2011 PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE REPORT

Once again the Freemasons of Lincolnshire flocked to the Lincolnshire Showground in record numbers to support the Provincial Grand Master, Rt.W.Bro. Graham Ives, at the annual Provincial Grand Lodge meeting - with some 700 Masons attending the afternoon meeting. A splendid luncheon preceded the meeting and was attended by a record 477 Brethren.

The Provincial Grand Master, Rt.W.Bro. Graham Ives, was supported by no less than nine other Provincial Grand Masters from neighbouring Provinces - seen together immediately before the meeting.

The event has grown year on year since the move to the Epic Centre at the Lincolnshire Showground which is a splendid location for this prestigious event.

Address by the Rt. W. Provincial Grand Master to Provincial Grand Lodge on 11th May 2011

Brethren I have already welcomed our Distinguished Guests and also the Heads of other Orders in the Province. I now welcome all of you to this 218th Meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge and I trust that you are enjoying your day.

This year the current Masters of the Lodges have been encouraged by me to attend Provincial Grand Lodge and a designated area has been set aside in the Lodge Room for them. They are of course the current Rulers in their Lodges and very important to the future of Freemasonry in this Province. I am delighted to see them here in such good numbers and I ask them to rise so that we may show our appreciation of them. Brethren, I thank you for your attendance.

I have been delighted to invest so many Brethren today to Provincial Grand Rank either by way of First Appointment or Promotion. I congratulate you all and wish you well. I have been able to recognise your service within your Lodges and I look forward to working with you in the future for the benefit of the Province.

I have had a very happy year with my outgoing Provincial Team and I thank them all for their loyalty and support. The Team has accompanied me in great numbers on my official visits. I know that they enjoyed themselves very much and I also believe that the Brethren of the Lodges enjoyed their attendances. We have travelled up and down the Province visiting most of the Centres from Barton in the north to Deeping in the south.

I have already thanked my Deputy, Very Worshipful Brother John Hockin and my Assistants, Worshipful Brothers John Board and Tim Dodds. I also thank the outgoing Wardens, Worshipful Brothers John Moulson and Tony Greswell (Pictured right). They have represented me on official visits to all the Lodges in the Province. I thank them for all their hard work and their reports have been of great interest to me.

I also thank the Grand Officers for their continuing support and in particular the Liaison Officers. The Brethren of the Lodges appreciate the attendance of the Liaison Officers at their Meetings. Again, I read their reports with interest and they are of considerable assistance to me. I am grateful to those Grand Officers who have represented me at Installation Meetings and submitted reports to me.

It follows from my comments that I am very reliant on those around me as it is impossible for me to visit all of the Lodges other than once every several years.

On my visits I was pleased to attend a 150 year celebration in Franklin Lodge No 838 (Boston) on the 6th January 2011. We were richly entertained by a group of Brethren from the Province of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. They recreated in the Lodge Room by candlelight an authentic Initiation Ceremony which would have been performed by the Antients during the middle of the 18th century.

Another highlight of my visits was when I attended the Installation Meeting of Doric Lodge No 362 in Grantham on the 11th January last. I witnessed Worshipful Brother George Geeson, aged 100 years, deliver the address to the Master perfectly. Unfortunately I am not able to say the same for the Brother who delivered the address to the Brethren! I wonder who that was! I was pleased to promote Worshipful Brother Geeson, who has been a Freemason for over 50 years, to the Provincial Rank of Past Junior Grand Warden.

This meeting has seen the retirement of Worshipful Brother Roy Eaton as Provincial Grand Registrar. He has worked tirelessly in the Provincial Office both as Provincial Assistant Grand Secretary and also as Provincial Grand Registrar. He has made a considerable contribution to the running of the Province over many years. He has not been in the best of health during recent times but I understand he is making a good recovery. He is very deserving of his retirement and I know that we shall see him regularly at our meetings in the years to come.

I extend my deep gratitude to the retiring Provincial Grand Charity Steward, Worshipful Brother David Richardson. With the assistance of the Deputy Provincial Grand Master he has laid the foundations for the 2014 Festival. He has worked efficiently and conscientiously. He has been very helpful to his successor, Worshipful Brother Bruce Goodman. We all wish Worshipful Brother Goodman well in his very important Office.

It was a great pleasure to attend the Annual Investiture Meeting in Grand Lodge at the end of last month when certain of our Brethren were honoured by First Appointments and Promotions to Grand Rank. They were invested by the Grand Master, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent. The Provincial Grand Secretary, Worshipful Brother John Warwick was promoted to the Acting Rank of Assistant Grand Registrar. Acting Grand Ranks are not received very often in this Province but I am sure that you will agree this promotion is well deserved. The Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies, Worshipful Brother David Bird received the First Appointment of Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies. Worshipful Brothers Terry Little and John Crutchley received First Appointments as Past Grand Standard Bearer. Worshipful Brother John Stephen Priestley was nominated from outside this Province and was Invested as Past Assistant Grand Standard Bearer. Appointments and Promotions in Grand Rank are indeed a great honour but all Grand Officers have a job for life and the office always carries great responsibilities. I expect Grand Officers to work hard for the Province so far as they are able to.

