Makerfield Chapter No 2155 is a member of the Wigan and Leigh Group meeting at Leigh Masonic Hall. The brother to be exalted was Bryan Crouch, who is currently the WM of Woodend Epworth Lodge No 5381 which meets atLiverpool Masonic Hall, Hope Street in Liverpool.
As well as being the hall director at Hope Street, Bryan is a motorsport fanatic, with a very passionate hobby of building cars and at weekends participating in car racing. Bryan is married with two daughters; his work profession is an electrician.
On this occasion the companions were well and truly rehearsed for a double ceremony, as this was something they had done on previous occasions with tremendous success. Unfortunately, the other candidate, Martin, had faced a rather difficult travel situation due to his work time scale with heavy traffic. On a positive note, Martin will be exalted at the next regular convocation.
Problems seem to manifest themselves at times with first principal Ian Boardman convalescing after a recent operation. Second principal was David Gordon-Williams and stand-in third principal was Eric Miller. The chapter scribe Nehemiah was on other duties, as was the third principal.
Due to the chapter having a strong bonding with great friendship, Alan Slater, a long-standing member of the chapter, was asked at short notice to assist in the ceremony by occupying the chair of first principal. A long-standing visitor,Michael O`Neill, was asked to occupy the position of scribe Nehemiah and grand officer David Case was requested to occupy the position of janitor. Both companions were more than happy to assist, to the point of being delighted.Director of ceremonies was Anthony Roe. Also in attendance were visiting officer Eddy Atherton and deputy group chairman Garry Bryon, along with many guests.
After the usual preliminaries of business, which included a ballot for both candidates, were completed, the proceedings continued with principal sojourner David Banks bringing the candidate in backwards; this is initially the procedure in this chapter. David is a relatively new companion and soon to be junior warden in Makerfield Lodge No 2155, he has been exemplary in his commitment to the chapter and is greatly admired by all the companions.
The ritual discourse between Alan and David was flawless, as was shown by the delight on the visitors’ faces, the candidate Bryan proved himself to be most competent in following the questions and answers put before him. When finally clothed with his Royal Arch regalia, Bryan could not hide the fact that he is now a chapter companion. And at the closing of the chapter, the convocation had turned out to be fully enjoyable and appreciated by all.
At the festive board, the companions enjoyed a three-course meal, which was greatly enjoyed with many empty plates. Bryan was given the necessary information on how to address the companions seated at the top table and he was also asked to express how he felt, and about how he had been accepted into the chapter; needless to say, he was delighted and somewhat bemused by the whole occasion.
The raffle, for a decent-sized bottle of Scotch whisky, raised a tidy sum of just over £100.