My surrogate initiate, who can keep a secret

As I was to initiate one of the candidates at the meeting, I had spend hours beforehand  running through the ritual . (As you do) Charlie, (Every Mason should have one) my surrogate candidate didn’t seem to mind, he’s heard it so many times before and has never corrected me onc , so I must be pretty good and practice makes perfect.The Thursday before the meeting I had turned up at the Harrow Centre early to interview another couple of prospective initiates.( that makes 35 in three years). Good ehh!!!
They had arrived a few minutes earlier and were waiting in the bar when they were greeted and asked if they needed help by no less than the ProPGM Roger Croome, who was passing through and saw them nervously standing at the bar (its not every candidate that gets that pleasure before they have even joined) at that point our Worshipful Master Terry Clayfield and myself arrived and took charge of them, after a long chat and the introduction to the many Lodge members that turned out for l.o.i, meeting I had to rush off to Heathrow Airport to meet and greet one of our initiates who was arriving that evening and was staying at our house.

W.Bro Ted Bentley on his 90th Birthday

Our Two initiates

The last Lodge meeting of the year was being held the following day on Friday 10th May, and what a great meeting it was ….. 35 members and guests packed No2 Temple at Harrow Masonic Centre, full line up of officers were present along with a couple of special guests, one of which was our permanently invited guest and Grand Officer, W.Bro.Ted Bentley PJGD who was to celebrate his 90th Birthday the following day and the other was our Honorary member W.Bro Ron Loke-Eng whom we hadn’t seen for a few years. We even had a contingency of 5 of our Twitter followers #TheTwitterati  who had turned up to see how we perform. They were not disappointed, in my opinion, it was the best meeting I have had the pleasure of witnessing for many years. The quality of the ritual was second to none and  I also had the pleasure of presenting another 4 Grand Lodge Certificates to our members ( that makes 10 in 6 months) who had completed their third degrees over the previous couple of months.

Bro. Monno with his Grand Lodge Certificate

The festive board was a most enjoyable affair, as they normally are for North Harrow Lodge and another first for our two new  initiates.