Well, the sky has not fallen, and we can all see that the greater part of the media-generated millennial fervour was as empty and baseless as most New-year resolutions. However, Masonry does have something to say on the subject - hardly surprising, since good men have espoused our principles for many thousands of years and, we trust, will do so for many thousands to come. Masonry stands both in time and eternity.
    Using the turn-over to another century as blinding background, our present government seems very keen to impose its ideas of ‘modernisation’ on the rest of us. You’d think they’d have learned something! The 20th century saw a flurry of apocalyptic ‘modernism’ - in the arts, sciences and social administration: civilisation à la mode, modish, fashionable, ‘new’. The last century was indeed a case of ‘the shock of the new’, from the Somme to Belsen, from Freud to Nagasaki, from the Pill to Pol Pot. Yes, you would think the word ‘modern’ would have become a by-word for blindness and destruction. Memory is short. The perennial wisdom tells us that there is nothing new under the sun; while the technology may be novel, the mind behind it is always more or less the same: troubled humanity, desperate for escape, fearful of reality. The future is a weak depository for hopes and dreams. In raising us, Masonry should enable us to rise above the immediate vicissitudes of time (the Third Degree). Our system is positively packed with new beginnings: our initiations never end, our raisings are legion. The new leaf is turned in the branches of a man’s soul.
    But we love the new - the new bud in spring with its roots buried deep in the past; that newness which is the past, present and the promise of our future all at once. The father of time is eternity. So I hope and believe that Masonry will continue to advocate the old truths, the old principles, the old faith, the good old cause - from these only come the promises and privileges of the truly new, raised again to life. The principles of Masonry - shared by the mature religions of the world - may yet be the last bastions of moral and spiritual civilisation, as they were the first. Brethren, we have work to do: to demolish the ‘phoney new’ which cannot stand (the foundations are not deep enough), and to build the truly new which is rooted in the ancient. We have been accepted into ancient Masonry whose temple is continually renewed with brotherly love, generous charity and everlasting truth.
    In this spirit, though on a somewhat more terrestrial level, I am proud to say that the new FMT is growing powerfully from its roots. We have 64 pages in this issue - growth is a sign of life - and many new buds are appearing: an improved news section, more humour - take a look at Bro Andrew Montgomery’s new Lightfoote series - more features, (including a new series on masonic buildings. Please do tell us about your lodge building if it has a good story behind it), while this issue is especially dignified by an exclusive interview with Bro James Daniel, Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England. In it the Grand Secretary discusses some of the challenges to the contemporary Craft, reveals his faith in its future and tells of his efforts, not to ‘modernise’ the Craft, but to make the organisation more practically effective. This involves us all, for if ‘modernising’ is the excuse of the ignorant for screwing things up, true reformation is the rekindling of the ancient spirit. From all this we may gain comfort; Masonry will be here when the modernisers have given up, dwarfed by the vastness of the task ahead of us. We build in strength.
    Tobias Churton