Yesterday I travelled over to Cheshunt to deliver a talk based upon my book BROTHERS IN ARMS AND BROTHERS IN THE LODGE: THE STORY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GROVE PARK LODGE (No. 2732) WHO SERVED DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR (ISBN 978 1 291 98955 7*) to the Phocas Lodge (No.9295).
As the original version of this talk was specifically written to be delivered to a meeting of The Grove Park Lodge, I revised the text so that it would place greater emphasis on the impact of the First World War upon Freemasonry, using what happened in The Grove Park Lodge as an example.
I began by giving a brief history of the events that lead up to the outbreak of the war, and then outlined the history of The Grove Park Lodge between 1914 and 1919. I placed special emphasis on how the Lodge reacted to certain events such as the banning of Masons who were born in one of the Central Powers from participating in any Masonic activities during the war, and the death of Field Marshall the Lord Kitchener, a prominent Freemason. I then talked about what happened to the individual members of The Grove Park Lodge who served during the First World War.
The members of the Phocas Lodge and their guests were very welcoming, and expressed extremely appreciative comments about my talk. After the meeting, the Lodge very generously gave me a cheque for £50.00 which was made out to the charity of my choice, the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys. They also gave me a set of cuff links which were made to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Phocas Lodge's founding in 1988. This was most unexpected, and I look forward to wearing them at the earliest opportunity.
I always enjoy visiting other Masonic Lodges, and I hope to be invited back to this one at some time in the near future.
* The book costs £5.00 and is available for sale from Lulu and Amazon. The profits from all sales of the book are being donated to the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, a charity funded by Freemasons 'to relieve poverty and advance education for children and young people'.
As the original version of this talk was specifically written to be delivered to a meeting of The Grove Park Lodge, I revised the text so that it would place greater emphasis on the impact of the First World War upon Freemasonry, using what happened in The Grove Park Lodge as an example.
I began by giving a brief history of the events that lead up to the outbreak of the war, and then outlined the history of The Grove Park Lodge between 1914 and 1919. I placed special emphasis on how the Lodge reacted to certain events such as the banning of Masons who were born in one of the Central Powers from participating in any Masonic activities during the war, and the death of Field Marshall the Lord Kitchener, a prominent Freemason. I then talked about what happened to the individual members of The Grove Park Lodge who served during the First World War.
The members of the Phocas Lodge and their guests were very welcoming, and expressed extremely appreciative comments about my talk. After the meeting, the Lodge very generously gave me a cheque for £50.00 which was made out to the charity of my choice, the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys. They also gave me a set of cuff links which were made to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Phocas Lodge's founding in 1988. This was most unexpected, and I look forward to wearing them at the earliest opportunity.
I always enjoy visiting other Masonic Lodges, and I hope to be invited back to this one at some time in the near future.
* The book costs £5.00 and is available for sale from Lulu and Amazon. The profits from all sales of the book are being donated to the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, a charity funded by Freemasons 'to relieve poverty and advance education for children and young people'.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for leaving a comment. Please note that any comments that are spam or contain phishing messages or that come from Google Accounts that are 'Unknown' will be deleted.