Guess Who Won The Principals’ Quiz?

Share this news:
Principals' and Past Principal's 2025 quiz winners

The 2025 principals' And Past Principals' Dinner

At this year’s Principals’ and Past Principals’ Dinner, held at kings Norton Golf Club, our very own Most Excellent Grand Superintendent’s table proved victorious in the annual quiz. Using his unfair advantage to its greatest extent our Provincial Comms Officer’s pencil was smoking as he scribbled down the answers which were coming thick and fast from the Grand Superintendent and his Director of Ceremonies with assistance from others on the table, a table made up of members from Warwickshire Chapters who had exalted the most members in the past 12 months.

Commiserations go to this year’s wooden spooners.

Principals' and Past Principal's 2025 quiz
Principals' and Past Principal's 2025 quiz

Read The

The Grand Superintendent's Speech

29 January 2025

Well companions, here we are again. It seems amazing to reflect that this is the 8th time I have given an address at this dinner having delivered my first back in 2017 – doesn’t time fly. This dinner is always a happy event and well attended and this year is no exception with around 130 attending once again. It also signals the start of the new year of freemasonry. This year we have a lot to look forward to and to celebrate.

Last year, I am sure you will recall I announced that we had substantially reduced the membership challenge deficit during 2023 – and that was despite only having 28 exaltations. That number was 3 lower than 2022 and 11 higher than 2021. I am however, thrilled to announce that in 2024, 51 brethren were exalted into a Warwickshire Royal Arch Chapter with an active membership now representing 36% of the craft. 51 exaltations is the highest number of new members in a single calendar year since 2010. This significant jump comes in no small part down the tremendous efforts of the whole Provincial team in bringing about a very positive approach to attracting new members into this most interesting and colourful of Orders.

The continued role out of Archway in advance of its incorporation into the Members’ Pathway later this year has been led so effectively by E Comp Geoff Walker and his team with many individual presentations to Chapters across the Province.

Over 75% of Chapters have attended an Archway presentation and I promise you the remaining 25% will also be receiving one soon. There is really no excuse for not engaging with Archway and the evident benefits it brings to ensure a Chapter grows and thrives – let’s face it companions, those numbers of 51 exaltations speak for themselves. The strong message of ‘One Journey, One Organisation’ promulgated by UGLE is very much in tune with the message we have been promoting in Warwickshire for some years – exaltation should still be the aspiration of every freemason to complete the story and their journey in pure and antient freemasonry.

Supplementing the role-out of Archway, E Comp James Freakley has begun delivering presentations in Craft Lodges as an introduction to the Royal Arch. This has initially focused on those Lodges with a low RA membership and is designed to be fun and informative – it really is a fantastic way to involve brethren and is perfect for a Craft meeting when there is no other ceremony to perform. The presentation typically involves three companions attending the Lodge acting as the three principals in full regalia and giving a talk about the RA after the Lodge has been called off. It’s engaging, its fun and its inter-active. If you think this would be well received in your Lodge please contact James and he will happily arrange to attend and deliver the talk.

This strong and repetitive engagement by the RA within the Craft is again, something we have been working hard on for some time. Freemasonry involves four ceremonies, three that are delivered in a Craft Lodge on one that is delivered in a Royal Arch Chapter – it should be considered a natural extension of any brother’s masonic journey. This message has to be repeatedly reinforced within Lodges and at every meeting where possible.

This is a key part of the role of the RA reps and their duty within their respective Lodges. To help with this we will shortly be rolling out a revision of the RA Reps role with a further role being introduced. A series of workshops have been held by E Comp Nigel Hawkins to better understand the role of a RA rep so that it is both worthwhile and effective. I’ve talked about us all being ambassadors for the RA and have previously looked at introducing specific ambassadors to Lodges. Well, this new role will be coming to a Craft Lodge near you. In essence the ambassador’s role will be as follows:

  1. To liaise and help the existing (lodge appointed) RA Reps and Craft VOs.
  2. To provide individual RA Reps with specific information (within any restrictions of GDPR) regarding their own lodge, eg who is already a RA member in Warks, who has never been exalted, who is unattached.
  3. Formal training for RA Reps to help them with recruitment, retention/recovery.
  4. Give RA Reps a simple spread sheet they can complete with info regarding who they spoke to about RA in their lodge, what was said and when they intend to talk to them again. So, a structure to help focus their efforts.
  5. Even better documentation from the Province with education as the main thrust – No one should be able to resign from Warks RA because they say they do not understand what it is all about.
  6. RA Reps to gain a higher profile within their own lodges both by being a separate report item on each and every craft summons and be given the opportunity to say something at each and every craft lodge meeting.

