From January 1st a new single registration fee will cover membership of Craft and Royal Arch.
The single registration fee means everyone who’s a Lodge member at the end of December can to join the Royal Arch without paying another central registration fee.
Provincial Grand Secretary Tony Miller said: “The single fee is less than the sum of the previous two separate fees. This will hopefully encourage members of the Craft to take this additional step on their Masonic journeys without the increased fee being so large as to deter new members entirely.
“Craft members who are not yet members of the Royal Arch will thereby get a ‘free ride’, with no registration fees, when they join the Royal Arch in or after January next year.” Meanwhile, there will be no change to the annual dues per member from Lodges or contributions per member from Chapters (other than routine inflationary increases).
Lodges and Chapters will continue to operate independently, but as part of the financial harmonisation, Chapter contributions and other fees payable to the Centre will go to UGLE rather than Supreme Grand Chapter. Provincial Dues must still be paid separately for Craft and Chapter.