‘Prestonian on Craftcast’

    

Craftcast hosts with today’s guest.

In the episode of Craftcast published today, the hosts talk with RW Simon Medland, who has been chosen to serve as the United Grand Lodge of England’s Prestonian Lecturer for 2025. Craftcast is the official podcast of the UGLE. From the publicity:

In the latest episode of Craftcast, James, Shaun, and Stephen are joined by special guest Judge Simon Medland KC, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Cheshire and the 2025 Prestonian Lecturer. Simon shares his journey within Freemasonry, tracing his roots as a fourth-generation Freemason and recounting his appointment as the Lecturer for the upcoming year.

Join us for an in-depth exploration of the history and significance of the Prestonian Lecture, including its origins and development over the years. Simon also gives us some insight on the topic of his upcoming paper: the rich heritage of the Province of Cheshire as it approaches its Tercentenary–the first Province to achieve such a significant milestone.

Craftcast is the official podcast of the United Grand Lodge of England, the governing body of Freemasonry in England, Wales, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Districts overseas. In every episode, Shaun Butler, James Dalton and Stephen Whatley are chatting all things Freemasonry. They ask the big questions, talk about their experiences and interview special guests from across UGLE.

Craftcast is the podcast for everyone from seasoned Freemasons to those just curious about what we do, so please come along for the ride.

     

‘2025 Prestonian Lecture’

    

Cheshire Freemasons

The announcement came months ago, so I’m not breaking news here, but the United Grand Lodge of England presents its Prestonian Lecturer for 2025: RW Bro. Simon Medland.

This Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Cheshire and Past Grand Sword Bearer will discuss “Our Friends in the North,” a “reflection on the growth of Freemasonry from its early, proto-Masonic beginnings in Chester, Cheshire, and nearby Provinces,” says Quatuor Coronati Lodge’s website.

(Speaking of QC2076, now is the time to renew your membership, or to join, the lodge’s Correspondence Circle if you want to receive the coming volume of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the annual book of transactions.)

Bro. Medland is a fourth generation Freemason in Cheshire, having been initiated by his father, a Past Senior Grand Warden there, in 1986 at the now defunct Hamilton Lodge 5454, founded in 1934 with the help of Bro. Medland’s great-grandfather.

Of course, 2025 will bring the tercentenary celebration of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Cheshire, the oldest Province, making Medland’s appointment, and his chosen subject, all the more apt. Congratulations!

Click here to view an introductory interview with Medland on the Cheshire Freemasons’ YouTube channel.

     

‘Berman to return as Prestonian Lecturer’

    

Bro. Ric Berman, of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 among others, will serve again as Prestonian Lecturer in the New Year.

Every year, the United Grand Lodge of England selects one scholar to travel around the jurisdiction and present his research at the invitation of lodges. Typically a charity is made beneficiary of whatever proceeds from the sales of the book of the lecture, and sometimes the lecturer travels abroad too.

Bro. Ric has come in this way and manner before; he was Prestonian Lecturer in 2016. Next year, his subject will be “The Second Grand Lodge: the Grand Lodge of Ireland, the London Irish, and Antients Freemasonry.”

Yes!

(The Marshal of my lodge called me a nerd yesterday, intending it in a most complimentary way, because I do get excited over these things.)

The book is available via Amazon already. Ten bucks!

The last time he had the job, he visited America for a short tour during which I was able to book him for a stop at New Jersey’s research lodge. Hopefully he’ll come this way again.

I’m a big fan of the Prestonian Lecture tradition, but I’m not an expert in its history so I can’t name another lecturer who has been appointed a second time. Bro. George Boys-Stones recently had two consecutive years, but that was because the pandemic ruined his intended tenure.

I wonder about the Prestonian’s future. The current honoree is an American—Bro. Akram Elias, Past Grand Master of the District of Columbia. Is English Freemasonry running short on scholars? I’m active in three research lodges and I can see hardly anyone is interested in researching and writing about Freemasonry, and going on tour to present the work. It’s a rarely considered aspect of the shrinking of the Masonic fraternity.