Now, we are well aware that there are some fabulous RA Reps out there who do an amazing job of promoting the RA and identifying and nurturing brethren into joining when the time is right for them. What we are striving to achieve is for every Lodge to have such a fabulous RA rep who can enthusiastically support brethren as they consider their next move in freemasonry by ensuring that they have an easy and understandable pathway into the RA. This will become a key focus of the executive going forward, so keep an eye out for more news shortly.

In other somewhat frustrating news, you may be wondering what the plans are for the annual RA church service this year. As you all will know, we were cancelled at just 24 hours’ notice by Coughton Church last year, a cancellation that not only resulted in a financial loss to the Province, but more importantly resulted in a lot of disappointed Companions. We approached Coughton again this year but, much to our surprise, were met with a refusal to host the service. To date, Mike Reeve and David Harwood have visited or reviewed more than a dozen Churches and met with representatives to discuss the possibility of us holding the RA Service at their venue. Some were discounted due to size, accessibility, availability of car parking spaces or because the venue already hosts a service for other Masonic Orders.

Of the remainder, after what initially appeared to be a positive response, we received emails or a text to say that they were unable to accommodate our request. The reasons given varied from our having “activities or rituals [that] fall outside the scope of our core church community”, to  “the longstanding policy at St Andrew’s,..…is not to host masonic services” to “we do not think a masonic service aligns with our policies”.

I have found this to be most troubling and we have raised the matter with London so that they can approach Lambeth palace to find out what is going on. In the meantime, though, it means that this years’ service is also regrettably cancelled, however, the Annual Warwickshire Freemasons’ church Service on 29th June at St Mary’s Church Warwick will be a celebration of all freemasonry once again and I hope you will attend and support that and proudly show ourselves as freemasons.

And now companions, we come to the bit you are all waiting for. The team for 2025.

Well, E Comp David Graham will continue for another year as my deputy. We all owe David a huge debt of thanks for all he does for Warks RA freemasonry. Given that I am a double header I do rely on both my deputies to do a lot of the heavy lifting and they both do so without a grumble. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to David for all he does.

Excellent Companion Nigel Hawkins first took active office in the RA in 2013 when he went on to serve as Treasurer for 7 years. In 2020 he became the 3rd PGP and in 2023 he went on to become the 2nd PGP – in all these roles he has been magnificent and has performed with a commitment and passion at a level beyond any expectation. But, as in all cases, all good things must come to an end and so after 12 years of loyal and dedicated active office Nigel will step down as Prov2GP in June and in doing so he will be able to reflect on a job well done. Thank you, Nigel, for all you have done, and I know you will continue to support me and the Province going forward.

And so, I am delighted to announce that in June I will be appointing E Comp Michael Morris as the 2nd PGP. Having served as Asst to the PGP for the last year  it has been clear that Michael’s masonic experience is vast. I know he will bring a depth of knowledge to the role that will build on all the great work that Nigel has done. I am sure you join with me in congratulating Micheal in his new role.

E Comp Geoff Walker is a brilliant 3rd PGP and is passionate, enthusiastic and universally popular across the Province and I am delighted that he will be continuing in the role as the Prov3GP.

The last two Asst’s to the PGP have been Michael Hogarth and Michael Morris and both were brilliant in the role. Now, I don’t want to break a winning formula and it is clear there must be something in the name, so I am excited to announce that the new Asst to the PGP will be E Comp Michael (of course) Ball. I first got to know Michael when I was the ProvGDC in the Craft and he is an amazingly talented and yet charmingly humble man. I know he will bring a unique character to the role. Sadly, Michael couldn’t be with us this evening as he had a family commitment, but I am sure you will want to pass on your congratulations to him in due course.

The other Provincial appointment letters will be sent out shortly.

Finally, a big thank you to the team who helped make this a successful evening. To E Comp Mike Reeve our hard-working Provincial Events Coordinator, to E Comp Bernard and his team, including the Provincial Wendy without whom we would all have a problem for all that they do, to E comp Trevor Siddall another wonderfully compiled quiz, (thank you Nigel for standing in) and finally to the Kings Norton GC for hosting us so admirably.

Companions, remember we are here to enjoy ourselves and to go home having had a great night with a smile on our faces and looking forward to our next happy meeting.

Thank you companions.

Excellent Companions Philip Hall
Most Excellent Grand Superintendent