The Antient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of England
Provincial Grand Lodge of Durham
Deputy Provincial Grand Master John Arthur, PGSwdB Assistant Provincial Grand Masters David Sanders Hay, PSGD John David Watts, PSGD Stephen William Walker, JGD Simon Craig Steele, PJGD Provincial Grand Secretary Thomas Fred Gittins, PPJGW
RW Bro Norman Eric Heaviside Provincial Grand Master
Address to Annual Convocation - May 2016 Good afternoon Companions and may I give each and everyone of you a very warm welcome to this our Annual Convocation. It is always a delight to see so many Companions attending this Annual Event, as it gives us all the opportunity to renew old acquaintances, and more importantly to make some new friends. Today I have had the real privilege of Appointing and Promoting so many Companions to their new position. Of course Companions, these honours are not just given as a matter of right or entitlement. We take a great deal of time to ensure that those who are giving their valuable time and energy in support of their Chapter are fully recognised. I congratulate each and everyone of you on your preferment, and not only do I thank you for what you have done in the past, but more importantly I look to you to take a greater involvement in your respective Chapters. I would particularly ask that you spend time in encouraging those of your friends and associates who are not Members of The Royal Arch, to give it their serious consideration. Grand Honours At the Annual Investiture of Supreme Grand Chapter, in April of this year, the following Companions were either Invested or Promoted as a reward for their outstanding efforts in our Province. Ex Comp Keith Bibby PGStB Ex Comp Mike Davis PGStB Ex Comp Gordon Gilbraith PAGDC Ex Comp Gary Martin PAGDC Promoted to PAGSoj Ex Comp David Bambrough Ex Comp Peter Birtwisle Ex Comp Peter Kay Setting the Scene Many of our Chapters have, over the past few months, willingly delivered the additional explanation of our Ceremony, in what is now referred to as Setting The Scene. In every case the Companions have found the extra explanation most useful and I encourage all Chapters to adopt this piece of ritual in every Exaltation Ceremony. I am particularly grateful to one of our distinguished Guests, Ex Comp Peter Mason, Dep G Supt in Cumberland & Westmorland, who initially passed on to us the script and I thank him
most sincerely. Not only did he pass it on to us, but he actually wrote it and Ex Comp Peter we are most grateful to you for sharing your expertise with us. Brethren, that is the sort of useful exchange of information which takes place between our local Provinces. I have often said that there is no League Table of Provinces, but getting
together as we do, offers us the opportunity of sharing best practice and increasing our knowledge for the benefit of us all. Over the past year we have delivered a number of Chapter Roadshows at Lodges, which endeavour to make Craft Members a little wiser about the aims and content of the Royal Arch. In our Province we have some 40% of our Craft Members who are Members of the Royal Arch. Whilst I would never expect to have anything like 100%, it does give us plenty of scope to increase that percentage towards 50%, and I encourage all of you here today to take a positive step in educating some of your friends and colleagues in your Lodges to take that final step in completing the Third Degree. 2021 RMTGB Festival I don’t want to go into great detail about our Festival but suffice to say, we have commenced our 5 Year Festival with tremendous enthusiasm, and financially we have probably made the greatest start to any Festival we have had. Our latest total achieved is £900k and I am particularly grateful to all of the Chapters and their Companions for their support of the Festival. You don’t need me to remind you that on 2nd July we have our Raby Gala in aid of the Festival. I do hope that most of our Members will be able to attend that great event and to bring their friends along as well. Website I can announce that today we are Launching our New Provincial Website. Many of you, who are much more IT competent than I am, will recall that 12 months ago we rolled out a Survey to see how and why we can improve the information available to Brethren and Companions. After all Companions, this is YOUR Website. With increasing on-line enquiries and Membership applications, we have loaded onto the front end of the Website, information of interest to non-masons, helping those people to learn more about us. In the middle section we have included all of the latest news and information about our Charities. The final section is more of a reference area where people can enquire about Lodge information, what is happening around the Province and the diary of events. In many cases this will allow Members to find answers to their queries rather than having to contact Provincial Office. Obviously Companions this new Website will evolve over the next 12 months, as we learn even more about what you require from it and it will no doubt be a case of continuous improvement.
The Antient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of England
Provincial Grand Lodge of Durham
Deputy Provincial Grand Master John Arthur, PGSwdB Assistant Provincial Grand Masters David Sanders Hay, PSGD John David Watts, PSGD Stephen William Walker, JGD Simon Craig Steele, PJGD Provincial Grand Secretary Thomas Fred Gittins, PPJGW
RW Bro Norman Eric Heaviside Provincial Grand Master
I am particularly grateful to EComp Michael Graham for his untiring commitment to our Communications role over the past 4 years or so. During that time Michael has created and master minded everything to do with the Website, The Gazette and the Area Communications facility. About 3 months ago I sat down with Michael to examine the full extent of his role and we agreed that it was far too much for one person to undertake, in addition to all of his other activities and not to mention the demands of running his own business. We have agreed to dissect his role into 4 distinct departments, each of which has a separate role and all reporting to Michael. I am most grateful to Comp Paul Jenkins who is now our new Webmaster and he has full responsibility for all Website matters. Paul is a young man from Stockton who is currently Master of his Lodge and Assistant Sojourner in his Chapter. The Gazette will now be the responsibility of EComp Paul O’Doherty. This is a very demanding role as he needs to assimilate all incoming material, create it into a presentable format and meet the required deadlines for Printing and Distribution. The third area is that of Social Media, which will the responsibility of EComp Tom Gittins. This is an increasing area of interest and it has to be monitored closely, because we do on occasions find rather distasteful comments appearing on Facebook etc. Finally, we have the Area Communications Officers around the Province, who continue to do an excellent job in gathering information and photographs of important events. Michael will be overseeing all of the above activities and on your behalf I must express our most grateful thanks for his untiring efforts and all that he does for us. Thank You Before I close my Address I must offer my sincere thanks to all of our Acting Officers of this past year. We have had an excellent year and they have supported our various Visits around the Province extremely well. In particular, I must thank Ex Comp Paul Mundell for his outstanding commitment to his position of Assistant to the Principals, over the past 4 years. Paul has really enjoyed his role of leading some of the Area Group Visits, and in particular he and Andrew Moule have played a vital part in promoting the Mentoring Scheme in our Chapters. Ex Comp Andrew Dixon has today retired as our Director of Ceremonies and we thank him for adding his own stamp to our Ceremonial activities. Also Ex Comp Ian Knighting is retiring after 4 years of unstinting service as a Dep Director of Ceremonies. To both of them may I thank them for their guidance and above all for their friendship. Companions all, I am most grateful for your kind attention to my Address and I wish you all a happy Summer Recess.