The Minster Meetings

Frank Rowe of Axminster and Edgar Amor of Ilminster, who had been boyhood friends became masons but of different lodges. As their respective lodges met on the same day, they could not intervisit. They arranged to get a special dispensation to hold a meeting between Virtue and Honor Lodge, No. 494 of Axminster in the Province of Devon and Nyanza Lodge, No. 1197 of Ilminster in the Province of Somerset. The first Minster meeting was held at Axminster in June 1977. The second meeting was held in Ilminster with a normal lodge ceremony taking place but with guests from the Axminster Lodge. In 1985 Beaminster Manor Lodge, No. 1367 in the Province of Dorset was invited to join as their meetings too clashed with those of the other lodges. The three lodges have met every two years rotating around each of the three lodge locations. The Provincial Grand Masters from all three Provinces are invited to these meetings. The next meeting will be held in Beaminster in June 2007.

Hereford Honour Past Provincial Grand Master

A special celebration lunch took place recently in Hereford to mark the 90th birthday and a lifetime of achievements of Anthony Shotton Charlton Blench.
    Born in 1915, Shotton was a native of N.W.Durham where his family had farmed for several generations. He played football as an amateur in the Northern Alliance, and attended grammar school in Consett, an iron and steel town.
    He matriculated with honours and received the school prize for Mathematics. He was indentured to a company in Consett, working as a chemist, and worked in management in steel production during the war. Shotton Blench was initiated in Constance Lodge, No. 2135 in Consett, Co. Durham in 1947. After a distinguished masonic career he was appointed Provincial Grand Master for Herefordshire in 1982, a post he held until 1990.
    His years as Provincial Grand Master included the turbulent years where there was sustained heavy criticism by the media directed at the Craft. Herefordshire, a small Province but with a strong family feeling, weathered these attacks remarkably well under Shotton’s leadership, and today receives much positive press for the good work done in the Province.

A Masonic Festival of Flowers

The Haslingden Masonic Association in East Lancashire held a Flower Festival recently, to promote awareness of Freemasonry in the local community and to raise funds for charity.
    This event will benefit the Rossendale Hospice (£1000), Rossendale Fell Rescue (£500) and the East Lancs Masonic Benevolent Institution (£500). Of those who attended over the weekend, interest was shown by members of the public in joining the fraternity.
    The festival was opened by Mrs Marlene Rink, wife of the Provincial Grand Master. The displays were set up in the lodge room, and each display took a lodge officer’s insignia as its inspiration.
    The event took its lead from the Rochdale Festival held two years ago. Pamela Crabtree, Ketty Day and Jon Brennan designed the arrangements and Stewart Longworth and his wife were the driving forces within the Haslingden Association.
    At the end of the event the displays were auctioned off and any not sold were then given to local nursing homes and the Rossendale Hospice.

Bishop of Rochester Opposes Freemasons

As reported in Freemasonry Today, issue 30 (autumn 2004), Freemasons of East and West Kent made donations towards the new fresco in Rochester Cathedral which was dedicated 18 months ago.
    According to The Church of England Newspaper the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali and the Dean, the Very Rev Adrian Newman, are at loggerheads over whether these donations should be acknowledged in a plaque next to the painting. Bishop Nazir-Ali remains adamant that no mention of Freemasons should exist inside the Cathedral.
    He told The Church of England Newspaper, ‘When it comes to Freemasonry as an institution, I base my views on a Church of England report, Freemasonry and Christianity, endorsed by General Synod, which found that Freemasonry is incompatible with Christianity.’
    However, Dean Newman disagrees and feels all donors should be recognised. He said: ‘I want to acknowledge the contribution of all donors to the fresco.’
    In fact, the Working Group to which the Bishop refers, did not produce a report, but rather, in 1987, a ‘Contribution to Discussion’, which did not conclude that Freemasonry and Christianity were incompatible, but merely that there were issues on which ‘the Synod will have to reflect’.
    A representative of Freemasonry Today challenged the Bishop to substantiate his assertion that this incompatibility was Church of England doctrine, but he has so far failed to do so.
    He initially offered an off-the-record discussion. An email to the Bishop from Freemasonry Today pointed out that we had a fundamental problem with the different views held regarding the conclusions of the Working Group, and also the issue of accepting donations to the Church from a body of men with whom he personally appeared to be at variance. The Bishop has not replied to our concerns.

