New Mark Head for Berkshire

Peter Sands has been installed as Provincial Grand Master for the Mark Province of Berkshire, with Nicholas Murzell as the new Deputy Provincial Grand Master.
     The gathering at Berkshire’s masonic headquarters at Sindlesham included the Pro Grand Master John Hale, along with 17 Provincial Grand Masters among the more than 270 Mark Masons.

Knights Templar Church Event

The Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban is a very apt venue for Masonic events, St Alban being acknowledged the world over, particularly by the Americans, as the Patron Saint of Freemasons.
    In 2000, the Chantry of Duke Humphrey (1391-1447), the Duke of Gloucester, and the only Royal tomb in the cathedral, was restored by Hertfordshire Freemasons to commemorate the millennium. The Service for 2007 returned to the now further restored Lady Chapel.

Surrey Mark Province and Hiram Lodge Celebrate 150 Years

The new Guildford Masonic Centre was the venue for a special meeting attended by around 100 members of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Surrey, hosted by Hiram Lodge of Mark Master Masons No 13.
    The event was to mark the 150th anniversary of the Province, founded in December 1857 and Hiram Lodge, consecrated in September the same year.
    Hiram Lodge was consecrated on 11 September 1857, and with a Warrant of Confirmation issued 17 February 1875, they were also celebrating 150 years.
    However, the Lodge cannot prove by means of Warrant, minutes or returns some of its early working, and possibly ceased working for a period in its early history.
    A paper about the early days of the Province, written specially for the meeting by Neville Barker Cryer, Past Provincial Grand Master, was delivered, explaining the relevant dates and what transpired all those years ago.
    Provincial Grand Master Ray Hussey presented the Lodge with a fine set of inscribed hand-made solid oak gavels in a matching oak box.

Portsmouth Guildhall Mark Installation

More than 400 Mark Master Masons gathered at Portsmouth Guildhall to witness the Installation of the new Provincial Grand Master for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, John Prizeman, by John Hale, Pro Grand Master. Other officers installed were George Deacon as Deputy Provincial Grand Master and ‘Robbie’ Robins as Assistant Provincial Grand Master.

Scrap of Parchment May Absolve the Knights Templar from their 'Crimes' after 700 Years

At dawn, Friday 13 October, 1307, the Knights Templar in France were all arrested by order of the French King, Philip IV. They protested their innocence to the charges and the Pope eventually was persuaded to become involved.
     Sixty Templar high officials, including the Grand Master, were taken to Chinon Castle for interrogation by three Cardinals. The interrogations took place from 17-20 August 1308.
     But there was a curiosity, while such interrogations were recorded in minute detail nothing had remained of the records of this. All that historians had to work with was a single letter from the Cardinals to the King of France.
     But in 2001, in the Vatican archives, the lost trial records were discovered by Professor Barbara Frale. This extraordinary tale has just been revealed in her book Processus Contra Templarios, recently published by the Vatican’s Secret Archive.
     Desperately short of money, Philip IV arrested and tortured the Templars, and after being forced under torture to confess to various sins, the Templars’ leader, Jacques de Molay, was burnt at the stake.
     Pope Clement V dissolved the Order and issued arrest warrants for all the Templars, and from this the view that they were heretics began. The newly discovered document, known as the Chinon Parchment, revealed that the Templars had an initiation ceremony which included ‘spitting on the Cross’, ‘denying Jesus’ and kissing the lower back, navel and mouth of the person proposing them.
     However, the Templars argued that the ceremony explained the humiliation they faced if captured by the Saracens, and that the kissing ceremony showed their obedience.
     The Pope decided that the ritual was not blasphemous, but he nevertheless dissolved the Templars to keep the peace with France. The Chinon Parchment ends with Papal absolution from all heresies.

Former Indian Preceptory Holds its Installation

Knights Templar are seen (photo at top of page) at the Installation of Ross John Everett as Eminent Preceptor of the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn’s Himalaya Preceptory No. 137, which meets at Worthing in West Sussex.
     The Preceptory was formed as a result of an amalgamation in India in 1931 between the Duke of Connaught & Strathearn’s Preceptory No. 153, founded in 1888, and the Himalaya Preceptory No. 137, founded in 1877.
     The former surrendered its Charter on amalgamation with Himalaya Preceptory, and uses their number 137 today, the only amalgamation that has ever occurred in Knights Templar.
     The Preceptory met in India until 1971, when it held its first Sussex meeting in Brighton, and then moved to Worthing in 1972, where it still meets. It is now one of the largest in the Province of Sussex, with more than 50 swords.