DECEMBER QUARTERLY COMMUNICATION
14 February 25
By RW Richard Dawes
The December 2024 Quarterly Communication is available to be viewed on the Grand Lodge Website. Log on to masons.au, select ‘News’ in the left-hand column. A listing of all news items will appear on screen. Look for ‘Live Stream: December Grand Communication’ – currently near the top of page 2, (although it will shuffle down the list over time).
In his first address to a Quarterly Communication as our 41st Grand Master, MW Bro Khris Albano welcomed all present and thanked them for attending, also bidding welcome to those brethren live-streaming the event from around the jurisdiction.
MW Bro Albano acknowledged and thanked those Past Grand Masters present, and all Grand Lodge Officers and brethren for their help and support in what was a productive and fulfilling 2024. He also welcomed the Heads of Associated Orders including the Heads of Constantine, Athelstan, Order of the Secret Monitor, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the United Supreme Grand Chapter.
Grand Master’s Address:
Past Grand Masters, Brethren, I always adopt an attitude of gratitude as it creates more reasons for which to have an attitude of gratitude.
It is great to be here tonight being the first Quarterly Communication that I attend with the Deputy and Assistant Grand Master on either side of me and finishing what has been a very productive and fulfilling 2024.
Since our last Communication in September, we have individually and collectively continued with initiatives to grow the Craft and, with seeming single-minded intention, organised great experiences for our brethren.
I commend to our brethren the successful Grand Installation in September which saw us in fellowship with visiting fraternal delegations from across Australia and overseas. Details of the event have been made available in our Freemason magazine, our website and social media. The invitation for brethren to come together, not as witnesses but as co-creators of Freemasonry in NSW & ACT was accepted and very much pronounced in the various elements of the Grand Installation weekend. Harmony was on full display – the logistics of transporting dignitaries and delegations from the airport, to the delivery of the events in various venues, even the display of different musical talent demonstrated perfect harmony (all pun intended).
A three-day event such as the Grand Installation 2024 would be expected to attract a significant expense to any organisation. However, you will be pleased to know that the net cost to Grand Lodge is just over $7,000. This result comes from:
1. your registration to attend the events (which reached capacity at every venue);
2. the sponsorship of businesses of brethren and friends – their details were published in the event program, media wall, social media, website and our Freemason magazine;
3. the numerous brethren, unsung heroes, whose names are not published but who transferred funds to Grand Lodge, paid directly for event-related bills, and donated to the events in the form of services and in kind.
On behalf of Grand Lodge, I thank you all, brethren for your generosity and support.
Departed brethren
Let us remember our brethren who have passed to the Grand Lodge above since our last Communication and extend condolences to their nearest and dearest, who will be going through this year-end for the first time without their loved ones. Please be mindful of our obligations to our brethren’s widows and orphans.
In particular, I was saddened when I was called to an assembly for the purpose of honouring a brother whom the GAOTU has been pleased, in His infinite mercy, to take unto Himself, but it was important to demonstrate the sincerity of our esteem and receive inspiration as well as instruction from his life.
Tomorrow, 12 December, it will be two months to the day when RW Bro Christopher John Craven PDGM PDGSec, passed away. He was initiated on 12 October 1973. He held Ceremonial Team and Secretariat roles as well as numerous lodge membership and offices which included being WM five times in Lodge Zetland of Australia and three times in Lodge Canowindra. I would like to share with you his thoughts on 14 July, three days before he retired from his official Grand Lodge duties which I read to the brethren on the occasion of his Masonic Tribute. He wrote:
“A New Beginning On Wednesday, 17 July 2024 my working life will come to an end.I shall finally retire from employment with the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
During my working life, I have been a teacher for 20 years, Education Officer for the New South Wales Electrical Commission for 10 years, took two missions for the United Nations and finally nearly 25 years of service to the Grand Lodge.
It has been a hectic time and looking back I find that I’ve been extremely busy not only with my Grand Lodge activities but also my great love of the Museum of Freemasonry and Relations with Sister Constitutions, in particular the Asia Pacific Conference of Masonic Grand Lodges.