     

‘Grand Master on the balcony’

    

The Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England took his rightful place on the palace balcony alongside Queen Elizabeth II this morning following the Trooping the Colour portion of the Platinum Jubilee celebration. Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, is a cousin of the Queen.

Elected Grand Master in 1967, the 250th year of the Grand Lodge, he is the longest serving Grand Master in English history. He was initiated into the fraternity in Royal Alpha Lodge 16 in 1963. He was Passed in 1964. Sunday the fifth will be the fifty-eighth anniversary of his Master Mason Degree. He served as Worshipful Master of Royal Alpha in 1965.

He and Prince Michael, Grand Master of Mark Master Masons, are the two princes who hold Masonic membership. Freemasonry in England has cultivated relations with the royal family for three centuries by electing kings, princes, dukes, and others to membership and to high office.

He will turn eighty years old July fourth. Perhaps he will be the last royal to preside over Grand Lodge.

This year’s Prestonian Lecture is titled “The Royal Family and Freemasonry,” which Bro. John Hawkins is presenting to Masonic audiences around the country.

    

     

‘2022 Prestonian Lecture’

    

Magpie file photo

Obtaining this scant information was like extracting secrets from the proverbial Bone Box, but that’s what I do for my readers. You three mean a lot to me.

Bro. John Hawkins will be the 2022 Prestonian Lecturer, presenting his “The Royal Family and Freemasonry.”

I certainly would be interested in hearing that. For three centuries, Freemasonry in England has courted royal patronage, beginning with the Duke of Montagu, Grand Master in 1721. Subsequent grand masters have included princes, dukes, earls, the occasional marquess, plus the odd viscount. And, of course, there were those kings at the Navy Lodge 2612.

Anyway, that’s all the information I was able to learn at this time. My thanks to W. Bro. Tony Harvey, the Prestonian Lecturer of 2012, for answering my query. He also says Bro. Hawkins will present his lecture at Nottinghamshire’s Installed Masters Lodge on June 1.

W. Bro. George Boys-Stones is still on duty, presenting his lecture, “A System of Morality,” through the current term, which is an extension of his 2020 tenure that was interrupted by the pandemic. In fact, he will be speaking tomorrow at Lodge of Antiquity, where William Preston served in the East in 1774. I had him booked for dates in New York and New Jersey a year and a half ago, and maybe that still can be salvaged. Hope ends in fruition.

Commemorative bookplate for those who buy
Bro. George’s book tomorrow.

The Prestonian Lecture is a tradition in the United Grand Lodge of England, and is named for William Preston (1742-1818), who published his Illustrations of Masonry in 1772, which informs the rituals worked in a great many Craft lodges to this day.

Congratulations Bro. Hawkins!

     

‘The Prestonian Lecturer for 2021 will be…’

     

This just in: The United Grand Lodge of England decided its Prestonian Lecturer for next year will be Bro. George Boys-Stones!

Bro. George, of course, is the current Prestonian Lecturer. His lecture, titled “A System of Morality: Aristotle and English Masonic Ritual,” is available in book form via Amazon.

“My failure to deliver the 2020 Prestonian Lecture has proven so popular that I am to be reappointed for 2021,” he says. “People just can’t get enough Aristotle, it seems! Or any.”

I had had Bro. George booked to speak at two events in and around New York City next week, but the pandemic changed our plans. We will get those rescheduled, but it is great there will be even more time for other lodges everywhere to make their own arrangements.
     

‘2020 Prestonian Lecture book now available’

     

The book of the 2020 Prestonian Lecture was published a few days ago, and now is available for purchase via Amazon.