We have already received an address from Worshipful Brother Les Hutchinson, the Chief Executive of the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys. I endorse everything he has said. We are now well into the Festival and it will culminate in a Celebration and Presentation at this Centre on 20th November 2014. Brethren, we are making steady progress and I am optimistic that we shall achieve our target and hopefully go beyond. So, Brethren, full steam ahead with the Festival.

I now wish to report upon our progress with the Universities Scheme. Brethren, we have indeed made great progress. A year or two ago I asked Worshipful Brother Reginald Brittan to investigate the possibility of starting a University Lodge in Lincoln to receive University Students as Candidates. He has been very active in this respect supported by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master and Worshipful Brother Dr. Brian Roberts. St. Hugh Lodge No. 1386 was recommended to me as such a University Lodge. I thank the other Lodges, and in particular Minster Lodge No. 8702, for their support and interest. The Brethren of St. Hugh Lodge have passed a proposition to proceed onwards. Worshipful Brother Brittan and his colleagues have made contact with the University Authorities and have been favourably received. They have also had meetings with the students through their Union and again they have been positively received. Hence, a lot of work has been done and it is bearing fruit. The Assistant Grand Master, David Kenneth Williamson, is responsible within Grand Lodge for the Universities Scheme. He will be visiting St. Hugh Lodge at their Regular Meeting in October. I, and others of my Provincial Team, will be in attendance. I am looking forward to a historic and happy Meeting.

Brethren, please do not hesitate to encourage the right young men into Freemasonry. We all have a responsibility to ensure that Freemasonry continues to flourish. More younger Brethren, gaining experience with the passage of years, can only be of benefit in this respect.

I now refer to the Registrar’s Report. There has been a reduction of 111 during the course of the last year in multiple memberships. I am not too concerned about this statistic. I am more concerned about the number of members in the Province. I am pleased to note that there has been a net increase of 72 and I believe that this is encouraging. Over the last 10 years our individual membership has remained fairly constant but on a year to year basis there has usually been a slight reduction. In 2001 we had 3804 individual members and we now have 3580 indicating a reduction over the last 10 years of 5.9%. This compares very favourably on a national basis. I hope that we progress to increase our membership in the years to come. The important thing is that none of our 74 Lodges are in danger of closure or merger. Some are obviously doing better than others but the Lodges are generally healthy and strong in membership terms. Long may this continue.

At the Provincial Grand Chapter Meeting this morning I paid tribute to Worshipful Brother John Pemberton, Worshipful Brother Eric Wayman and Right Worshipful Brother Geoffrey Mawer Cooper for arranging the purchase of our new Provincial organ. Music, Brethren is so important to our meetings and the benefit of the new organ played magnificently by the Provincial Grand Organist, Worshipful Brother Eric Wayman, has been a delight for all of us today. I look forward to listening to it in the years to come.

We have a magnificent Provincial Banner which is there for all to see behind me. It is very heavy and difficult to process in and out at our Meetings. Hence, it was my desire that we should have two small Banners which could be used by the Standard Bearers in my processions. Thanks to the Provincial Grand Treasurer, Worshipful Brother Ian Pounder the Province now has two such Banners and they are in use today. The design of the Banners was approved by Grand Lodge. Not only has Worshipful Brother Pounder been responsible for producing the Banners but, Brethren, he has also paid for the cost of the same from his own resources. This is indeed a very generous and magnificent gesture. I had the pleasure of Dedicating the Banners at a Meeting of his Lodge, Astral Lodge No. 3841 in Grimsby.

I must thank certain Brethren who have worked so hard leading up to today and during today. The Provincial Grand Secretary, Worshipful Brother John Warwick, has overseen the arrangements with the assistance of the Registrar, Worshipful Brother Stewart Oxborough, and the Assistant Secretary, Worshipful Brother Steve Swaby. As always they have received considerable assistance from Mrs Gene Reader in the Provincial Office. Worshipful Brother Frank Smith also assists in the Provincial Office and this is much appreciated. I thank all of them, not only for today, but also for all the work which they have put in during the course of the last twelve months. It has been a pleasure to work with them and I am always pleased to go into a happy Provincial Office.

Today is the first Provincial Meeting under the guidance of my Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies, Worshipful Brother David Bird. Worshipful Brother Bird has prepared very well for today and the benefit of his hard work is there for all of us to see. I congratulate him and his Deputies, Worshipful Brothers Bob Marwaha and David Price, and also the Assistants.

I am indebted to the Brethren from the Provincial Grand Stewards’ Lodge for their work throughout the whole day and also in the preparation for today. Thank you to the Brethren of the Lincoln Lodges and in particular Ermine Lodge No 2351 for hosting the Meeting. I also thank Worshipful Brother Mark Goddard for his splendid assistance with the sound system.

Brethren, it is now three years since I was installed as your Provincial Grand Master. Those three years have flown by. I was determined at the start of my term of office that I would not allow matters to drift and that the Province should make good progress and embrace worthwhile initiatives. I am very content with what has happened during the course of the last three years. We have made good progress but there is much to do.

Brethren, it is a great honour and privilege to serve you as your Provincial Grand Master. With your friendship and support I am indeed having the time of my life. With your help I believe that we can meet all the challenges and I am looking forward with vitality and enthusiasm. This has been a wonderful day for me and I hope for you as well. Thank you very much for attending and listening to me. I look forward to being with all of you in the years ahead. I trust that you will have a safe journey home and God bless you all.

Rt.W.Bro. Graham Ives