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The Provincial Grand Masters
Annual Address to Provincial Grand Lodge - 15th April 2013 |
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Brethren it has been a
long but thoroughly enjoyable day for me and I hope that you
have likewise shared that enjoyment with me. I really am so
grateful for your support today, not just for me but for
this wonderful Province of ours. It really heartens and
encourages me to know that I am at the helm of such a strong
province.
I would like to congratulate all those who I have appointed
and promoted to Provincial rank today and all those brethren
who have made the day run smoothly. To our Provincial Grand
Director of Ceremonies, the Provincial Grand Secretary,
their teams and all the extra helpers; a big thank you.
I am sure you would also wish to join with me in
congratulating those brethren who will travel to London next
week to be appointed and promoted to Grand Rank:
W.Bro. George Rodgers PJGD
W.Bro. David Purdie PAGDC
W.Bro. Andrew Vodden PAGDC
W.Bro. David Jonas PGStdBr
Promotions:
W.Bro. Nicholas Ball to PGSwdBr (V.W.Bro)
W.Bro. Brian Kelly to PDepGSwdBr
W.Bro. Simon Rowe to PDepGSwdBr
W.Bro. Peter Hawken to PJGD
We wish you all a very happy day at the Annual Investiture
next week.
I must pay tribute to our Past PGM Rt. Worshipful Brother
Michael Penny for handing me the Province in such good
stead. Michael has worked so hard for us all, always
instilling in us his deep rooted beliefs in team work and
helping others less fortunate than ourselves. I am sure we
all wish him a very happy, healthy retirement from office
but look forward to seeing him at our meetings soon.
Just one of his great successes being his leading us to such
an amazing RMTGB festival total of £3.83m, of course without
the festival team headed up by W.Bro. Bill Daw, Conrad
Donaldson and Frank Handscombe we would not have achieved
that figure. I and on behalf of the team and the executive
thank the brethren of this Province and your lodges for all
the sacrifices that you have made for making that figure
achievable.
Brethren I am also very lucky not just to have one Past PGM,
but two to lean on for advice. Rt.W.Bro. Robin Osborn, how
nice to see you here today.
So brethren what now you may ask! I think you all deserve a
well earnd breather. Some lodges may wish to get their own
buildings in order and that is quite understandable.
Brethren when you are ready I would ask you to concentrate
your efforts of fund raising, for the Devonshire Benevolent
Fund and the PGM’s Fund. Of course many lodges have started
to do this already and I thank you.
We have a good structure in place of managing this province
and excellent teams running projects that you are all
familiar with and so supportive of; such as; mentoring,
recruitment, retention, retrieval and the university scheme.
I have worked with these brethren in the past and I respect
and know their strengths and I can tell you we are deeply
indebted to them. Thank you all for what you do for us. I
intend to make sure that they get all the support they need
to grow even stronger in the future. Indeed they each have a
member of the executive working with them and in some cases
our Past Asst PGM’s are still working on these projects for
us. All of these schemes you are familiar with and I
appreciate your support for them. The one new initiative
that I want to announce today and want you all to make
yourself familiar with and support fully is “Freemasonry
Cares”.
The introduction, to this Province, of “Freemasonry Cares”
has been superbly done by W.Bro. Nick Ball Deputy PGM and
W.Bro. Tony Morrell our Provincial Grand Almoner. Since the
middle of last year they have formed a team of two assistant
almoners; W.Bro. Peter Durrant and W.Bro. Bob Munro, coupled
with area managers and case handlers, to cope with enquires.
They have held meetings with lodge almoners to bring them up
to date on their role in this new scheme. Although I am
stating now that “Freemasonry Cares” is officially launched
today I am very proud to state that we have been ready to
introduce it, well in time. Our Deputy PGM and our
Provincial Almoner would wish me to thank all in their team,
but especially the lodge Almoners. Brethren there cannot be
anything more important than caring for someone less
fortunate than ourselves.
Brethren I cannot think of anything more important than
getting our order respected and trusted in our local and
county wide community. Well how are we going to do that? I
must say that I am particularly delighted with the superb
work that is already being done by our Information Officer
W.Bro. Peter Keaty and his Press Officer W.Bro. Jeff Bailey.
They have made great progress in getting us recognition via
the media and into the public domain, as well as keeping you
all informed on our Provincial website, regarding our
charity donations, especially to non Masonic organisations.
A fine example earlier this year was that the brethren
donated a new motorbike to the Devon Freewheelers, that fine
group of volunteers who transport organs and emergency
medical supplies throughout the county. That need was
spotted by one of our members, W.Bro. Frank Handscombe;
thank you Frank for bringing it to our attention, we stepped
in and came to their aid. Incidentally, we also gained two
new members from that presentation day. However, brethren,
we will not gain our respect from the community by just
giving, or by our cheque presentations alone, each of us
must continue to contribute in our local community the best
we can, which I know many of you are doing and I thank you.
Being good ambassadors for freemasonry, explaining to
members of the public what exactly it is we stand for is a
duty incumbent on us all.
We belong to a very strong order, that’s getting stronger
and will win through in our society today as a force for
good and I thank you brethren all, for helping me serve this
province to that end.
Once again I thank you all for today and wish you a safe
journey home.
Rt.W.Bro. Ian Kingsbury
Provincial Grand Master Devonshire
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