A System of Morality: Aristotle and English Masonic Ritual by George Boys-Stones can be had in Kindle format and as a paperback. From the publicity:


English Freemasonry defines itself as a “system of morality,” but what does that phrase mean? This new study traces it back to the work of William Preston (1742-1818), who argued that Freemasonry teaches a philosophical approach to virtue. According to Preston, the rituals of Freemasonry are designed to lead the initiate through the ethical thought of Aristotle. His view proved popular, and was decisive in shaping the ritual approved for use by the United Grand Lodge of England shortly after its formation in 1813. Almost all English lodges, and many others throughout the world, still use a ritual derived from this one, and, perhaps without realizing it, continue to pay silent testimony to Preston and to Aristotle in their work.


I had Bro. Boys-Stones booked to present his Prestonian Lecture next month at my lodge in Manhattan and my research lodge in New Jersey, but Coronamania intervened. We’ll get those events rescheduled. In the meantime, I’m getting this book!

Every year, the United Grand Lodge of England selects a worthy brother to serve as the Prestonian Lecturer; in this capacity, he travels the jurisdiction to deliver his lecture in lodges and other venues. Sometimes they travel abroad. This tradition was commenced upon the death of William Preston in 1818 with a bequest to the new grand lodge, and has continued uninterrupted (excepting the years of the Second World War) since.
     

‘2020 Prestonian Lecturer’

     
And the envelope please…

Magpie file photo

The Prestonian Lecture for 2020 will be “A System of Morality: Aristotle and the Making of the Ritual” as presented by W Bro. George Boys-Stones, Past Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies.

Congratulations, Bro. Boys-Stones! Please let me know if your travels bring you to the United States, particularly the New York City area. I have some experience in arranging Prestonian speaking engagements.

George Boys-Stones

W. Boys-Stones, unsurprisingly, is a professor of Classics, a member of the Classics Department at Durham University from 1999 to 2019 before joining the faculty of the University of Toronto for the 2019-20 term. He is a prolific author on subjects pertaining to the philosophies of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, and is managing editor of Phronesis, a journal of ancient philosophy. Earlier this year, he published Platonist Philosophy 80 BC to AD 250: An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation which, among other feats, puts into English for the first time a number of Platonist primary writings.

Click here to see other books.

A Prestonian Lecturer is appointed every year by the United Grand Lodge of England in a tradition commenced in 1818, thanks to a bequest to the Grand Lodge from William Preston, that has gone uninterrupted excepting for the years of the Second World War (if I recall correctly).

Having attempted myself to speak a number of times on the Four Cardinal Virtues, I’m very eager to hear this Prestonian Lecture because I glossed over Aristotle, jumping from Plato to Aquinas.
     

‘The 2019 Prestonian Lecturer will be…’

     
Congratulations to Bro. Michael Karn upon being tapped to serve as the United Grand Lodge of England’s Prestonian Lecturer for 2019! His paper is titled “English Freemasonry During the Great War.” I hope his travels take him to New York City.

Michael Karn
Wearing Royal Arch regalia.

Bro. Karn has been a Freemason 31 years, during which time he has excelled in the field of Masonic education, having written and presented numerous works of research, and has held all kinds of stations and places and ranks. He is very keen on music as well, being an organist and a vocalist—and is a member of a lodge of musicians too.

(You may recall I reported his paper was honored with the Norman Spencer Prize four years ago.)

Having enjoyed Trevor Stewart and other Prestonians discuss the First World War in Masonic contexts, I very much look forward to Bro. Karn’s lecture.
     

‘2018 Prestonian Lecturer is…’

     

Magpie file photo

Earlier this fall, the United Grand Lodge of England announced the 2018 Prestonian Lecture:

Bro. Christopher P. Noon will present “A Good Workman Praises His Tools: Masonic Metaphors in the Ancient World.”

I’ll make my usual inquiries into a Prestonian visit to America.
     

‘2017 Prestonian Lecturer’

     
It’s been no secret, so this is no scoop, but the United Grand Lodge of England’s Board of General Purposes announced its choice to serve as Prestonian Lecturer for 2017: Bro. Jim Daniel! “The Grand Design” is the title of his lecture.

