What Dave Wheeler had to say at our latest Provincial meetings – alongside pictures from the day

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All Hail the Grand Superintendent! Dave Wheeler with Gareth Jones and other distinguished guests after the Provincial Grand Chapter meeting

Lincolnshire’s Provincial Grand Master & Grand Superintendent had this to say about our Province at yesterday’s Provincial Grand Chapter and Provincial Grand Lodge meetings yesterday, when Lodges stepped up to add £54,000 the Festival, and a further £100,000 was added from the Province’s Old Fund.

At the Chapter meeting he said: “Good morning and welcome Companions. As always, it’s great to see so many people here, particularly our distinguished guests, many of whom have had a long journey and an early start to be with us.

It is a particular honour to welcome our Third Grand Principal, Gareth Jones. Thank you, Gareth for joining us today and for your inspirational address. I was tempted to cut my address even shorter than normal but there are a couple of things I would like to say.

In terms of our Membership Challenge, the Chapter figures show an increase of over 1.5% on the year to date compared to a 1.5% loss at the end of last year. This improvement hasn’t happened by accident and I thank the members of the Strategy Working Group for their continued hard work in encouraging new members and looking after those we already have. We are well on our way to achieving the 2% increase set by the Pro First Grand Principal in the 2022 Strategy and beyond. However, we must not be complacent and I thank everyone in our Chapters who has supported both our new and current Companions in their journey in Pure and Antient Freemasonry. We are a successful, happy and thriving Province. With your help, we will continue to thrive in the future.

On Saturday, I attended a conference at Northampton called Building Together. This harmonisation project is bringing the ‘Members’ Pathway’ and the Chapter ‘Archway’ processes together to improve and move forward on the great work that has gone before. This is nothing to be worried about, Companions, as Lincolnshire has fully embraced both the Members’ Pathway and Archway so our transition in to Building Together will be seamless to move both the organisation and our Province forward. More details will be shared shortly but I want to make a special mention of the work carried out at a national level by my Deputy Grand Superintendent, Mike Rix, in this area over the last four years. Mike will continue to be involved in Building Together and his contribution will ensure that our Province is well-placed to meet future challenges. Thank you, Mike.

I now congratulate those companions who were recognised at SGC investiture in April in terms of promotion and appointment.

John Peters PAGSoj, John Elliott; Neil Hollingsworth and Keith Robinson as PAGDC. Congratulations to you all and it was a great pleasure to be with you at the annual investiture in London two weeks ago, especially in the presence of the First Grand Principal, HRH the Duke of Kent.

The legacy of the COVID pandemic still affects certain aspects of the Province and none more so than today. In re-appointing the active team members to a second year in office today I also acknowledge the commitment of those who served more than one year as Principal in their Chapters during the pandemic. Thank you all for your continued support.

I also congratulate those who have been promoted today and I look forward to being with you all on my visits to your Chapters around the Province this year.

Finally, I thank everyone who has been involved in ensuring this meeting has been such a success. From those in the Provincial office, who have worked so hard making the arrangements, to all those involved in setting up the rooms and tidying up after we all leave. It really has been a superb team effort and without your contribution it simply could not happen.

In closing, Companions, I look forward to spending time with you before lunch. For those not staying for the Craft meeting this afternoon, have a safe journey home and I look forward to seeing you in the not too-distant future.

Thank you, Companions.”

At the Craft meeting he said: “Good afternoon, Brethren. Welcome to our annual meeting and it is always a pleasure to see so many people here, not least our distinguished guests, some of whom have travelled a long way to be with us today. You are all very welcome.

I especially welcome R. W Brother Gareth Jones PAGM and Third Grand Principal who addressed us this morning at our Chapter meeting.

At a recent meeting, the Pro Grand Master said we have three national priorities. Membership, membership and membership.

As a Province, Lincolnshire is currently making excellent progress to increase and retain our members. To put this in context, in 2021 the Province showed a -4.5% deficit. At the end of 2024, it was +0.25% increase so almost 5% ‘swing’ in terms of the Membership Challenge over the last 4 years. For the year to date, we now show an increase of over 2% so there is no doubt that our Province is now stable and improving. However, there is no room for complacency and I thank everyone around the Province who make our new Brethren welcome and support our current and more established members. The message from me is simple: ‘Enjoy our Masonry and our Province will continue to thrive’.

There are also two initiatives of which you need to be aware. On Saturday, I attended a conference at Northampton called Building Together. This harmonisation project is bringing the ‘Members’ Pathway’ and the Chapter ‘Archway’ processes together to improve and move forward on the great work that has gone before. This is nothing to be worried about, Brethren, as Lincolnshire has fully embraced both the Members’ Pathway and Archway over the years so our transition in to Building Together will be seamless to move both the organisation and our Province forward.

Secondly, please sign up to PORTAL if you haven’t already done so. As of today, over 35% of our members have registered. It really is a very good system, Brethren, and one that will become more and more essential over the months and years as it develops. You can register on your phone, desktop computer and tablet and for those who are ‘IT challenged’, I am sure your Grandchildren will be able to help you to log on.

Today, we have again offered free PSA tests and 169 tests have been completed. I thank W. Brothers Bruce Goodman, Chris Foster and Chuck Boulton for arranging this together with the CHAPS Charity and the Trustees of the Old Provincial Benevolent Fund for arranging the funds to pay for it. We know, from last years test results that there are Brethren here today that, but for being tested, may not have even known they had a problem, so we will continue with this initiative in the years to come.

In terms of celebrating success, I congratulate the following on their appointments and promotions at the recent UGLE Investiture meeting;

Promotions – Alan Turner JGD, Robert Holland PJGD and Adrian Joyce to PGStB

I also congratulate all those receiving active appointments today. I hope you enjoy your year in office, it really is a special year. I also congratulate those receiving promotions and look forward to seeing many of you again at the additional meeting we are holding in June for past rank promotions.

To the outgoing active team, your attendance on our team visits has been outstanding. Thank you for your magnificent support.

Our two active Wardens for the past year, W. Bros Keith Bickley and Stuart Butler have visited all our Lodges between them and represented the Province extremely well.

Brethren, the finale of our MCF 2025 Festival takes place here at the Lincolnshire showground on Saturday 13^th September 2025. Please support this showpiece event where the ‘big reveal’ will take place. This will not be a fundraising event but will be a celebration of the conclusion of our Festival and an excuse to relax and enjoy the evening together. I am very confident we will exceed our target of raising £2.25 million thanks to your support. At the outset, the plan was to enjoy being in Festival and I believe this objective has been achieved. Whilst the income is likely to be a substantial amount, let’s not forget the outcomes of our fundraising are what make the difference to our Brethren, our families and our local charities. Once again, I thank the 2025 Festival Chairman, Jez Hyland, and all of his team for their continued work to make our festival such an outstanding success.

Finally, I thank everyone who has been involved in ensuring today has been such a success from those in the Provincial office, who have worked so hard making the arrangements, to all those involved in setting up the rooms and tidying up after we all leave. It really has been another superb team effort. It has been a long day, Brethren, but I hope you have all enjoyed it.

I thank you for your attention and your continued support and I wish you all a safe journey home.

Round-Britain walker Chris Jones met Third Grand Principal Gareth Jones, PAGM at the meetings. Note that Rt W Bro Jones is wearing a Lincolnshire Provincial tie and lapel pin…