Mighty Smyth take new steps with old tradition

John Armstrong writes: “Widely known in Freemasonry, certainly in North America, the ‘Walking Charge’ has a long history. The text is known by many names; The Royal Canadian Charge, ‘On Yonder Book’, the Rob Morris Charge, and in Indiana the Alternate Charge.

The name of the Canadian Charge became known from a popular ‘Mounties’ degree team during the mid-twentieth century. The team travelled across Canada and the USA and used the text, which they named the ‘Walking Charge’.

It’s not clear how many UK Lodges might use the charge, but when a member of Grimsby’s Smyth lodge, after WB Steve Dickson said he might want to have a look at it, was struck by the fact that it could present an interesting end to the degree.

Chris Miller, who had worked the first degree ‘mode of preparation’ with a team presenting it, decided to use the text. He gave it a certain choreography and encouraged three of his team to work together on its presentation.

The first time it was presented caused a few ‘wows’ in the lodge room, and went on to do the same, when the team performed at other Lodges.

After a number of performances, Chris tried a bit of ‘AI’ to make a poster of the team for fun, and the photograph above shows them together.

The four-man team would be more than happy to come to any lodge to present the walking charge if they are able. If you have a third degree coming up, please get in touch with Chris by email to cm@chrismiller.tv

In the picture are, from left, Mike Coleman, Iman Zidan, Dimitrios Chadiarakos, and Chris Miller.

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