The members and visitors of Radio Millennium Lodge No 9709 were thrilled to receive Assistant Provincial Grand Master, Stuart Sutherland Boyd, as principal guest at their installation meeting to witness WM Giles Blocking install Ron Behan into the chair of King Solomon for the first time as master of the lodge for the ensuing year.
The installation meeting, held at Urmston Masonic Hall, was well attended and Stuart was accompanied by Provincial Junior Grand Warden Ezra McGowan and Trafford Group Membership Officer Jerry Lawes, together with other Provincial grand lodge officers and distinguished brethren.
The lodge was opened and the initial business was conducted quickly and efficiently by Giles. Standing in for lodge director of ceremonies, Peter Harding, for the night was Tim Burns of Flixton Lodge No 4869, who ensured that the meeting ran smoothly as Giles installed Ron in an excellent, positive manner, ably assisted for key parts of the ceremony by his father, Alan, as installing junior warden, along with Tim Rathmell as installing senior warden and Norton Fletcher as installing inner guard.
Excellent presentations of the working tools were then given: the third-degree tools by Deiniol Murphy, the second-degree tools by Giles and the first-degree tools by Norton. Following the explanation of the working tools, Mike Walker rose to give an excellent address to the new WM, Ron. There was, on this occasion, no address given to the wardens, but Stuart rose and made up for this with his usual smooth and confident style as he presented the address to the brethren.
On completion of the installation, Stuart again rose at the customary moment in the proceedings to convey the best wishes of the Provincial Grand Master, Mark Matthews, together with his own best wishes and he congratulated Tim Burns, who had occupied the position of lodge director of ceremonies for the meeting. He also congratulated all those who had taken part in the ceremony, especially on the standard of the installation and said that he was very pleased to have attended such a delightful ceremony and wished the lodge success and good health for their forthcoming year. Stuart continued by saying that had Mark himself been present, he would have also had the great pleasure in congratulating Ron on his first outing in the chair of King Solomon and the installing master, Giles, for the excellent work that he had personally put into the ceremony.
Ron then responded to Stuart, thanking him for passing on the good wishes of Mark Matthews and he had much pleasure in presenting Stuart with a truly extraordinary series of charitable donations: two cheques of £300 each, made out in favour of the West Lancashire Freemasons Charity and a local Urmston charity, The Toy House.
Stuart, obviously impressed by the scale of the donations, said that this was a most generous contribution and he clearly had much pleasure in congratulating and thanking the lodge on behalf of all those eventual recipients, whom we may never know, for their most kind charitable giving.
At the first rising, Stuart responded once more by giving the congratulations of Mark Matthews as well as his own and again wished the new WM and his lodge well in their forthcoming year.
The evening concluded with a very enjoyable and friendly festive board, with Stuart in his response to the toast to his health, making mention of recruitment to Royal Arch Masonry and the importance of completing one’s Masonry and rounding things off by talking about the efforts being made to increase membership and prevent existing members from leaving if there was potential to change minds.
