Mark Masons' Hall, 86 St. James’s Street, London
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A Royal Arch Awareness event held on the 30th January 2019 at Mark Masons’ Hall.

On the 30th January a Royal Arch Awareness event was held in the Grand Temple of Mark Masons’ Hall under the auspices of the Mark Provincial Grand Master of London RW. Bro. David Ashbolt. The event was hosted by a number of Senior London Royal Arch Masons including the Deputy Metropolitan Grand Superintendent E. Comp. Christopher Clark, the 2nd Metropolitan Grand Principle E. Comp. The Rev. Timothy L’Estrange, E. Comp’s. Ian Currans and Richard Greenhill Assistant Metropolitan Grand Superintendents, E. Comp’s. Jeremy Beech and John Peters Metropolitan Grand Inspectors and E. Comp’s Ian Forbes and Ron Venn. Also in attendance was the head of The Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons MW. Bro. Christine Chapman.

There were 50 Masons present who were not in the Royal Arch plus a number of members of Chapters.

The Grand Temple was laid out as for a Royal Arch meeting with certain aspects covered up to preserve some of the secrets of the ritual. There were however sitting in the East representatives of the three Principal of a Chapter, namely in the centre E. Comp. Jeremy Beech as the 1st Principal, on his right E. Comp. John Peters as the 2nd Principal and on his left E. Comp. Ian Forbes as the 3rd Principal, plus E. Comp. David Ashbolt as the IPZ.

The proceedings were opened by a newly Exalted Companion David Watkins of St. Johns Chapter No 90 who related his experiences on what it felt like to become a Royal Arch Mason. E. Comp. Ian Currans an Assistant Metropolitan Grand Superintendent then took over and gave an overview of the order and how it fitted in with Craft Masonry with contributions from other members of the executive of Metropolitan Grand Chapter. There followed a lively questions and answers session in which a number of questions came from both Royal Arch and non-Royal Arch Masons which were in turn answered by E. Comp. Ian Currans and members of the executive of Metropolitan Grand Chapter.

After the meeting ended those present retired to a champagne reception before moving on to the Royal Over-Seas League for a fine and most enjoyable festive board.

This initiative on behalf of the Royal Arch proved to have been very successful indeed as out of the 50 Brethren invited to attend 40 subsequently signed up to become Companions of the Order. It is hoped that further similar events are held in the future to encourage Craft Masons to consider enhancing their Masonic knowledge by joining the Royal Arch

Richard Veness

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