Members and visitors of Peel Moat Lodge No 7633 were highly delighted to welcome Brian Hayes as their principal guest and representative of the Provincial Grand Master Mark Matthews.
Brian was accompanied by fellow grand officer Chairman of the South Eastern Group Gareth Jones, together with other Provincial grand officers and group officers to witness the installation of Philip Lowe as master of the lodge for the ensuing year.
The installing master, Vincent Wren, in WM Derek Addy’s absence, completed the opening business of the lodge then commenced the installation proceedings ably assisted by the officers of the lodge.
Philip was installed in an interesting manner only usually witnessed at Peel Moat Lodge and was then treated to excellent presentations of the working tools in the third degree by Brian Cross, in the second degree by Nigel Paton and finally in the first degree by Peter Shepherd.
The address to the master was given by Nigel Paton, the address to the wardens by Terry Levison, the address to the deacons by Denis Tierney and finally, to the brethren of the lodge, in a very sincere manner by Brian Hayes.
On completion of the installation ceremony, Brian rose to bring the sincere heartfelt greetings, congratulations and best wishes from the Provincial Grand Master Mark Matthews, saying that Mark was aware that Philip was taking the master’s chair for the first time and wished him and the members of the lodge a very happy, healthy and most importantly, enjoyable year ahead.
Brian then turned to the installing master Vince saying that if Mark had been present on the evening, he would have taken delight in congratulating him on his work during the evening and similarly congratulated the director of ceremonies Brian Cross for his part and similarly to the three brethren who delivered the working tools.
In response, Philip rose and thanked Brian for the good wishes and presented him with a charitable donation in the form of a cheque for the very generous value of £500 made out in favour of the West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity.
Brian responded by saying that this was an excellent example of charitable giving from a relatively small lodge and congratulated the members on providing such a superb donation on behalf of those who we will never know, but will ultimately benefit from their very kind generosity.
On the first rising Gareth Jones rose to bring the greetings of the grand officers saying those who were present had experienced a unique evening’s ceremony and that they were all looking forward to the remainder of the evening, assuming they were to be invited of course!
At the social bboard, in the response to the toast to grand officers, Brian added his own congratulations both to Philip and the Lodge for an excellent evening’s entertainment. He mentioned the continuation of the Masonic journey into the Royal Arch which should be considered by all master Masons and then went on to mention the recruitment drive which was proving very successful, and which made the future of Masonry look very promising.
Finally, Brian thanked the lodge brethren for their warm hospitality and a very enjoyable night drew to a close in peace and harmony.