Knights Templar

The Great Priory of the United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders
of the Temple and of St. John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta
of England and Wales and its Provinces Overseas

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KT Clement 300According to legend, the Knights Templar was founded in 1118 AD to protect pilgrims heading for Jerusalem and the Christian Holy places, where the small band of warrior monks established a headquarters. In the year 1118 AD King Baldwin II granted the Templars quarters on the Temple Mount and this forms the link to the Royal Arch.

Many men, of noble birth, joined the ranks of the Templar Order. Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars with land and other valuables.
Modern Masonic association with these medieval defenders of the Christian Holy places is linked by the ceremony of Installation in which the Candidate takes the part of a Pilgrim who, by symbolically embarking on a Crusade, is elevated to Knighthood.

The earliest reference to modern Masonic Knight Templar activity in England can be found in the minutes of the Chapter of Friendship (Royal Arch) in Portsmouth, dated 1778, where it was worked as an Appendant Degree. In 1791 a Grand Conclave was formed comprising seven ‘Encampments’ with Thomas Dunckerley as Grand Master. By 1873 ‘Grand Conclave’ was now known as ‘Great Priory’, and ‘Encampments’ were now known as ‘Preceptories’.

The ceremony is very realistic and the regalia spectacular, based upon that worn by the Medieval Knights.

Prospective Candidates must be a Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason and Christian.

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Knights Templar

Addresses by The Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master 2017

Addresses by The Most Eminent and Supreme Grand Master
Paul Raymond Clement, G.C.T.
to the Chapter of Great Priory
Wednesday 17 May 2017

KT Clement 800Brother Knights, as the conclusion of this Chapter of Great Priory draws near I would like to thank you all for the outstanding support and encouragement you have given me for today. We stand before you as a new team. A new President of the Council, Great Vice-Chancellor and Great Marshal. It will be our mission over the years that lie ahead to serve you to the utmost of our abilities and to ensure the long-term future of this Christian Brotherhood which we all love so dearly. It has been an enormous pleasure to invest the new Great Officers this afternoon, both first appointments and promotions, and I do offer each and every one my heartiest congratulations. We trust that you will be further inspired to even greater service to your Preceptories and to the Order in general and we all look forward to your continued support at Great Priory in the years ahead. I am sure you will agree with me, Brother Knights, that the proceedings of today have been considerably enhanced by the presence of our Brother Knights from Sister Great Priories and Brother Knights from our own Constitution who have come from far afield to be with us. I would now welcome them all on your behalf.

2017 will indeed be a memorable year for English Freemasonry and, in the midst of all that’s going on around the Country, we at Great Priory, and that’s you and I Brother Knights, will be called on to witness our faith publicly at a Great Priory Family Service at Lincoln Cathedral on Saturday September 16th. It will have been 9 years since this event was last held and I would urge you all to support us if at all possible. It is an extremely important occasion for all Brother Knights and a great opportunity to host our friends and families and indeed, to demonstrate how proud we are to be members of this wonderful Christian Order. The registration forms are on the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons’ website and I do urge you to give this important event your full support. I would now normally pay tribute to the retiring Great Vice-Chancellor and thank him for all he has done, but in this instance, it’s more to thank him for what he’s going to do as our President and to welcome on board V.E.Kt. Ryan Williams as our new Great Vice-Chancellor. Not forgetting the Brother Knight on whose shoulders, the success of today’s Ceremonial has rested, I refer of course to Very Eminent Knight Timothy Wheeler the Great Marshal. Tim, on behalf of us all, thank you and well done!

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