Brethren and visitors of Harmonic Lodge No 216 gathered at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool for the very special occasion of a brother reaching that landmark occasion of celebrating 50 years of continuous membership of Freemasonry. The celebrant on this occasion being Jeremy Clitherow MBE.
WM Roy Williams welcomed all to the lodge and proceeded to open the lodge assisted by his senior warden, Ron Cain and stand-in junior warden, Paul Shirley. Having opened the lodge in the first degree, the next order of business was to collar any brethren who were not present at the last installation meeting.
Geoff Holly was presented to Roy and then collared as junior warden, having been seated, Paul Shirley then gave the collar address to Geoff. Having delivered the address Paul then retired from the lodge, to return as part of the procession to enter the lodge later.
The lodge having advanced through the degrees, was the cue for Provincial deacons Harry Kinney and Ken Jones, to retire from the lodge for a short period. A knock on the door announced the entrance of Assistant to the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies David Boyes, who announced that John James, Assistant Provincial Grand Master, accompanied by distinguished guests stood without.
The two deacons then re-entered the lodge, accompanied by Provincial Grand Charity Steward Paul Shirley, Gladstone Group Chairman Paul Storrar, grand officers and Assistant Provincial Grand Master John James, who was conducted to Roy by David Boyes.
Roy formally welcomed John to the lodge, and along with all the brethren and visitors were extremely pleased to see John on his first official visit following a period of ill-health. Roy, as is custom, offered John the gavel of the lodge and on this occasion, John accepted the gavel and occupied the chair of King Solomon.
Having attended to the necessary salutations, John requested that celebrant Jeremy be sat comfortably and having seated himself, John first addressed everyone in the lodge, and stated that he was absolutely delighted to be at Harmonic Lodge, and that it was a privilege to be here and celebrate with Jeremy reaching the landmark achievement of 50 years of Freemasonry.
John then gave an insight into the life of Jeremy through his career as a pharmacist, his promotion as a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and the award of his MBE for his original work in devising strategies for the Department of Health (NHS) to use, which would deliver injecting substance misuse harm reduction for the public in general and for injecting drug users in particular.
Following on John, then also took us through Jeremy’s journey through Freemasonry over the preceding 50 years, from his initiation, promotion to Provincial Grand Lodge and to the culmination of that journey to the present day in celebration of his landmark achievement of a golden jubilee.
John then requested Gladstone Group Chairman Paul Storrar to please read out a certificate to Jeremy, at the culmination of which, John presented that to Jeremy and gave his personal congratulations as well. The lodge celebrated with Jeremy by means of applause for his achievement. Jeremy then requested John to accept a cheque on behalf of The Masonic Charitable Foundation for the sum of £216, John thanked Jeremy for this very kind donation.
Having retired to the Crosby Suite for the festive board, the visitors and brethren all gathered to continue the celebration. At the festive board, Eric O’Callaghan, lodge secretary, led the toast to Jeremy and in return, Jeremy gave a very humorous response, thanking all who were in attendance and how a common thread in all of his Freemasonry had been the kindness of people along the way, Thanking Eric for proposing the toast and of course to all of the brethren who received it.
