An update from Bro Dave Cole, Club Communications Officer

GREAT MEMBERS AND GREAT EVENTS, MAKE GREAT MEMORIES!

We've had a great few months here at The Kent Club – with the New Year well and truly in the rear-view mirror, but before we look ahead to the summer, let's just look back over the events we've had the pleasure of attending. 

Our starter for the year was a talk by the Deputy Metropolitan Grand Master, RW Bro Warren Duke. He shared his experiences as Metropolitan Grand Director of Ceremonies, emphasizing the importance of keeping Freemasonry fun, both in active office as well as in Lodges more generally. He also discussed the recently announced seven-year strategy and the importance of the "yes if" approach (as opposed to the inhibiting “no because” response to new ideas). In his new office, he covered his day-to-day work and touched on innovations such as the recent Discover Freemasonry events, highlighting the need for creativity and adaptability in today's ever-changing world.

Later in the month, the London Almoners Lodge, the Florence Nightingale Lodge No 706, welcomed our members for a talk on understanding dementia presented by VW Bro Chris Caine PGSwdB. The talk focused on the RMBI's response to the growing challenge of living with dementia. Chris shared a personal experience when he met Bro John, who has dementia himself. Chris spent time with John and his family, discussing John's current situation and how the RMBI Chislehurst Care Home may be able to offer respite in the future. If you missed Chris's presentation, he has kindly shared the link to one he did earlier. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLWZeLdbwsE )

The month's events culminated in a visit to Lord's cricket ground, hosted by St. John's Lodge No 80. Members were given a tour of the world's oldest sporting museum as well as the long room, committee room and both the home and away dressing rooms. Later, they attended the installation of W Bro Ian Balcombe, followed by an excellent festive board. We would like to thank everyone who made this possible and wishes Ian the very best for his year as Master of the London Cricket Lodge.

On February, 17 of our members visited P&A Wood – the new and classic Rolls Royce and Bentley showroom and workshop. This can only be described as very much a car enthusiast's dream, as you can see from the photos. We are hoping to lay on another visit in the future for this very popular event.

We were also fortunate to have an invitation to the F1 Lodge installation of W Bro John Parry as master of this very popular Lodge. From all the members of the Kent Club, we'd like to wish John the very best for his year and look forward to visiting the Lodge again soon.

In March, we attended another very popular visit to the Winemakers Club at Farringdon Street, London. My understanding is that, as always, it went very well, but alas, few notes were taken, and the later photos taken came out a little blurry. I look forward to attending next year to witness it myself!

May and June will be very busy months for the Kent Club with invitations to attend the Metropolitan Grand Stewards Lodge, a President’s Weekend in Bournemouth with Lodge of Joppa, The Kent Club Annual Dinner at the National Liberal Club and an invitation to the Public Schools Lodge Council Festival at Stowe School. There is a lot to look forward to, and we are expecting a bumper second quarter of the year!

All our events can be found on our web page https://londonfreemasons.club/events/

Remember, joining the Kent Club for London Freemasons is easy and costs only £10 per year! If you like the idea of meeting interesting people, attending unique and specialist events, and broadening your masonic horizons, then go to http://londonfreemasons.club/ and sign up. The more, the merrier and remember our motto "Great members and great events, make great memories!"

This article is part of the Arena Magazine, Issue 51 April 2023 edition.
Arena Magazine is the official magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.

Read more articles in the Arena Issue 51 here.