Cornish Masons Support Hospice

The Provincial Grand Master for Cornwall, James Kitson, presented a cheque for £1,000 on behalf of Freemasons in the Province to Sally Taylor, Chief Executive of St Luke’s Hospice in Plymouth.
    The cheque is in addition to the £5,000 given to St Luke’s last year on the 250th anniversary of Cornish Freemasonry. The Provincial Grand Master is keen for all Brethren in the Province to support all the hospices that serve the county. Donations have already been made this year to Mount Edgcumbe at St Austell and St. Julia’s at Hayle.

Zimbabwe Masons Help Children

Quartas Lodge No. 4638 (E.C.) has only nine members, but is very active. The Brethren of the Lodge are trying to meet various charity obligations and the lodge has adopted the Kadoma branch of the Jairos Jiri Association. This organisation looks after the needs of children who are blind and in many cases physically handicapped, and the Kadoma branch is a school that caters for 200 handicapped children. They try to be self-sufficient by growing vegetables and raising chickens, but under the current economic environment in Zimbabwe their daily lives are a battle with shortages of practically every commodity.
    Quartas Lodge was able to donate bed linen to the school, but the dwindling membership limits the assistance that the Lodge can provide.

Mark Masons 'Opportunity'

The loss of support from previous sources of finance caused a crisis for ‘First Opportunities’, a Group offering therapeutic play to children with a range of disabilities. No statutory funding exists for therapy play for special need children under three, although support will give them a good grounding on which to build for their future. This is an investment that will save higher expense as the children grow and become entitled to statutory support.
    Mike Kerley, who has had some experience within his family of the needs of these special children, sought the assistance of the Provincial Grand Master of Mark Masons in Hampshire and Isle of Wight. The result was a cheque for £1,000 for the Group.
    First Opportunities, c/o Ashley Junior School, Ashley Road, New Milton, Hampshire BH25 5BP.

Brass Band in Lodge

Brass Band Music during a third degree ceremony added a Tyrolean flavour to the proceedings of the Cherwell Lodge No. 599 at their November meeting. Secretary Graham Anker says this is a first for his 151 year old lodge. It may well be a first in the Province of Oxfordshire, and he wonders if it is a first when comparing with other private lodges. The quintet of musicians under the direction of Ron Sudworth played in the Temple and also at the festive board.

Canonbury Masonic Research Centre

Public lectures organised by the CMRC are held on Wednesdays, 7.00-9.00 pm.
21 April: Robert Gilbert, The Crucified Rose – The Rosicrucian Diaspora in Europe and America
19 May: George Farrah, The Temples at Jerusalem & their Masonic Connections
16 June: John Gordon, Masonic Parallels & Symbolism in the Ancient Egyptian Mystery Tradition
To reserve a place at the lectures please send a cheque for £7 payable to Canonbury Masonic Research Centre
Available now: The Canonbury Papers – Volume 1 – The Social Impact of Freemasonry on the Modern Western World. Enquiries: Carole McGilvery 020 7226 6256 email mcgilvery@canonbury.ac.uk www.canonbury.ac.uk

Centre for Research into Freemasonry

Admission is free. Unless otherwise stated, seminars are held at 5.15 pm in the Library Seminar Room, 387 Glossop Rd, Sheffield. Contact the Centre’s Secretary Julie Banham (Tel. 0114 222.9890; fax 0114 222 9893; e-mail: j.p.banham@sheffield.ac.uk)
27 April: Professor Cecile Revauger, Major Concepts of Freemasonry: a Comparative Approach between France, Great Britain and the United States (3pm in French Dept. Library, Floor 7, Arts Tower).
9 June: Professor Patrick W. Conner, What Has James Joyce to Do with Prince Hall? The Masons' Bond in the Social Periphery.
14 October: Trevor Stewart, English Speculative Freemasonry – Some Possible Origins, Themes and Developments (6pm Arts Tower Lecture Theatre).
21 October: Corinne de Popow, Dream and Reality in the Works of James Hogg.
News of the Centre’s work is regularly posted on its website www.shef.ac.uk/~crf

The Cornerstone Society

This is the Society for those Freemasons who have ever asked themselves questions about the deeper meaning behind our masonic ritual. The talk given by Julian Rees at Broadsmith Lodge in Cheshire entitled Freemasonry – the Heart of the Matter will be repeated at Cabbell Lodge No. 807 in Norwich on Saturday 22 May 2004 (lunchtime meeting). For details write with s.a.e. to Stuart Lamb, The Old Post Office, 100 Long John’s Hill, Norwich NR1 2LY or email cornerstone@stuart-lamb.net
The fifth annual London Conference, for Master Masons and above, will be held on Saturday 26 June 2004. The title is In the Middle Chamber. Prof. Fabio Venzi, Grand Master of Italy, will speak on the Neoplatonists of Cambridge, Prof. John Grange on The Transcendence of Eternity, the Rev. Neville Barker-Cryer on Monastic Custom and Mason Craft, and John Hamill will give a guided explanation of elements within the Grand Temple. This will be followed by the customary question-and-answer session and there will be a ritual workshop based on the old German Schröder ritual second degree. Tickets cost £21 to include a packed lunch. Write with s.a.e. to The Cornerstone Society, 68 Foxley Lane, Purley, Surrey CR8 3EE
The fourth Northern Conference will be held at Leyland, Lancs, on Saturday 13 November 2004. Details are to follow.
Website – www.workingtools.org
Email – workingtools@aol.com

Quatuor Coronati

Thursday 13 May 2004 The Contribution of the Provinces to the Development of English Freemasonry (the Prestonian Lecture for 2003). Speaker: Prof. Aubrey Newman
Thursday 24 June 2004 The Arlie MS (1705) Speaker: Robert Cooper.
Thursday 9 September 2004 Thomas Harper, Masonic Jeweller, and the Jewels of his Period Speaker: T.A. Kent
Thursday 11 November 2004 Installation meeting – Inaugural Address by the Master
yasha@compuserve.com Tel 077 6829 2066