Several members of Lodge Temperance 2557 attended the Provincial Grand Lodge of Northumberland annual meeting at the Gosforth racecourse on November 30th.
We are very pleased to announce that three of our members received Provincial honours, W bro Stuart McBean was re-appointed Provincial Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies, W bro Allan Bell re-appointed Provincial Deputy Director of Ceremonies our Worshipful Master W bro Chris Emmerson received his first Provincial Honour of Provincial Senior Grand Deacon.
The Provincial Grand Secretary presented the Provincial Statistical Report. There are 148 Lodges in the Province with around 4630 members of which 103 arebnew candidates. Sadly two Lodges closed during the year with two more closing shortly. The Provincial fee for 2016 will remain at £14.
Mr David Innes, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution gave an interesting talk on their Care Homes and was presented with a cheque for £250,ooo by the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master.
The Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master commented in his address that he had received complaints that in some lodges it was taking too long to go through the toast list and that members should not be forced into buying raffle tickets during the festive board and the Lodge should announce where the proceeds are going.
In all a very informative and interesting meeting. Full details of which will no doubt be posted on the Provincial Grand Lodge of Northumberland’s website here in due course.
