasted soda, but what the heck…it's Christmas time.
Strawberry Limeade Cooler
Serves 2-4
Prep time: 5 minutes
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen limeade
• 6 ounces 7-Up or Sprite*
• 2 cups frozen strawberries
Put all the ingredients in a blender and give it a whirl until it's thoroughly combined. Serve right away and enjoy!
* Just buy a 12 ounce can and use 1/2 of it or fill the empty limeade container 1/2 way)
(adapted from Heather Ross)


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Posts Tagged 'XLR8R'
Soundtrack2 Audiocast38: Gimme Swelter
School of Seven Bells, Sennen, Sea Exchange, Ursula Minor, Windsor For The Derby & more
It's hot. Real hot. Need to be cooled down or get the blood boling?
Listen & enjoy.
1. Windsor For The Derby – Queen Of The Sun
Lovely dream pop from upcoming album Against Love.
2. Stripmall Architecture – Pripyat
Can't get this one out of my head. Download the elements to remix this yourself.
3. Phillip Eno – Your Name
More fuzzed out dream pop. The band has made this song and a lot more available for free download on their site.
4. Flavor Crystals – Ambergris
A bit of Yo La Tengo vibe here. One of many great tracks on the Minneapolis band's Ambergris album.
5. Alcoholic Faith Mission – My Eyes To See
Nervy Danish band deliver passionate indie pop.
6. Nikoo – Marquee
Been listening to this hard-to-describe band for a while. Their self-titled album is very good.
7. Sea Exchange – Schemes
Bit of shoegaze indie pop here. Both of their EPs are great and available for free.
8. Dropping Honey – Foveaux
Watch out! This track by this Sydney, Australia band starts funky but gets huge and noisy.
9. Sennen – Can't See The Light
Not a huge fan of this band, but their most recent tracks are less murky. This dark shoegaze track is off last month's Age of Denial.
10. Garageland – Never Gonna Come Round Here Again
Flying Nun band brings some driving rock and roll off 1996's Last Exit To Garageland.
11. Ursula Minor – Westphalia
Killer Krautrock. Be sure to check out this Glasgow band's varied Laudanum album.
12. Band In Heaven – Tunnel Into Your Dreams
Ambient rock off their free demos bandcamp page.
13. School of Seven Bells – Babelonia
Disconnect From Desire won't be out until July, but this is more than enough to keep me satisfied.
14. Swathes – Very White
Noisy, dense industrial/shoegaze builder.
15. K-X-P – 18 Hours (Of Love)
According to XLR8R, this band provides "Spaced-out Krautrock-meets-drummy-disco dance party." Can't find any info online so here's a good Altsounds post.
Nice mix from XLR8R
Our next mix may be a ways away – darn end of year requests – but here's something to tide you over.
This made me realize we need some Pale Saints in our next concoction…
Check it out here.


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Länsförsäkringar Fastighetsförmedling
The Swedish estate agency Länsförsäkringar Fastighetsförmedling has more than 130 property shops. These are located in places that are as attractive as possible, i.e. where many people pass by every day.
We have developed a number of solutions for many companies within the Länsförsäkringar group. Display windows are seen as one of the most important marketing channels and here they display current properties for sale. With digital screens in their display windows count as one of the stores' main market channels. This holds large digital screens that expose current real estate objects.
The interior of the stores also use video walls displaying properties and branding messages. A tailor-made interactive terminal is designed to match Länsförsäkringars brand profile. The terminal increase efficiency since visitors have access to select information on their own.
First impression is important for visitors, they want to see something appealing. This Länsförsäkringar has succeeded both in shop windows and inside their stores.
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Level Water is committed to getting disabled children swimming and provides each child with free one-to-one lessons until they are ABLE to join group swimming lessons and continue swimming forever.
Every child who learns to swim is learning a life-saving skill, but swimming also teaches skills which have an impact beyond the water. Each week, every child is set new challenges that are at the limit of their ability. They persistently try and try again until they succeed. This process builds confidence and self-esteem, not only about this specific task but also throughout their lives.
The DM Thomas Foundation for Young People awarded Level Water with a grant of £3,000 to provide free swimming lessons for children with disabilities aged 4-11 in Hampshire, UK, children like Thomas.
Meet Thomas
"My name is Thomas and I'm eight years old. I love swimming, Arsenal, my iPad and I'm also deaf. I lost my hearing when I was about two, no one knows why. I sometimes struggle to hear people speak, even though I wear hearing aids. However, in the pool that doesn't matter because no one hears well with water in their ears!
"My mum found out about Level Water and applied for me to have swimming lessons, never expecting to get them. I wasn't really progressing in mainstream classes; I'd been stuck at stage one for over a year. I was getting fed up and wanted to quit.
"The 1-2-1 swimming lessons have been great, I look forward to them. I have passed stages 1, 2 and 3. I have completed 5m, 10m, 25m, 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and most recently, 1,000 metre distance badges. I also just completed the bronze swimming award. Now I want to raise money so that other disabled children can have lessons and learn to love swimming."
With Level Water's help Thomas learnt to swim and has recently took on his own fundraising challenge to swim a mile. He successfully completed this and raised a fantastic £2,200 for the charity. Thomas's aim was to get more disabled children swimming so they too can benefit from lessons with Level Water.
Thomas's dad Phil explained, "Level Water has done much more for Thomas than help him swim. Knowing he is good at swimming has made him more confident to try other activities."


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Turn the Quran around on them.
The evidence is piling up. Certain Muslims join ISIS or identify with it from afar because it stands for something, for pure Islam, for the Islam preached by Muhammad. The teen from Afghanistan who hit people with an ax in a German train is the latest example. ISIS appears to be winning, and the only hope to ignite the great conflagration against the "Romans" in northern Iraq, so Allah will grant the jihadists the final victory.
A theme that threads its way through the Quran is winners and losers. This verse is relevant to the regional conflict that may spill over into Israel.
5.21. "O my people! Enter the holy land (Palestine) which Allah has assigned to you, and turn not back (in flight) for then you will be returned as losers."
This verse was written around the Treaty of Hudaybiyah in 628 and the Conquest of Mecca in early 630. "Holy land" most likely refers to Mecca, but the parenthetical insertion by translators Hilali and Khan shows the modern spin.
Please believe that ISIS leaders know that verse in just the way that Hilali and Khan see it too (see it in four orthodox Sunni translations at quranbrowswer.com). Israel is their intermediate goal, while the fall of the West is their bigger one.
It is now clear that we must take the fight to ISIS even more forcefully than the current commander-in-chief is doing. When we turn ISIS into losers by crushing them with a coalition – the French are sure to join – then the false caliphate will appear weak, and it will lose its appeal. In the simple minds of jihadists, winners attract; losers repel.
If elected, Hillary would keep the status quo, which accomplishes nothing. Maybe Trump will follow a more aggressive strategy. After all, he likes to call people "losers."
Understanding why jihadists fight
Understanding and defeating ISIS
Qital (Warfare) Verses in the Quran
All the Jihad Verses in the Quran
Islamic Martyrdom: The Economy of Death in the Quran
A Brief History of War in Earliest Islam
The Truth about Islamic Jihad and Imperialism: A Timeline
Jihad and Qital in the Quran, Traditions and Classical Law.