Crayford Lodge News

May 2011 Volume 12 Issue 3
Web Site. www.crayfordlodge.org.uk

Editorial

We thank W.Bro Mel for being our Master for the last two years. He did an excellent job. Brother James has a lot to live up to but we know he is capable of the task

We are thinking of a Ladies Festival Weekend away at Selsdon Park Hotel in March or April next year
Cost will be £156 each

For those wishing to stay the Saturday night only the prices is £91 with a disco or £96 with a band.
Banquet only prices are £49 with disco or £54 with a band.

These prices are based on a minimum of 60 persons attending and two persons sharing a double/twin room.
We are thinking of setting up a Standing Order Facility (Payment over 10 months.)

126 Addington Road Sanderstead, South Croydon, CR2 8YA

Selsdon Park Hotel is a magnificent property set in over 200 acres of breathtaking parkland. A Neo-Jacobean building offering the most up to date conference, team building, wedding and banqueting facilities. Only 13 miles from central London with wonderful views of the North Surrey Downs.

Enjoy our Sauna or heated indoor pool and, during the summer months, our heated outdoor pool. With an 18-hole championship golf course, as well as professional tuition available, you shall be in golf heaven.


Whether you chose a Standard, a Suite or a room with breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside, you'll enjoy one of the most memorable stays in the UK.





Programme for 2011

May Installation
Programme for next season to be agreed


Social events

20th May Bowls Game Vs Lullingstone Lodge with Fish and Chip Supper
3rd June. Race Night. 

22nd July. Medway Boat Trip

July or August Greek Meal at Welling
4th November Visit to Prestwick Scotland for 3rd Degree

Names and cash at May meeting please. Also please show your interest for next Ladies Festival

Bowls game v Lullingstone Lodge

The Bowls Game against Lullingstone Lodge will be held on Friday 20th May at 6.00pm at Hesketh Park Bowls Club, Dartford. 
Come along and support your Lodge. 
Friends and Relatives Welcome for the Fish and Chip Supper after. 
If interested contact Roy or Brian

 Some attended practice at Hesketh Park on Saturday 16th April

Provincial Service of Thanksgiving

8th May 2011

The RW Provincial Grand Master, together with his deputies and brethren of the Province, their families and friends, are invited to Choral Evensong at Rochester Cathedral on Sunday 8 May 2011 at 3.15pm.

Masonic Regalia will not be worn on this occasion.

Please come along to support the Province.


__________________________________________________________________________

Steven Butler thanks the Lodge and individual members for their contribution to his London Marathon Run for the British Heart Foundation.
His time was 3 hrs 53 minutes and he raised £1440.00

Kids at Masonic Home







Easter Egg Hunt at West Kent Province Duke of Kent Court

The Way Forward 2011

Freemasonry - What’s in it for you?
When: Wednesday 18 May 2011
Where: Oakley House, Bromley
Target audience: initiates/potential new members
 
In this modern world where potential new members find it hard to juggle the demands of the day job, home life and a social calendar - why join Freemasonry and give up more of that precious time?
 
This seminar will look at where Freemasonry can sit in this busy world and how it can help with that work / life balance we are all struggling to achieve. How it can broaden your social life by building friendships with others in all walks of life. How it can give purpose by becoming active in fundraising for charity and how it will provide that feel good factor by helping those in need.

Masonic Fire

 Bro. Yoshio Washizu wrote this very interesting article on Masonic "FIRE" or toasts that was published in Vol 111, 1998 Ars Quatuor Coronatorum Transactions. As you will see from the article (which we had to condense because of space limitations), Masonic toasting after banquets is a tradition, virtually, "time immemorial."

Masonic "fire" is an old custom, which may be derived from that of firing after toasts. Our Masonic ancestors to suit their needs modified the original practice. 

The custom of gunfire salutes after toasts already existed in the 17th century. Dr. Richard Kuerden (or Jackson) MD (1623-6900?) of Preston in Lancashire, compiled a Brief Description of the Borough and Town of Preston (1682-6, in which he described a celebration of the Preston Gild Merchant thus: 

"...The Mayor, with his great attendance is received in the streets by his guards of Souldiers and Company’s of Trade, he makes his procession to the Church gate bans, where he and his attendance are entertained with a speech made by one of the chief Scholars of the School, a Barrel or Hogshead of nappy Ale standing close by the Barrs is broached, and a glass offered to the Mayor, who begins a good prosperous health to the King, afterwards to the Queen, the Nobility and Gentry having pledged the same; at each health begun by Mr. Mayor, it is attended with a volley of shott from the musketiers attending; the country people there present drinking of the remainder."

Here is another example of the 17thcentury custom of toasting associated with gunfire. In February 1694 Captain Thomas Phillips, in his account of the voyage of the ship Hannibal, referred to a similar practice thus: 

"In this garden [of Cape Coast Castle on the West Coast of Africa] Captain Shirley and I entertained the agents, factors, and other officers of the castle at dinner before our departure... where we enjoyed ourselves plentifully, having each of us six of our quarter-deck guns brought ashore, with powder, &c., and our gunners to ply them; which they did to purpose, _ and made them roar merrily, firing eleven at every health."