Computer Systems for Children's Hospices

Lifelites is a new charity established in January 2006. It helps to improve the lives of young people with lifelimiting illnesses by providing specially designed computer equipment to all children’s hospices.
    The equipment given by Lifelites enables seriously ill children to continue their education, pursue their interests and keep in touch with family and friends.
    The Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys set up a pilot computer scheme in one hospice, and resulting from it Lifelites became the Trust’s Millennium Project. Children’s hospices support young people who are expected to die before or shortly after reaching adulthood. Highly trained staff assist the children and their families with medical and emotional challenges.
    The Trustees of Lifelites are drawn from both the masonic and non-masonic communities.
    Every scheme includes multi-media communications and computer-aided educational and recreational facilities. In addition every hospice has the assistance of a local masonic support team – volunteers who give their time and expertise to ensure that the staff and families get the most out of the equipment.
    There are already 34 hospices within the scheme, and by 2008 there are likely to be 40. In 1999 the RMTGB provided £7.5million to fund the project – because of the success of the project only about half now remains.
    Donations online at www.lifelites.org or by cheque to Lifelites, RMTGB, 31 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AG.

Federation of Police Lodges in Shrewsbury

The West Mercia Lodge, No. 9719, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary in Shrewsbury. The event coincided with the third Festival meeting of the Federation of Police Lodges, of which the West Mercia Lodge is a part. The Lodge is made up of both serving and retired regular Police Officers and Officers of the Special Constabulary from the three counties which make up the West Mercia policing area, namely Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire. It meets four times a year, at least once in each Province, with the Installation meeting always at Shrewsbury.
    The Lodge also celebrated its Banner Dedication recently, and the close association with all three Provinces was maintained, as the meeting was attended by the Provincial Grand Master for Shropshire, James Hodgson, together with the Provincial Grand Master for Herefordshire, Rodney Smallwood, and the Provincial Grand Secretary for Worcestershire, John McGann. At that meeting, James Hodgson said ‘Throughout the course of history banners, flags and standards have formed rallying points for a family, a community or an army. They have become symbols of unity and service to a particular cause. They have played an important part in our history and still do today. Whilst a banner is not an essential part of the workings of a Lodge it is, without doubt, the focal point representing the past, the present and the future of the Lodge.’

Summerset Forges Links with Sussex

A party of six Brethren representing the combined lodges meeting at Yatton Masonic Hall in Somerset, led by Terry Hart, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, recently headed east to Brighton for a meeting of the Sussex Provincial Grand Stewards Lodge, No. 8195 on a very special mission.
    A lady in Somerset had made an interesting find in the home of her late father in Bristol, in the form of two books, and told Yatton Masonic Hall Archivist Martin Yates about them. They proved to be the personal scrapbooks of Major R.L Thornton, CBE, Provincial Grand Master for the Province of Sussex from 1926 until his death in 1947, and High Sheriff of Sussex. Not only did they chart his masonic career, spanning over 60 years from its very beginning with the Isaac Newton Lodge, No. 859, at Cambridge University in 1884, but they also contained a treasure-trove of material depicting social and political life in his part of Sussex.
    Martin Yates realised that the proper place for these volumes was back in Sussex at the Provincial Library and Museum in Brighton. He contacted their Librarian and Curator, Reg Barrow, and a formal presentation was arranged. This was carried out by Martin at a meeting of the Sussex Provincial Grand Stewards Lodge, with the Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Sussex in the Chair, and the Provincial Grand Master for Sussex in attendance as Master Elect.

Winchester Masons Restore Graves

Having earlier requested burial with masonic honours, Jonathan Inggs’ funeral and interment by the west door of Winchester Cathedral in 1819 attracted a crowd of thousands and rated several columns in the local paper. His Brethren marked the grave with a footstone bearing the square and compasses and a headstone inscribed:

This Stone was erected by the Brethren
of Lodge CXI of
Free and Accepted Masons
As a Token of Refpect for their departed
Brother
JONATHAN INGGS
who received a summons from the
Great Architect of the Universe
at the hour of High Twelve on the
24th Day of October
AL 5819
AD1819

About a generation ago the headstone was smashed by vandals. Lodge of Economy, now No. 76, always hoped eventually to restore it. It was to mark the bicentenary of Chapter of Economy in 2003 that an operative mason, a member of the Lodge, cut the inscription on a replacement stone. Negotiations with the Dean and Chapter having finally borne fruit, the replica was recently erected and the grave restored to its original form.
    Quite apart from the satisfaction in masonic circles the Inggs family are delighted too. The normal spelling of the surname is with a single G but Jonathan founded a new dynasty when the double G was recorded at his marriage and has been retained by all his descendants. An enthusiast in South Africa assures us these now number almost 700. Like us they feel this modest but influential man amply merits the trouble that has been taken.