During my time with the Grand Lodge I have served:
- ten Grand Masters
- over ten Chairmen of the Board of Management
- several Chairmen of Grand Charity
- five Grand Secretaries
I have organised:
- 100 Communications and 25 Grand Installations and Re-Installations
- Sydney Open events since their inception
- numerous Carrington Dinners
- promoted and developed the Museum of Freemasonry
- founded and promoted the Asia-Pacific Conference of Masonic Grand Lodges and continued as its Executive Secretary
- represented the Grand Lodge at functions in Scotland, Ireland, five times in France, five times in New Caledonia, USA, Tahiti, Peru, Chile, India, and China.
Overall, I have generally enjoyed the experience, one that I will look back on over many years. I will continue in my activities with Asia-Pacific Conferences of Masonic Grand Lodges as long as possible.
I hope you enjoy some of my memories. I know I do. Now on for something different.”
RW Bro Craven dropped his working tools on 12 October 2024, precisely the 51st anniversary of his initiation day. We remember his service to our Grand Lodge with gratitude.
Brethren, please stand. The Grand Chaplain will offer prayers for all our departed brethren. [Grand Chaplain offered prayers]
Be seated, brethren
Carrington Medal of Honour
Brethren, our customs and traditions provide that we recognise labour and merit in preference to longevity. Tonight, I would like to make a presentation to a brother who is worthy of our admiration and emulation for his labours, contribution and service over an impressive length of time.
The Carrington Medal of Honour recognises the outstanding efforts of a brother who has made a major contribution to the community at large, as well as those made within the Masonic family. RW Bro Reverend Harold Ctercteko, PDGM, Past Grand Chaplain was the inaugural recipient of the Carrington Medal of Honour in August 2002. Since then, he was joined by six other awardees, in no particular order:
1. MW Bro Ron Johnson
2. RW Bro Grahame Cumming
3. RW Bro Frank Radcliff
4. RW Bro Allan Farrell
5. RW Bro Ken Mole
6. MW Bro Derek Robson
On your behalf, brethren, I am pleased to recognise a giant among us in this jurisdiction.
1. He was born on 23 December 1930. Initiated, passed and raised when he was 22 years old between March to November 1953.
2. 16 years after his raising, he was installed as a WM serving all progressive offices prior including JW and SW immediately preceding.
3. He then joined the Ceremonial Team as a Grand Steward for 2 years from 1972–1974.
4. He progressed through the positions in the Ceremonial Team culminating in becoming the Grand Director of Ceremonies who officiated at the dedication of the Sydney Masonic Centre in 1978–79.
5. As was then required, he served as Grand Inspector of Workings in 1979 before becoming the Senior Grand Warden in 1980.
6. He served as Assistant Grand Master for three years from 1985 and commenced as Deputy Grand Master in our Centennial Year for four years from 1988. He remains one of the very few brothers who led and participated and hence knows where the time capsule was buried during the Centenary celebrations.
7. MW Bro Dunn was installed as the 31st Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory at the Sydney Town Hall in August 1992 and served as Grand Master for four years until 1996.
Our Most Worshipful Brother remained active in the Craft supporting the Ritual Advisory Committee from 2004–2014.
I have personally sought his counsel over the years and have come to value his input and conservative approach to matters of the Craft noting it comes from 71 years of labouring in our quarries.
Credited with inventing the lightbulb, Brother Thomas Alva Edison said, “If I have seen further than others, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants”. Brethren, I invite you to recognise a giant among us who is watching on livestream, our 31st Grand Master. MW Bro Noel Frederick Dunn OAM PGM CMH.
The presentation of the collarette jewel showing a bust of Lord Carrington and inscribed with details of MW Bro Dunn on the reverse side will be arranged very soon. I thank Carrington Medal of Honour holder RW Bro Alan Farrell PDGM, who has coordinated with me on behalf of the Freemasons Association, the Association who since 2013 organises the framed document presented to Carrington Medal of Honour awardees highlighting their stellar years of service.
I also congratulate the Freemasons Association on the occasion of their 116th anniversary on Monday, 9 December.
Brethren, over the last couple of months, I have been privileged to attend Ceremonial and Charity events that indicate encouraging developments well worthy of celebrating and sharing.
