Talking research

Last November, the Australian and New Zealand Masonic Research Council (www.anzmrc.org) held a conference at the Dunedin Masonic Centre in New Zealand.

These conferences are usually biennial, but the 2020 conference was postponed till 2022 because of the coronavirus. At that meeting I was elected President of the Council and I will remain in that position until the next conference, which will occur in Sydney in 2024, the venue probably being the NSW Masonic Club and the convener W Bro

Kim Nielsen

The first Australian Masonic Research Council (AMRC) conference was held in Melbourne in 1992. At the third conference, held in Perth in 1996, it was decided that New Zealand research lodges would be included. So, at the conference held in Launceston in 1998, a New Zealand mason spoke for the first time. The Council was renamed the Australian and New Zealand Masonic Research Council (ANZMRC).

The aims of the ANZMRC are:

1. to promote masonic research and education

2. to act as a liaison body among its affiliated research lodges and chapters

3. to organise biennial conferences across New Zealand and Australia

4. to organise and coordinate speaking tours by noted masonic researchers

5. to publish the proceedings of its conferences and tour books of each touring speaker.

Aims 2, 3 and 5 are being achieved. Aim 4 took a different form in 2021 in that we had two speakers, one from New Zealand and the other from Australia. This had previously been done in 2009, but in 2021 Zoom was used as the means of communication. So, the term ‘touring lecturer’ has become something of a misnomer as there was no touring involved. There will be no touring lecturers this year and it is hoped that something more suitable will have been implemented by 2025. We must evolve as requirements change.

My main objective as President is to promote masonic research. Ten Australians and thirteen New Zealanders attended the Dunedin conference, and another five or six others attended the occasional talk. Of the Australian masonic jurisdictions, only the three eastern mainland ones were represented. We all had a good time, and the quality of the lectures was excellent, but it would have been better if more had attended, and more jurisdictions had been represented. We were honoured by the presence of the Grand Master of New Zealand, MW Bro James Watt.

Each of the presenters of papers at these conferences is named a Kellerman Lecturer (KL) and his talk is called a Kellerman Lecture. Harry Kellerman, who was New Zealand born, was our Grand Librarian during the 1980s and 1990s. He was a teacher and an excellent masonic researcher. Until recently, each masonic jurisdiction was represented by one KL, then later New Zealand was permitted to have two KLs. Now, it is those lectures that are considered the best, irrespective of jurisdiction, that are chosen. Harry Kellerman became the first KL for NSW by presenting, in 1992, a paper on The Challenge of Changes in Membership in New South Wales.

At the Dunedin conference, there was a goodly number of new KLs. There were also some extra presentations by those who were already KLs. The new KLs from our jurisdiction are Bros Wayne McPhee and Benjamin Wharton, who jointly presented a paper on Some mid nineteenth century Sydney Freemasons and how they created a life beyond the Craft. Wayne was the WM of The Discovery Lodge of Research from 2018 to 2020. This was an interesting, well researched and well delivered paper as were all the papers presented. I encourage you to read them in the Proceedings of this Conference, a copy of which has been deposited in our Grand Lodge Library.

Also of note was the presence of three winners of the Norman B. Spencer Essay Prize. This prize is awarded to masons who have not previously presented a paper at the Quatuor Coronati Lodge or had a paper printed in its transactions. The Quatuor Coronati Lodge, which meets in London, is arguably the foremost masonic research lodge in the world. During the past five years, three of the winners have come from Australia or New Zealand. All three were present at the conference. They are Jack Dowds (the 2022 winner, the New Zealand touring lecturer for 2022 and a new KL from New Zealand), Brendan Kyne (the 2019 winner and the Secretary of both the ANZMRC and the Victorian Lodge of Research) and me (the 2018 winner and the current Master, soon to be IPM, of the Discovery Lodge of Research). It shows that, in research, Australia and New Zealand are doing well.

At the Dunedin conference, there was an opportunity to socialise with other researchers, particularly over morning and afternoon teas and lunches, as well as a dinner at the Impression Manor Chinese restaurant and the official dinner, on the last evening of the conference, at the Distinction Dunedin Hotel. The ladies were also present at these dinners. They had their own programme, including a visit to Larnach Castle. Another interesting point is that I stayed in Room 208 of the Law Courts Hotel, through which Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip gained access to the balcony where they greeted their adoring subjects in February 1954. Highlights were the St Andrew’s Day Celebration, where pipes were played and the haggis was piped in and toasted, and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery which had a very impressive and diverse collection. These were but two of the interesting attractions I was able to visit in Dunedin.

Bro Glenn Summerhayes, the convener, assisted by Bros Kerry Nicholls, Grant Watson and the rest of the team, are to be congratulated for running such a successful conference. We look forward to W Bro Kim Nielsen and his team providing as good a conference in Sydney in 2024. This will be the third time that the conference has been held in our masonic jurisdiction, it being previously held in Parramatta in 1994 and in Queanbeyan in 2008.

I mentioned above that one of my aims during my presidency is to promote masonic research. Now, at many a festive board you are sure to have heard the responder to the visitors’ toast telling you that ‘Visiting is what Masonry is all about’. You have probably also heard in lodge a brother claiming that ‘Charity is what Masonry is all about’. No doubt some have said ‘Brotherhood is what

Masonry is all about’. Now, at most one, but most likely none, of these statements is correct. Masonry covers many activities, and none covers the whole of Masonry. You will never have heard that ‘Research is what Masonry is all about’, but I am here to argue that it is just as important as visiting, charity and brotherhood. Not all masons wish to be researchers, but I am of the opinion that more would be if there were a greater emphasis placed on masonic research.

In our jurisdiction there are three bodies, namely the Discovery Lodge of Research in Sydney, the Linford Lodge of Research in Canberra, and the Newcastle Masonic Study Circle in Newcastle. All these are affiliate members of the ANZMRC. It is also possible for private lodges to be associate members of ANZMRC and one Sydney lodge, Lodge Kellerman, indeed is. If you are interested in research and any of these bodies are within the length of your cabletow, please seriously consider visiting and perhaps even joining at least one of them. Otherwise, you can always set up your own group of researchers or undertake individual research.

There are many masonic researchers who would be willing to assist you if you wish to be involved in masonic research, including me. A mentor can be of great assistance. I am indebted to Bro Neil Morse KL, who has encouraged and assisted me, as well as suggesting that I should submit papers. I am going to give some examples of my own research to show that someone whose career was in IT, and certainly not in research, can produce masonic research papers. I have two published papers. The first is my Kellerman lecture which considers our attitudes to women and mysticism in Freemasonry1 and the second is a study of John Browne’s masonic ciphered works of the turn of the 19th century.2 I have also researched Freemasonry as conducted in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia, the formation of the various Grand Lodges in Australia and the possible influences of Freemasonry on Caodaism. The last mentioned was because of a trip to Vietnam organised by the late Bro Peter Court in 2011 where he pointed out some similarities between Freemasonry and Caodaism. In my quest to encourage research, I am willing to visit your lodge to advocate masonic research and/or to present a research paper. I am sure that others are also willing to do this. Simply send an email to david@slaters.id.au and we can arrange a time and place. I hope that many of you will come to enjoy masonic research and may even, sometime in the future, become a KL.

1 See http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/mysticism-masculinity-freemasonry.html

2 AQC 132, 2019 pp. 59-98 or https://www. quatuorcoronati.com/wp-content/ uploads/2019/04/AQC132.03-Slater. pdf (without the questions and answers resulting from the paper)