I was among the fortunate to hear him speak in April 2012 at the Bernard H. Dupee Memorial Lecture in Pennsylvania, and we’ll have to inquire into getting him back stateside.

His bio, according to Quatuor Coronati:

Jim was appointed DGS of UGLE in 1998 and served as GS from 1998-2001, when he retired to his native Cornwall. He was Grand Secretary General of the Supreme Council 33° (1989-98). He is an honorary member of the North American Conference of Grand Secretaries; a Past Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario; Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grande Loge Nationale Française; and a member of the Texas Lodge of Research. Jim was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Sheffield for his thesis “The 4th Earl of Carnarvon (1831-90) and Freemasonry in the British Empire,” and his collection of papers Masonic Networks and Connections was published in Australia by the ANZMRC and in England by the Library and Museum of Freemasonry. He became the interim Secretary of QC in 2009; his Masonic offices include Substitute Grand Master of the Royal Order of Scotland, and Chief Steward of his mother lodge, Apollo University Lodge No. 357, Oxford.

Magpie file photo

RW Thomas Jackson and RW James Daniel, 2012.

He served as Worshipful Master of Quatuor Coronati 2076 in 2003-04.

The Prestonian Lecture is an English Masonic tradition that dates to 1822. It is named for William Preston, the author and printer and ritualist whose book Illustrations of Masonry provides the basis of the ritual used in most of the English-speaking Masonic world to this day. He died in 1822 and bequeathed the sum of £300 to the United Grand Lodge of England for the purpose of endowing a lecture of Masonic education that would be presented to the brethren every year. This endured to the 1860s, when it fell into abeyance, but the tradition was revived in 1924 and—except for the years of World War II—has continued to the present day, with the UGLE’s Board of General Purposes selecting a Prestonian Lecturer annually.
     

‘Prestonian Lecturer visits LORE’

     
Five weeks have passed already, so before that becomes five years, let me share a little about the visit of the 2016 Prestonian Lecturer to New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786. We hosted a dinner in Scotch Plains January 14 to welcome Bro. Richard “Ric” Berman of the United Grand Lodge of England.

Berman visited our beloved research lodge to present his historical lecture. Forty-five Masons from all over New Jersey, plus Pennsylvania, New York, and the Czech Republic(!) gathered at the Stage House Tavern to be among the first in the world to hear Bro. Ric’s lecture, titled “Foundations: New Light on the Formation and Early Years of the Grand Lodge of England.”

Courtesy Martin Bogardus

Prestonian Lecturer Ric Berman and David Tucker, Master
of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786.

Magpie file photo

I keep seeing this photo all over the web.

The Prestonian Lecture is an English Masonic tradition that dates to 1822. It is named for William Preston, the author and printer and ritualist whose book Illustrations of Masonry provides the basis of the ritual used in New Jersey and most of the English-speaking Masonic world to this day. He died in 1822 and bequeathed the sum of £300 to the United Grand Lodge of England for the purpose of endowing a lecture of Masonic education that would be presented to the brethren every year. This endured to the 1860s, when it fell into abeyance, but the tradition was revived in 1924 and—except for the years of World War II—has continued to the present day, with the UGLE’s Board of General Purposes selecting a Prestonian Lecturer annually.

In 2016, the honoree is an authority on 18th century Freemasonry, having published three books on those early decades of the Craft. Ric holds a doctorate in history from the University of Exeter, and a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge. (In a previous life, before becoming the academic researcher and author who joined us that night, Ric had a career in international finance.) He was a Senior Visiting Researcher at Oxford’s Modern European History Research Center, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University. He has been a Freemason since the late 1970s, and currently serves as Treasurer of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, the first lodge of Masonic research and education, and he is a past master of the research lodge in Middlesex, England.

Available from Amazon, etc.