The Ceremonial duties included attendance to the Centenary installation of Lodge University of Sydney (in the Great Hall, where the Articles of Union of our Grand Lodge were adopted and our first Grand Master elected), Lodge Horizons and Lodge Hellenic Arcadia (the first lodge chartered by our Grand Lodge). I participated as installing master at Lodge José Rizal, received the gavel and conducted a Raising at the combined District 37 meeting, the 10th Freemasons Annual Multicultural Event (FAME) and more. At each of these events, we were encouraged by the brethren in attendance invariably exceeding a hundred.
However, that is only the Ceremonial aspect of Grand Lodge. I propose that Grand Lodge would be appreciated in our brethren’s lives if we continue to be relevant. My view of Freemasonry being at its best is when it is relevant for the brethren who become – and continue to be – part of a lodge, being that we make good men better, and help better men continue to better themselves.
In this regard, I commend our Executive Council and our Board of Management for continuing to create opportunities for brethren and lodges to have a good masonic experience. The vision of Freemasonry is that it is relevant to the personal member as well as to the community where he operates while enabled by Grand Lodge, who then provide the guidance, governance, communication, system, marketing, membership drive and membership services that matter to lodges.
Brethren, our lodge charters articulate the main business of any lodge i.e. to initiate, pass and raise all good men and true who may apply for the purpose and whom you find worthy.
I refer to the Membership Committee of the Board of Management, who have conducted analysis from your Lodge Monthly Returns. There is indication that lodges who continue to do degree work are attracting more members and more attendees when they perform degree work. This is noteworthy keeping in mind what it is that makes us a mason if not our obligation. And when brethren see a degree worked well, we invariably hear brethren saying “they again learned something new; and have been refreshed with those things they said they will and will not do” – which are our obligations. Everything surrounding the main business of a lodge is helpful in maintaining a healthy lodge; activities like charity work and fellowship. Inevitably, anything that engages our spiritual, our mental, our emotional and our physical interactions is that which makes a complete man.
Masonicare had also indicated that the number of requests for InterAction Grants or support from our Grand Charity remains low. There is a curious correlation between degree work which improves a person, makes us relevant to new initiates and the members; and the relevance to the community which is charity work. Charity work is not the main business of Freemasonry but it is that which allows us to practice our lessons and moral virtues. Charity is a gift not only to the receiver but also to the giver. I endorse Masonicare and the practice of charitable activities to you, brethren.
Lastly, I wish to speak of the enabler that your Management teams endorse. As of today, only 40% of our total membership has actually logged in our individual member portal. Brethren, this system is our system – we own it. We commissioned it for our purpose, and we continue to develop it. I encourage you to make sure it works appropriately for us, and the only way it will work is if we continue to use it and discover how it can be more useful to us. We need you to provide feedback on content and functions you would like to have. Imagine activities that require you to participate with your member portal or email address or mobile SMS. Wouldn’t it be great if most, if not all, of us are able to participate. We are the United Grand Lodge, all of us in this jurisdiction. We need all brethren to be able to participate in our important events.
Only when we do things together, when our Craft continues to be relevant to ourselves and our members, relevant to our families and community, relevant to each other and to our lodges and with Grand Lodge supporting – can it be a symbiotic relationship. Only when these things are there can we claim and hope that we are building a great organisation to which new members ‘will come...’ And the membership question can be addressed. By who? What is Grand Lodge doing? Grand Lodge asks you to help us help you. How can we help you? In the end, the membership question can be answered because, after all, when we are relevant to the community, the question is not ‘how many’ but ‘how heavy’. Then we can celebrate our success because as we all know, masons are not counted, we are weighed.
An attitude of gratitude creates more reasons for which to have an attitude of gratitude.
Brethren, I extend my sincerest season’s greetings and wish you a safe and most fulfilling festive season whatever faith you profess or customs you practice. Be it for you to have a merry Christmas or a blessed Hanukkah, reunions and celebrations with family and friends or stretches of quiet solitude, of grateful reflections or determined goal-setting for the coming new year.
In whatever you do, please remember you’re brethren of the mystic tie and our ties that bind take on our respective Holy Book, the obligations we took, that we should break them never. Rather a reminder for us all to continue to abide by yonder book, that square and the compasses… withersoever and forever.