Piel Castle Lodge No 6099 hosted an evening on behalf of Furness and South Lakeland Group’s Cavendish Club. The Cavendish Club is the light blue club of the Furness and South Lakeland Group. The overarching aim of the club is to facilitate social interaction between new, junior and experienced Freemasons who have not yet received Provincial rank. In order to achieve this, the club promotes visiting and working with lodges across the Furness and South Lakeland peninsula in promoting the values of Freemasonry. The club is keen to encourage and support new members to become fully involved in this worthwhile and rewarding community.
Stewart Cranage, the West Lancashire Provincial Grand Mentor, was the guest speaker at Barrow’s Fairfield Masonic Hall and gave an enthralling, thought-provoking and thoroughly enlightening talk entitled, ’Darkness to light, the origin of the spiritual journey of your initiation’. The talk was given in the presence of the group chairman Chris Gray, group secretary Tony Jackson, Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies Barry Fitzgerald and 11 masters of other lodges. A total of 50 brethren listened with rapt attention to the talk.
Stewart took his audience from the position of outside the door of the speculative lodge, explaining aspects of the preparation of the candidate, to the kneeling stool and then perambulation, informally speaking without notes, through the history of some of the practices of the craftsman’s guilds, even at one point quoting John Lennon.
He posed questions such as: “Why do we step off with the left foot?”, “Why does an initiate kneel on his left knee?” and “What is a cowan?” among many others. Those answers will not be divulged here: suffice it to say, Stewart’s talk on whichever degree is in question will give you a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge and will possibly inspire further research, giving a deeper understanding of the Masonic arts, particularly when observing the perambulations and many other aspects of Masonic degree work.
The masters of Hindpool Lodge No 1225, Lodge of Furness No 995, Newby Bridge Lodge No 4598, Thurston Lodge No 2525, Ulverston Lodge No 7872, Semper Sursum Lodge No 5622, Hartington Lodge No 1021, Hawkshead Lodge No 4354, Baldwin Lodge No 1398, Barrow Lodge No 3928 and Lonsdale Lodge of Installed Masters No 9422, were among the first to heap praise and congratulations on Stewart’s performance whilst giving their customary visitor’s greetings at the third rising.
Piel Castle Lodge’s own master, Nick Collinge, was fulsome in his appreciation for everyone’s attendance and for Stewart’s presentation. Cavendish Club Chairman Steve Leonard also expressed his gratitude for the fine turnout and hoped that further events would not only be possible but equally well attended.
Alms collected within the lodge were £121, and a raffle at the festive board raised £228, with the total being split 50:50 between Piel Castle Lodge and the Cavendish Club.
