L&D team takes Master Masons on a voyage of Royal Arch discovery
A room packed with Freemasons from around the Province gathered in Lincoln to hear what membership of the Royal Arch has to offer – and what they discovered were answers to questions left hanging in the air after the Third Degree ceremony.
The evening opened with a demonstration of the full closing in the Third Degree by PGM Dave Wheeler and Wardens Gary King and Stuart Butler. That led to an explanation of it in a presentation by Provincial Learning & Development Officer Nick Brown and his deputy Jon Cox.
The presentation took the form of two Royal Arch companions in conversation about the appearance of the Third Degree and the Royal Arch in Masonic history, searching out and knitting together clues – and their meanings – ‘hidden in plain sight’ in the ritual.
Amongst them is the appearance of the word ‘companion’, which crops up three times in the Third Degree ritual, and is the name given to members of the Royal Arch.
To discover more about being a member of one of Lincolnshire’s 33 Royal Arch Chapters, the first step is to talk to someone in the know – and that’s any one of a number of people, from your proposer, seconder, and mentor, as well as the Craft Lodge’s Royal Arch representative. His name is on the Lodge summons, and he should be wearing a lapel badge to help you pick him out.
Although Chapters are linked to Craft Lodges, membership of any one of them is open to you. Rituals differ, but the principle of companionship runs through them all. Joining a Chapter at another centre is a great way to broaden the circle of your friends in Freemasonry,
Did you know: The origin of the word companion is the Latin word companio, a combination of the word com, meaning with, and panis, meaning bread. Making, quite literally, the idea that a companion was someone you shared bread, or a meal, with… And that made the end of the presentation evening all the more appropriate, since everyone was treated to a meal of sausages and mash, paid for by the Province.