The lecture is available in book form for purchase—with proceeds benefitting the Library and Museum of Freemasonry at UGLE’s headquarters—from on-line retailers, like Amazon, so I won’t recapitulate its content in detail, much less divulge spoilers. “Foundations” guides us from medieval times to the 17th century and Freemasonry’s embryonic years, to the first decades of the Grand Lodge of England. We all know about the Antients versus the Moderns in competition for Masonic hegemony, and of the Jacobites’ battles against the Hanoverians for control of the state, but the intrigues also extended into Parliament. Tories and Whigs who were Freemasons organized themselves into factions that set the Craft very far apart from all other clubs and societies in England.

“The Grand Lodge of England was the creation of an inner circle at the Duke of Richmond’s Masonic lodge in Westminster,” said Ric, explaining some of the politics. “Its members included aristocrats and politicians alongside senior public officials, such as an undersecretary of state and the government’s anti-Jacobite spymaster, and William Cowper, a leading magistrate and the clerk to the Parliaments, the highest ranking administrator at the House of Commons and House of Lords.”

“The magistracy and the government’s association with Freemasonry gave the organization a judicial and political imprimatur that was reinforced by many instances of de facto official endorsement,” he added. “Prominent examples include the raising of the Duke of Lorraine and the initiation of the Duke of Newcastle, and the initiation of other senior figures, including Prime Minister Robert Walpole, Frederick, Prince of Wales, and numerous members of both Court and Parliament.”

Ric spoke for about forty minutes, and the Q&A went another half an hour, and still the brethren crowded around Ric for private conversation for long after that, but I had to steal him away to return him to the hotel so he could get some rest before his trip to Virginia the next morning. (No one knows this until now, but Ric had been functioning on almost no sleep or food for the twenty-four hours previous to our dinner-meeting.) This Prestonian tour took Ric from North Carolina, where he spoke at four events in four nights, to Des Moines, to our event, and finally to Virginia before returning to England. He indicated he would like to return to the United States later in the year.

Courtesy Martin Bogardus

Martin Bogardus and Prestonian Lecturer Ric Berman.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 especially gives warm fraternal thanks to the brethren of Inspiratus Lodge No. 357 for providing our guests copies of the “Foundations” book, which made for a perfect souvenir of the evening. Also given away freely that night were petitions for joining our lodge, which hopefully will result in a larger L.O.R.E. family.

It was a memorable night of savory food, great company, and brilliant Masonic Light—actually, a number of the brethren told me how much they loved the meal—and while our lodge had budgeted a thousand dollars to pull it off, the whole thing cost us less than fifty bucks. I say we should do it every year!
     

‘2016 Prestonian Lecture in New Jersey’

     

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic

Research and Education No. 1786

Proudly Presents

The 2016 Prestonian Lecture

Foundations:

New Light on the Formation and

Early Years of the Grand Lodge

of England

Presented by Bro. Richard Berman

United Grand Lodge of England

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Stage House Tavern

366 Park Avenue

Scotch Plains

$49 Per Person

Reservation

by Advance Payment

ONLY

PayPal $51 (includes transaction fee)
to: masonicrsvp@gmail.com

Or bring your $49 check, payable to NJLORE 1786,

to our December 12 meeting.

Be among the first in the world

to hear the 2016 Prestonian Lecture!

Deadline for reservations: Thursday, January 7

     

‘Calvi and P2 Lodge topics next month’

     
Bro. Michael Kearsley, who served the United Grand Lodge of England as its Prestonian Lecturer in 2014, will return to New Jersey next month for another speaking engagement. On the first Saturday of December every year, the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of New Jersey hosts its Feast of St. John, which is highlighted by a keynote speaker. Rarely is there a Masonic topic—if I’m not mistaken, 2007 was the last such talk, delivered by Chris Hodapp, which was the only of these events that I’ve attended—but Bro. Kearsley is slated to break with form and present something of important and odd Masonic history.

Feast of St. John

Saturday, December 5

Social Hour at 5:30

Dinner at 6:45

Program at Eight

Fellowship Center

1114 Oxmead Road

Burlington, New Jersey

$45 per person

RSVP no later than Friday. Tables for eight or ten guests can be booked. Phone 609.239.3950, and have your credit card ready.

