A Visit to Sindlesham

Sara and I were both up early this morning - Sara to take Thom up to the village shop and me to get ready to drive to Sindlesham near Reading to represent Wiltshire Masters' Lodge at a meeting of the Berkshire Installed Masters' Lodge where my secretary, Chris, and I were being received as honoured and distinguished guests!  I arrived at the Sindlesham Centre in really good time - 9.35 a.m. for a 10.30 a.m. meeting and after checking my emails and telephone messages I went inside for a pre-meeting cup of coffee.  The lodge room is very light and airy and I was amazed at the number of Grand Officers attending the meeting - I have never seen so many Grand Officers outside of a Annual Provincial Meeting.  I felt very humbled as a Provincial Officer only!  We were treated with very kind hospitality and enjoyed a talk from the Vice-President of the United Grand Lodge of England's Board of General Purposes who spoke about the need for Grand Lodge to gear itself up for the changed cultures within England and Wales and many of the problems - e.g. declining numbers and an adherence to old rituals and ways of doing things, are very much in common with why there are declining numbers in the Church of England. It constantly strikes me that both of these ancient institutions are suffering from similar malaises.  After an excellent light lunch of home made fish pie and vegetables and cheeseboard (only two courses you will note) I went across to Lord Harris Court (sheltered accommodation for elderly Freemasons and their families) and spent a quarter of an hour with Sarum Lodge's oldest member, Bart Bloom, who is 91 years of age.  I briefly met his daughter before we spent a short time together catching up on news.  It was good to see him and to note that although his body might be frail his mind certainly isn't.  I drove back in the sunshine via Basingstoke and was home at 4.15 p.m.  I listened to the West Ham v. Southampton match on the radio and Saints were losing 2-1 when I arrived home (they finally lost 3-1 at Full Time).  Grimsby town failed to win their match at Grimsby in the semi-final of the F A Trophy and so won't be going to Wembley this year. Our friends Andrew and Kate did not return back to our home until 10 p.m. so didn't see a great deal of them although Andrew and I watched a bit of the spoof film "Airplane" before finally going to bed.