Derbyshire Festival 2014

In aid Of The Masonic Samaritan Fund

--  Because ... Derbyshire Cares  --

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News Items

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Provincial GM launches Derbyshire Festival 2014

Launching the Derbyshire Festival 2014 at the Annual Meeting of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Derbyshire, the Provincial Grand Master, R.W.Bro. Graham Rudd, DL, asked the Province to work together over the next six years to raise £2,000,000 in aid of the Masonic Samaritan Fund.

At a meeting where the majority of Derbyshire brethren wore the new Provincial tie, sold in aid of the Festival, he explained that the Masonic Samaritan Fund provides grants to Freemasons and their dependants, who require medical treatment, face a long wait on the NHS and who cannot pay for the treatment themselves.  The PGM made the point that, on this occasion, we will be raising money to look after our own.

He also asked members of the Province to promote the work of the Masonic Samaritan Fund, and encouraged more brethren to apply for grants, explaining, “I would like to think that none of our members or their families will suffer unnecessarily while waiting for treatment.  Please do all that you can to support me in achieving our objectives.  By working together I am sure that we will get there.”

At the luncheon following the Annual Meeting, the Provincial Grand Master was presented with the first two donations towards the Festival.  The first, from the Provincial Grand Master for the Mark Province of Derbyshire, R.W.Bro. Robert Poxon, was a donation of £3,000 from the Provincial Mark Benevolent Fund.  In accepting the donation, R.W.Bro. Rudd warmly thanked the Mark brethren and said how pleased he was that the various Masonic Orders within Derbyshire enjoyed such close fraternal relations. 

W.Bro. Philip Bowler, Past Master and Charity Steward of Fairfield Lodge No. 2224, then presented the Provincial Grand Master with a cheque for £10,000 from Fairfield Lodge.  He immediately withdrew the cheque and replaced it with one for £13,593.53, this being the total value of the donation once six years of compound interest will have been added.  The Provincial Grand Master thanked the brethren of Fairfield Lodge for their generosity and commented how the larger sum illustrated the difference that early donations can make towards achieving our target.

Our Provincial Grand Master has started the ball rolling.  Lets go for it!!  We can all do our bit by taking out a Gift-Aid pledge as soon as possible (see the Downloadable Documents page).  The message is “everyone, early”.

PGM moonlights as a tie salesman

With the Derbyshire Festival 2014 due to be launched on Saturday 12^th April, the Arboretum Lodge Sesquicentenary Celebration Meeting on Wednesday 9^th April seemed to be the ideal opportunity to start selling the new Provincial Festival Tie.

W.Bros. Steven Varley and Philip Bowler loitered cheerfully around the main door to the Grange to meet and greet the brethren as they arrived.  There was, of course, the traditional greeting and exchange of gifts with every brother, “Give me £10 and I’ll give you a Festival Tie”.

W.Bro. Varley stated (allegedly), “As a solicitor it breaks my heart to ask people for money but W.Bro. Richard McDonald put so much effort into producing this marvellous tie that I just had to go against my natural inclinations tonight and do it”.

By the time the Festive Board arrived 110 ties had been sold.  This news was imparted to R.W.Bro. Graham Rudd by W.Bro. Phil Bowler.  The PGM, being an accountant of some repute, quickly worked out that as 160 Freemasons were sitting down to eat, then some 50 had not bought a tie.  Heinous crime!  Our super salesman set to work and conducted a PGM’s “walkabout” with Del Boy and Rodney (Bowler and Varley) in close attendance.  By the end of the evening 159 ties had been sold, some even to visiting brethren from Essex, Warwickshire and Nottingham.  The PGM was in a buoyant mood and rightly so; £1,590 to the Festival before it was even officially launched.

A further 42 ties were sold the next night at the Provincial rehearsal - £2,010 in two nights!  W.Bro. Bowler (the Marketing Director for the Festival) stated that matching pocket handkerchiefs and bow ties would be on general sale very soon.

Second Annual Lecture Festival declared a huge success

One hundred and forty Freemasons were treated to a very entertaining and instructional evening on the occasion of the Province of Derbyshire’s Lecture Festival, held on Wednesday 18th June at Derby Masonic Hall.

As well as being a tremendous success and achieving its main purpose, the event also was one of the first to support the Derbyshire Festival 2014, as well as other Charities.

The evening raised some £553.02 for the Festival from the Alms collection, using Gift-Aid envelopes. After collecting the tax relief the total raised will be of the order of £700. This money has gone to the New Samaritan Fund in aid of the Derbyshire Festival and will be credited to each individual who contributed.

In addition to this a further £470 was raised at the Festive Board via a raffle, for other causes.

So, what is the main purpose of the Lecture Festival?  It is to bring the Craft Lectures, which are considerably older than our ceremonies, to the attention of a wider audience of appreciative Freemasons. The lectures were originally given at the Festive Board in the 18th and early 19th centuries and were designed to add meaning to the evening for the candidate. They are contained in a book called, “The Lectures of The Three Degrees in Craft Masonry” and contain some of the most beautiful language used in our Order.  They are worked in catechetical (question and answer) form.

What makes this evening particularly special is that all the workers are Master Masons. The Lodge is opened and closed fully in all three degrees and that in itself is a fairly rare happening in our Province. In addition, the event bound together a team of men whose total joint desire is to produce a special and oftimes beautiful happening.

I can say with pride and joy that in every respect all the aims were achieved.

To all those involved I give my greatest respect and huge thanks.

W.Bro. Peter Bennett, PAGDC

Festival Preceptor

Please continue further for details of your area or indeed your own Lodge.  If you discover that an event or an important item of news that involves you or your Lodge - that you feel is noteworthy and would make an interesting read for our readers, please let John White know directly by following this link  editor@DerbyshireFestival.org.uk

You can discover the latest news about the Festival, either by looking for Individual Lodges, Festival Area or by Date.

Links to news from individual lodges:

If your Lodge has recently supplied an item of news it will be represented by a blue highlighted (and underlined) link in the table below. As ever, just click on the link to see if we have actually reported your news accurately.

Links to news from the seven Derbyshire Festival Areas:

Select one of the seven festival areas (a blue highlighted & underlined area if there is any recent news) you wish to quickly link (jump to) from the table on the right, or 'hover' around the various Masonic venues shown by maroon squares on the map; can you 'hit your venue in one'  ? Or will you have to do a little detective work!

As you may have observed, this is not a Provincial Map of Derbyshire, it is The County of Derbyshire. Apologies to all of the lodges meeting at Burton-On-Trent and Dore!

Links to news by Date:

Select the blue highlighted (and underlined) link from the list below to jump to a news item of a specific date. 

21^st April 2008

18th June 2008

22^nd June 2008

'New News' Items