RW Michael Kearsley

RW Bro. Michael Kearsley will speak on “The Roberto Calvi Affair.” In addition to his Prestonian tenure, Bro. Kearsley served as the Right Worshipful Grand Orator of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Middlesex, and is a Past Master of four lodges, and is secretary of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076. His research is widely published—one paper garnered QC2076’s Norman Spencer Prize—and he is editor of The Square, among other distinctions.

Roberto Calvi, nicknamed “God’s Banker,” was murdered in outlandish circumstances in 1982 after being at the center of the billion dollar mafia-Vatican bank collapse that is said to have involved a Masonic lodge named Propaganda Due, or P2 for short.

Don’t Google it. Let Bro. Kearsley’s telling of the story stimulate you and leave you with much to talk about.
     

‘Presenting the 2016 Prestonian Lecture’

     
New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 is immensely proud—we can hardly sit still!—to present Bro. Richard Berman, the 2016 Prestonian Lecturer, who will deliver his lecture titled Foundations, on Thursday, January 14, 2016.

The location, dining fee, and other necessary details are not worked out yet, but they will be publicized here and throughout social media soon. For now, please save the date.

From the publicity:

The 2016 Prestonian Lecture

Foundations: New Light on the Formation

and Early Years of the Grand Lodge of England

The 2016 Prestonian Lecture explores the evolution of Freemasonry, queries long-standing myths, and explains the factors that gave rise to the step change that occurred with the creation of the first English Grand Lodge in 1717.

Ric Berman outlines the connections between Freemasonry and the British establishment in the eighteenth century, and how and why its leaders positioned Grand Lodge as a bastion of support for the government. He also touches on how Freemasonry was used to advance Britain’s diplomatic objectives and for espionage.

The Lecture marks the upcoming 300th anniversary of the formation of the first Grand Lodge, and sets a context for 2017’s celebration.

The Prestonian Lecturer is appointed by the United Grand Lodge of England. This year’s lecturer, Ric Berman, is the author of Foundations of Modern Freemasonry, first published in 2011 and now in its second edition; Schism (2013), which discusses the conflict between Moderns and Antients Freemasonry; and Loyalists & Malcontents (2015), a history of colonial and post-colonial Freemasonry in the American South.

Richard Berman

Dr. Berman has been a Freemason for almost 40 years. He is a Past Master of the Marquis of Dalhousie Lodge No. 1159 (EC); Treasurer of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 (EC), England’s oldest research lodge; and a PM of the Temple of Athene Lodge No. 9541 (EC), the research lodge of the Province of Middlesex. He holds London and Provincial Grand Rank.

An extended version of the lecture is available for purchase via Amazon. The proceeds are donated to charity. Ric Berman’s Amazon page is here.


TAKE NOTE: Bro. Ric will NOT have copies of his lecture available for sale at this event. Please make your purchase from Amazon, and bring the book with you for inscribing.

Bro. Ric’s tour of the United States includes:

January 7 to 9 – American Historical Association, Atlanta, Georgia: Chairing the session “Freemasonry – The First Global Society,” and giving the paper “Antients or Moderns? Reflections on the Genesis of American Freemasonry.”

Prestonian Lecture presentations:

January 9 to 10 – Greensboro, North Carolina

January 11 to 12 – Chapel Hill, North Carolina

January 13 – Des Moines, Iowa

January 14 – New Jersey (location TBD)

January 15 – Washington, DC

Of course January is early in the year, and it is not impossible Bro. Ric could return to the United States later in 2016 for more appearances.

     

‘Prestonian Lecture 2015’

     
The United Grand Lodge of England has announced the Prestonian Lecture for 2015, titled “Wherever Dispersed: The Traveling Mason,” to be presented by Bro. Roger Burt of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, among other Masonic affiliations.

Read and download the paper here.

