Palatine Lodge No. 97

Another busy evening for us on the night of the 8th November. As is always the case for this meeting, we first had the election of officers for the ensuing year. This was followed by raising one of our newer brothers to the degree of a Master Mason.

Unfortunately, illness, work, and holidays, beset the best laid plans of mice and men.  The three principle officers were all missing!  Thankfully, we knew a little in advance, so a substitute team was quickly put together and the ceremony went very well, once more.  A huge thank-you to all of the stand-ins; they know who they are.

We were fortunate to be performing another initiation this month, the fourth this year, and the first monthly back-to-back initiation in recent memory.

Our candidate was the second one fully recruited through our website, so we are finally reaping the rewards of a little hard work and effort keeping the site up to date.  If you're reading this and you're not a Freemason, get in touch - it could be you!  

The first meeting back for us after recess, and as usual for September, a lower than average turn-out, with a number of brethren still being in holiday mode.

It was a rather special evening for us on the night of the 14th June.  Not only were we passing the Grandson of one of our Grand Lodge Officers, but we also had the Provincial Grand Master in attendance to present the lodge with a festival award.

Another good turnout of our brethren for what was a pleasant evening, not only with the weather, but with the atmosphere in and around the meeting.

I'm very pleased to report that we had a number of our brethren back with us at this meeting. Still a few missing, but most of the 'regulars' were once again in attendance.

Looking back over a lot of the articles I have written, I find that I am forever mentioning that we had a whole host of absentees. I think I'm going to stop doing so, as it is becoming clear that, what was once an irregularity, is fast becoming the norm. I cannot remember the last time the full complement of officers turned up, and if it wasn't for our regular visitors, we'd often struggle to get through. It was never the case when I joined, a mere 8 years ago.

We planned a lecture this month, however, due to the late absence of the brother that was due to deliver it, as he was held up at work, and no-one else having a copy of it to hand, we ended up having an impromptu talk given to us by a special visitor on the evening; W Bro George Laverick. He is Clerk of the Works at the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Albans, and gave us a very interesting insight into some of the things they have discovered.

We hope to have him back on some future occasion to hear his full talk, complete with a slideshow and his notes!

It was the first night for our newly installed officers and we kicked off in style. We had a candidate for initiation, so they were all going to be put to immediate test!

As is more often than not the case these days, we again had several absentees due to work, holiday, and sickness. The missing officers were more than adequately covered by their stand-ins.