Shipston on Stour Lodge 9418 – a multi-Province Lodge
The Installation meeting for Shipston on Stour Lodge took place at the end of September in Townsend Hall in the heart of the village. I was fortunate enough to be the Presiding Officer. This really is a Lodge at the heart of, and involved in the local community.
It occurred to me that although this is a Warwickshire Lodge, because of the close proximity to the counties of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, this is a Lodge with members from those counties. In fact, there are also members who have joined the Lodge from Provinces as far away as Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire & Huntingdonshire.
It was a fascinating evening – although all are now Warwickshire members, the Installing Master is a member of a Lodge in Gloucestershire and the new Master is from a Lodge in Oxfordshire. The Secretary is also in a Gloucestershire Lodge, the Chaplain originally from a Buckinghamshire Lodge, the Director of Ceremonies is a member of Gloucestershire and his Assistant DC is from Northants & Hunts. I was expecting a mixture of ritual from the different Provinces, but in fact it was close to true Emulation working.
The whole evening was conducted in a genuinely happy and co-operative spirit with all of the Lodge members helping each other out when needed.
This is a lovely Lodge, very welcoming to visitors, wherever they are from, and well worth a visit to a Lodge in a rural village location. Many thanks to all the Acting Officers who made the journey to this far away corner of our Province.