Brethren, I am delighted to be presiding over this Investiture meeting today, in these magnificent surroundings, and it is a great pleasure to see the Grand Temple so full.
As always, I particularly offer my congratulations to all those whom I have appointed to and promoted in Grand Rank today. All these elevations are well deserved but, as I have remarked at previous Investitures, they should be seen not solely as a reward for past contributions to Freemasonry but also an expectation of future service.
The future service to which I refer is for you all to continue using your experience, skills, and talents to support and encourage the members of both your individual Lodges and in your Districts and Provinces to enjoy their Freemasonry and be enthusiastic in giving effect to The Strategy for Freemasonry, 2022 and Beyond. This will require you to help develop and support new initiatives and experiment in different ways of working, rediscovering old customs, and ensuring all the members of your Lodge are engaged and feel fully involved. Making new members welcome and taking the time to include them is a key role for all Lodge members and Grand Officers have a major responsibility to set the right tone.
Team work is an essential requirement for us to be successful and Grand Officers have a particular responsibility to be active, and visible, in playing their part. For those who may be reluctant to try something new, which is understandable in some circumstances, you should remember that you will only know if something works if you try doing it.
As examples, Grand Lodge followed its own advice last September by holding a very successful Quarterly Communication in Newport, Monmouthshire, some 85 years after the last Quarterly Communication was held away from London. Secondly, a film is now available to help Lodges undertake multiple-candidate ceremonies smoothly and efficiently which many may be doing for the first time. I very much hope you will follow these examples and be active in supporting opportunities to do things differently while maintaining all that is good in Freemasonry.
I am encouraged by the positive steps which are being taken throughout the Constitution in the first year of the Strategy, but none of us must forget that this is only the beginning and there is still much to do. We all wish to ensure that the Craft, which we all so wholeheartedly support, will continue to thrive and flourish into the future. To do this all Brethren, whatever their rank, have their part to play and we, as Grand Officers, must encourage them to do so.
I am confident that I can rely on all Grand Officers to rise to the challenge we have set and embrace what needs to be done enthusiastically.
Brethren, we all wish to see the Craft continue to thrive and there can be no better demonstration of that than a growing membership which is positively engaged and clearly enjoying what they do as Freemasons. With your enthusiasm and application, I am sure we can, and will, succeed.
Brethren, this investiture meeting always seems to proceed smoothly, and this one has been no exception, which is largely due to the enormous amount of work put in by the Grand Secretary and his staff, most of it behind the scenes, as well as by the Grand Director of Ceremonies and his team. All of them deserve both our thanks and our congratulations.
Thank you, Brethren.
