So what has been happening here of late? Well...

As 2006 draws to a close, Chris was thrilled & delighted to be Invested as Intendant General for Cheshire in the Red Cross of Constantine. The Grand Sovereign and his Team performed an excellent ceremony at Christleton on 21st of October.

In the following week, Chris & Claire, in company with many other Cheshire Masons and their Wives attended the Albert Hall for the Sesqui-centenary celebration of the foundation of Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons. The event was a triumph.

2003 ended with Chris receiving his 30º K.H.,
and looking forward to a busy 2004\5 Season

As Chris was pleased to be promoted to Assistant Provincial Grand Master of the Cheshire Mark in May 2003, he doesn't have much free time now but I was pleased to take a rare weekend break and attend a super Ladies Night in Llandudno, organised by the Wirral Lodge No.2496.

At the beginning of December, 2002
I was pleased to attend a presentation,
as a member of the Lifelites IT support team, at the 'Claire House' Hospice on the Wirral,
where a cheque for £3550 was presented on behalf of Cheshire Masons by the Assistant Provincial Grand Master, W.Bro. Archie McIlveen.

The special bed and hoist, which was purchased with a £6300 donation from the MTGB, Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, in May, is now helping to lighten the load.

Photograph shows W.Bro. Archie McIlveen, A.P.G.M.
with Jan Goodacre, Hospice Administrator and Muriel Barber, Head Nurse

Chris and I enjoyed helping out at our third Masonic Open Day,
at Middlewich in Cheshire, at the beginning of November,
and are sure that the many interested visitors will have gained a structured insight
into our love of Freemasonry. Since then we have received some feedback
and it appears that there were several enquiries about joining.

When I was shown a document in August 2001, relating to the Procedure for the Installation of the Duke of Kent, in 1939, and the scanner was sitting idle,
I thought it worthy of the effort and hope you enjoy the memory.

While we have endeavoured to provide on this web site, an informed and interesting look at Freemasonry, we have been well aware of the responsibility that we undertook back in '96 and look forward to working with the Internet Policy which the United Grand Lodge of England submitted to the Board of General Purposes in March 2001

With Chris's promotion to this or that Provincial Rank and my new found responsibilities,
as Scribe E, has meant that we haven't been able to get together, apart from S.R.I.A. meetings, as often as possible, but we did both enjoyed helping out at the Masonic Open-day in Sandbach, in October 2000.

Earlier in 2000, we had need to apologize to the Dormer Masonic Study Circle #1 for reposting an article of theirs, for the last four years, on our articles page. Evidently the original alt.freemasonry poster had no rights to put the offending article in the public domain. The interesting Pythagoras article has since been removed.

We both had some memorable Masonic moments the previous year (1999), what with Chris receiving Provincial Honours in a couple of Orders and getting heavily involved in preparing a very special celebration, held in October, where his Dad, John, received a 50+ year certificate from the P.G.M.
(photo of John and Chris after the presentation)

I've enjoyed visiting several superb ceremonies, including a smashing half-night evening as a guest of the W.M. of Hooton Park Lodge No.8156.

I also enjoyed a brief visit to Grand Lodge
(the building) in August,
while I had need to be in London.

Back in October '97 we received a request via our feedback form, from a Brother  
"I am looking for a copy of "The Schroeder Ritual," English version, perhaps you could help me? We are some masons in Calgary, Alberta Canada, who would like to open a new Lodge and use The Schroeder ritual." and after a nice bit of Internet cooperation we tracked down a copy in Australia. After protocol was provided by the Grand Lodges of Canada and South Australia, we were pleased to hear in August '98 that the Ritual was with our Brother and we look forward to hearing news of the formation of a new Lodge in due course.

July '98 saw Chris and W.Bro Ken Mackenzie travelling up to Scotland to take part in a couple of fascinating meetings before Chris took a well earned break in August to relax by the sea, glass in hand and ritual book in the other. While Chris was away, I enjoyed the Birmingham meeting of the Internet Lodge No.9659, where we were enthralled by W.Bro RA Gilbert P.Prov.S.G.D. (Glos) who presented his paper entitled "The Trials and Tribulations of a Masonic Apologist" .

By the end of May, Chris and I were more or less ready to take part in the first Cheshire Province 'Masonic Open Day', that was held at Christleton on the 6th of June. Chris took along a range of different Regalia and I took a couple of PC's to show Freemasonry on the Internet. The day went very well with about 160 non Masons attending and many familiar faces.

In early April, I was invited to attend Whitby Lodge No.4309 to hear a talk about the visit of a UK demonstration team to Vermont in '96 and thought that it might be nice to present W.Bro. E. C. Knowles with a print out of a couple of Vermont Web sites as a reminder of his time in Vermont. Little did I know what such a simple thought would lead me into, but a visit to the Patriot Lodge #33 web site will provide much insight into what had culminated by the end of the month.

March saw Chris busy putting together a nice promotion package while I'd been busy on a new web site for  one of Chris' Regalia suppliers, Light & Boston Limited.

February brought out the Government attack on Freemasonry and we were surprised to find that this site, along with half a dozen others, had been selected by the BBC to provide background information to their news coverage of the subject.

January '98 saw us at the Consecration of the Internet Lodge No.9659. As a founder member, this event was especially important to me but I'm sure that Chris absorbed the emotionally charged day with just as much enthusiasm and enjoyment. The Provincial team were brilliant in the execution of the ceremony and the buzz that the Festive board provided will stay in my memory as the epitome of international fraternity and brotherhood.

December saw both Chris and I attend a stunning event at the Christleton Masonic Hall, a triple 50th Celebration. Organized by St. Anselm Lodge No.5166 and Kilmory Lodge No.7109, this night saw the Provincial Grand Master present certificates honouring 50 years Masonic service to three long time friends, one of which happened to be the Past Provisional Grand Master. Truly a wonderful evening.

As the months have passed by, since our launch in early '97, we have been pleased to see that the openness that we were originally aiming for has been complemented by a growing number of fine sites and, most especially, the UGLE Web Site itself.

We just hope that we can continue to live up to the remit that we have set out so far and develop this site as a medium to promote the positive benefits of Freemasonry.

Thanks to all of you who have been so kind in responding to our development survey during these early months.

Being the first web site of its kind caused us to be cautious in content and yet experimental in expediency and we are pleased that your responses have been so positive toward our intentions.

Originally designed as a stepping stone in Internet awareness for the Craftings clientele, we haven't notified any search engines as yet or tried to promote the site outside of the UK but the numbers of overseas visitors have surprised us and the warmth of the responses has been well appreciated.


If you can't see the Craftings Logo click to our welcome page

Site Design by drakesvision
Last updated Sunday October 29, 2006