Two months later Phillips and some other officers dined with the native chief who occupied Christiansborg Castle, having captured it from the Danes. When they were ascended, the Chief drank to them in a glass of brandy and all the guns in the fort were discharged. After dinner he "drank the king of England's, the African company's, and our own health’s frequently, with vollies of cannon."

Some believe, however, that such a practice has nothing to do with the origin of the term, Masonic "fire," but that it is rather the conversion into reality of what is really a metaphor. 

It is unknown exactly when Masonic "fire" started. Anderson recorded in his New Book of Constitutions (1738) that Desaguliers, the newly installed Grand Master, "revived the old regular and peculiar Toasts or Health’s of the Free Masons" on June 24, 1719. We do not know what those "old regular and peculiar Toasts" were like and whether or not the "firing" was practiced then. It is in French exposures published in the late 1730s and the early 1740s that we find the earliest reference to the practice of Masonic "fire." For example, here is an extract from the Reception d'un FreyMaCon (1737): 

"...This ceremony [initiation] ended, & this explanation given, the Candidate is called Brother, & they seat themselves at Table, where they drink, with the permission of the Worshipful Grand Master [the Will.] to the health of the new Brother. Each has his Bottle before him; when they want to drink, they say, give the Powder, everyone rises, the Grand Master says, charge; the Powder, which is the Wine, is poured into the, glass; the Grand Master says, lay your hands to your firelocks [armes], and they drink to the health of the Brother, carrying the glass to the mouth in three movements; after which, & before replacing the glass on the Table, it is carried to the left breast, then to the right, & then forwards, all in three movements, & in three movements it is set down perpendicularly on the Table, they clap their hands three times & each of them cries three times Vivat."
On the other hand, the earliest reference to such a practice in England is contained in Three Distinct Knocks (1760), from which the following description is taken: 

"Every Man has a Glass set him, and a large Bowl of Punch, or what they like, is set in the Center of the Table; and the senior Deacon charges (as they call it) in the North and East, and the junior Deacon in the South and West; for it is their duty to do so, i.e., to fill all the Glasses. 

Then the Master takes up his Glass, and gives a Toast to the King and the Craft, with Three Times Three in the Prentice's; and they all say Ditto, and drink all together, minding the Master's Motion: They do the same with the empty Glass that he doth; that is, he draws it across his Throat Three Times... and then makes Three Offers to put it down; At the third, they all set their Glasses down together, which they call `firing': Then they hold the Left-hand Breast-high, and clap Nine Times with the Right, their Foot going at the same Time: When this is done, they all sit down."

The same source notes that the reason for their drinking three times three is: 

"...Because there were antiently but Three Words, Three Signs and Three Gripes; but there have been Three added, viz. The Grand Sign of a Master, the Pass-Gripe of a Fellow-Craft, and Pass-Word, which is Twelve in all for you to remember, viz. The Word, Sign and Gripe of an entered Apprentice is Three: The Word, Sign, Gripe, Pass-Gripe and Pass-Word of a Fellow-Craft is Five; And the Master hath Four, viz. The Sign, the Grand Sign, the Gripe and Word, which is Twelve."

However, just because the earliest reference to Masonic "fire" is found in French exposure does not mean necessarily that the custom originated in France. No reference is made to this custom in Samuel Prichard's Masonry Dissected published in 1730. During the next 30 years few exposures were published in England-perhaps partly because of the great popularity of Prichard's booklet. There is no telling if Masonic "fire" was in practice in England during that period. It could have been practiced in England first and then exported to France. Or it could have started in France and English freemasons adopted it later. No definite conclusion can be drawn because there are insufficient records available on this matter.
Masonic "fire" with Brethren crashing down thick-based drinking glasses on the table was once a common practice. 

The use of such firing glasses is now much less common, however, and the "fire" is more usually accompanied by the Brethren clapping their hands instead. 

There is no official form of giving "fire." Basically, it is a variation of ".point-left-right" (PLR) followed by the "three times three" hand clapping-a typical "fire" procedure being PLR, PLR, PLR, one (point to the left), two (point to the right), one clap, short pause and three short claps followed by another set of three short claps. 

Various theories have been suggested about the origin of the PLR. Listing several different theories, e.g., the Sign of the Cross made by a clergyman in benediction over food or drink, the "Hammer of Thor" sign used in Scandinavia in olden times to appease the great God, the motions made by a bricklayer when lifting cement with his trowel and a royal salute of 21 guns, Carr concluded none of them can be considered its origin and that such movements rather originate from one of the early modes of recognition. Some doubt there is any significance or symbolical meaning in Masonic "fire" itself and believe it is a survival of a convivial custom originally carried out as a cheerful, boisterous routine. 

The way Masonic "fire" is given varies widely in different localities. Carr recalled an Australian freemason's description of several different forms of "fire" in use in that country. 

"So there are many variations of Masonic "fire." It cannot be said that a certain way of "firing" is the only correct way and that any other way is incorrect. It is a matter of local custom and the particular lodge."