Roger Burt, Ph.D. enjoyed a lengthy academic career at the University of Exeter, where he is an Emeritus Professor, studying and teaching the effects of the Industrial Revolution on society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Geological Society, and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. In Freemasonry, Burt is a Past Master of Vectis Lodge No. 3075 in West Kent; a Past Master of Quatuor Coronati; a Royal Arch Mason; and an Honorary Professor in what was the Center for Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield.

Magpie file photo

Front: Trevor Stewart and Roger Burt. Rear: John Acaster and Peter Currie
at Alpha Lodge No. 116, December 12, 2007.

A Prestonian Lecturer is appointed annually by UGLE to promote education among the brethren in the jurisdiction. By tradition, the lecturer travels about England presenting his work, and raising funds for a charity of his choice. In more recent years, it has become common for Prestonian Lecturers to travel abroad, with a number of them accepting speaking engagements in New Jersey and elsewhere in America. I shot this photo of Bro. Trevor Stewart (Prestonian Lecturer 2004) and Bro. Burt December 12, 2007 at Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange.

Additionally, the Norman Spencer Prize for 2014 has been awarded to Bro Michael Karn of Temple of Athene Lodge No. 9541 in Middlesex, England for his paper “English Freemasonry During the Great War,” which presented the effects of the First World War on English Masonic lodges. The Spencer Prize is QC2076’s only honor named for a person; Norman Spencer served as Master of the lodge in 1959-60. In 1970, two years after Spencer’s death, the lodge instituted this tradition of honoring scholarly achievement in this way. He was a veteran of the First World War, having served in Egypt and France, making this year’s prize-winning paper an apt choice.

My thanks to The Canberra Curmudgeon, Bro. Neil Wynes Morse, for this news from England.

In closing, let us pray and send healing energies to Bro. Trevor Stewart, who is facing a daunting health challenge at this time. My brother, you are in my thoughts often, and I wish there were something I could do to spare you this trial. I hope to sit in lodge with you again soon.
     

‘Bro. Neville Barker Cryer, R.I.P.’

    
The sad news seems to have eluded cyberspace for a week, but now newspapers in England are reporting the death last Tuesday of The Rev. Neville Barker Cryer, a most distinguished brother who shared his understanding of the works of the spirit in his insightful and prolific writing and lecturing on matters Masonic.

Courtesy PGL of East Lancs 

Both The Times (of London) and The Press (York) published the following obituary today:

CRYER The Reverend Neville Barker, after a period of illness, died 2nd July 2013 at York Hospital. Remembered and loved by Marjorie his wife, and all his family. Funeral Service at St Mary’s Church, Haxby, York on Monday 15th July 2013 at 11am. Family flowers only please, donations in memoriam to Manormead Care Home (Dementia Care Unit) and to Bible Society. All enquiries please to J. Rymer Funeral Directors. Tel: 01904 624320.

Bro. Cryer, to mention a few highlights, was a member of York Lodge No. 236, the oldest lodge in York; a Past Grand Chaplain, the Prestonian Lecturer in 1974, Batham Lecturer in 1996-98, and a Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076.

I will share only one Freemasonry Today column by Cryer, from about two and a half years ago, addressing the meaning of charity.

Some thirty years ago I began to realize that those who were called upon to present a toast to the Initiate, or to present or respond to the toast to the guests, were frequently using a phrase that must have seemed to be a most satisfactory one at that point. The phrase was: ‘That’s what Freemasonry is all about, isn’t it?’

In another context, and as a clergyman, I can just imagine a fellow cleric banging a pulpit ledge and in an attempt to silence all disagreement saying loudly, ‘That is what Christianity is all about, isn’t it?’

At the dinner table I can see the speaker now, warming up to his chance to impress the new Candidate sitting beside the Master and reminding him of what he earlier experienced in the north-east corner of the lodge room. Wanting to drive home the useful and correct need for a spirit of benevolence and care for others he works himself up to the climax of his speech and says: ‘Now Charity, that is what Freemasonry is all about, isn’t it?’ The speaker may sit down feeling that it is a job well done. But is it?

