There are evenings in Freemasonry that linger long in the memory, nights when the ritual feels less like ceremony and more like something genuinely profound is taking place. For the brethren of the Lodge of Loyalty No 86, the evening at Prescot Masonic Hall was one such occasion.
The lodge had been called to order in the usual way, WM Mark Hodgson presiding with quiet authority as the minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed and signed. But there was an unmistakable sense of anticipation in the room. At this meeting, a brother would complete a journey he had begun some time ago, and he would leave the lodge a different man than when he entered it.
Ravi Pydisetty had already proven himself having passed through the first and second degrees, he had demonstrated not only his commitment to the Craft, but his willingness to learn. When his fellow fellow crafts were asked to retire, leaving Ravi alone to face his test of proficiency, there was something quietly moving about the moment. He had done the work. Now he had to show it. He did, and he did so satisfactorily.
With the pass grip and password of the third degree entrusted to him, Ravi retired briefly to be prepared. The lodge was then opened in the third degree, and the atmosphere shifted perceptibly. Those who have sat in a lodge at that moment will understand it; those who have not can only imagine the weight of tradition, centuries of it, gathered quietly in the room.
Much of that atmosphere depends on the officers who guide a candidate through his journey, and on this occasion the lodge was well served. Senior deacon Paul Rowlandson and junior deacon Steve Darwin handled their respective roles with assurance and sensitivity, conducting Ravi through the ceremony with a calm precision that put him at ease whilst doing full justice to the solemnity of the occasion. It is work that requires both confidence and care, and both brethren brought exactly that.
When Ravi was admitted, and the ceremony unfolded according to ancient custom, the work was carried with real distinction. Peter Hornby, Ron Brown and Neil Taylor shared the substantial task of the exhortation, charge, traditional history and the tracing board, each delivering their portions with the kind of care and preparation that honours both the ritual and the candidate. The working tools of the third degree were explained by Mark Hodgson, words that, heard for the first time, have a way of settling into a man’s thinking long after the evening is over.
At the close of proceedings, David Hickman presented Ravi with a letter from the Provincial Grand Master Mark Matthews, congratulating him on being raised to the sublime degree of a master Mason. With it came a document introducing him to the Royal Arch, a natural next step on a journey that, in Freemasonry, never truly ends.
Ravi Pydisetty is now a master Mason. He joins a brotherhood that spans centuries and continents, built on the values of integrity, kindness, and a genuine concern for others. If the warmth of the room at Prescot that evening was anything to go by, he is already very much at home.