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Masonic Installation Meeting October 2023
Well, it’s that time of year again that gets every Masonic Lodge excited… the Masonic Installation Meeting for a new Master of the Lodge and in this instance the honoured was bestowed to W Bro. Murray Grubb Jnr.
What is a Masonic Installation Meeting?
At Weybridge Lodge this is the first Regular Meeting of the Masonic year. Being our most important meeting, we are all dressed appropriately, bow ties and dinner jackets; who said a Freemason couldn’t look suave!
A new Master of the Lodge is installed in the the Chair of King Solomon and goes through a ceremony in which previous Installed Masters invest the incumbent with his Worshipful Masters Apron, Collar and Jewel. If this is his first time in the chair, his title change from Brother (Bro.) to Worshipful Brother (W Bro.)
Prior to this part of the ceremony all Master Masons and below leave the Temple whilst this final part of the Installation is carried out. When all the excluded member are brought back into the Temple to continue the rest of the meeting, the new Worshipful Master (WM) is seated elegantly in his chair and the Worshipful Master from the previous year takes up the chair to the left of the WM in his new position as Immediate Past Master (IPM).Â
Ok, We have a New Master, What Next??
Investing Officers of the Lodge
So, we now have a new Worshipful Master and he would have already decided which members will take up which role of the Lodge. After all like, any organisation you need to ensure that you have a full ‘team’ to keep it going and a Freemasons Lodge is no different.
Now, there are two types of Officer of the Lodge; progressive and non-progressive. The progressive roles as the term would suggest is for those members that are working their way up to becoming a Worshipful Master. The non-progressive roles are usually the more administrative roles such as Secretary or Treasurer.
There can be cases where there is a gap in the progression of newer members that a more experienced member may be asked to take on a progressive role for another year even if he has performed that role before. The list of Officers of the Lodge for 2023/24 have been saved on the following page for future reference.
Past Masters Jewel
It is traditional in Weybridge Lodge to present the outgoing Master with a ‘Past Master’s Jewel’ and we are privileged to own several such jewels which are ceramic and decorated with the ‘Bridge over the River Wey’ – hence Weybridge – emblem of the Lodge.
W Bro. Richard Smith PPAGSwdB our Worshipful Master for 2022-23 was thanked by our Master Elect for his services in the preceding year who then made the presentation of the Past Masters Jewel to a round of appreciative applause from the Brethren.
In simple terms the jewel represents the 47th Problem of Euclid and is meant to represent the progress made in Freemasonry by the recipient having served the Lodge as Master.
Euclid was a celebrated mathematician who lived and taught in Alexandria between 260 – 320 b.c. and who wrote a set of thirteen books which were called ‘Elements’.
These thirteen books contained 465 problems, the 47th of which was known as ‘The Pythagorean Theorem’.
Weybridge Lodge Plans For The Year
So, the new Worshipful Master is comfortably installed but that isn’t it for the forthcoming year.
In December we have a new member (Initiate) joining Weybridge Lodge which is combined with our very festive Festive Board. In February, not only do we celebrate the Lodges 75th Anniversary, but we also carry our a Second Degree Passing Ceremony.
May sees us finish our Masonic year with a Third Degree Raising Ceremony, whilst in June, all Master Masons of the Lodge will attend the Province of Surrey AGM at Freemasons Hall in London.