Forgive me if thirty years later I still have to point out that that is not what Freemasonry is all about. A person joining the Craft today might, of course, be forgiven for gaining the idea that it was.

A lot of provincial magazines that I see give me the sense that this is indeed the primary and overwhelming concern of the Craft. Yet how can it be? If it were, then we don’t practice what we claim.

Surely if that were true then why do we spend so much on maintaining halls, buying regalia, jewels and even books, having substantial meals, entertaining our guests and, forgive me perhaps for mentioning it, paying Grand Lodge and Provincial Grand Lodge dues. We do all these things because they too are important and, we believe, worth supporting. Benevolence has to be seen as part and parcel of this whole Masonic program in which we take part but to make the claim and try to drive home that claim with our newest members is untrue and unfair.

Of course it is right, and not the least when Christmas with its emphasis on giving is part of our national heritage, to appeal to a Freemason to show generosity to any who are so much less fortunate than ourselves – as we should remind ourselves every time we dine at home as well as at a lodge meeting. As I am sure the public are now much more aware we seek to share our giving for charity with many more than just our own members though they should be our first care.

Anyone reading this magazine, and I am sure you leave it around for the family and friends to see, can have no doubt about the range of our concern. Great as the range is, however, and generous as is the support that it represents, there are some things that I believe we need to think about afresh.

I am fully aware that what is written in the Volume of Sacred Law is not these days regarded by people at large with the same respect as was previously the case but it is still open for our contemplation at every lodge meeting. At one point it states this: ‘So when you give to the needy do not announce it with trumpets to be honored by men. But when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret.’ Much as I appreciate the desire we have had to be more open about what we do could it be that we are blowing our own trumpets a little too much? I think this matter does need some further thought.

There is something else that I think should concern us and is increasingly troubling me. I read in the first of the Emulation Lectures: ‘From him who is in want, let us not withhold a liberal hand. So shall a heartfelt satisfaction reward our labors, and the produce of love and Charity will most assuredly follow.’

What, I wonder, is happening to us when our charity collection in the lodge meeting is sometimes half, a third, or even a quarter of what is raised by a raffle? Why do we need another kind of ‘spirit’ than generosity to enable us to support those who are in genuine need?

What about the heartfelt satisfaction that should reward our giving or are we, as Free and Accepted Masons, only the same as most other folk and these words are just meaningless ritual? It has made me clear as to what I must do in future.

The ranks of Freemasonry Today staff have dwindled too suddenly and too soon. Editor Michael Baigent passed just last month.
    

‘Prestonian Lecture at Buffalo’

    

W. Bro. Wayne Buffett Warlow, the 2010 Prestonian Lecturer, will speak Monday, October 25 at Ancient Landmarks Lodge No. 358 in New York. His lecture is titled “Music in Masonry and Beyond,” which he promises will inform, educate, and entertain.

The lecturer is a Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden from South Wales. A multi-instrumentalist, Bro. Warlow has been involved in some 1,800 film, television, and radio productions, with innumerable live performances, and theatrical performances with artists ranging from Sir Geraint Evans to Tony Bennett to Dame Anna Neagle to Catherine Zeta Jones. He has been the Conductor of the BBC Radio Orchestra and has produced film scores which have won awards at the New Zealand Film Awards and the Monte Carlo International Film and Television Festival.

Ancient Landmarks Lodge meets at Sweethome Masonic Hall, located at 641 Sweethome Road in Amherst. (This is the Buffalo area, very much outside the Magpie Mason’s habitual flight pattern.)

There is no cost to attend this lecture, but please know that W. Barlow has published his complete lecture in a 28-page booklet, the sale of which supports charitable causes. He also has produced a CD of the full versions of the many pieces of music that illustrate specific points of his lecture. The CD is intended to serve as a memento of the occasion as well as provide listening pleasure for almost 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The booklet and CD will be sold separately at $10 each.