Royal & Select Masters

The Grand Council of the Order of Royal and Select Masters of England and Wales
and its Districts and Councils Overseas

NEWS Join

RSM Jones 300The Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of England and Wales and its Districts and Councils Overseas was formally constituted on 29 July 1873 by four Councils chartered just two years earlier by the Grand Council of New York.

They organised themselves into a Sovereign body under the Patronage of the Rev. Canon G.R. Portal, a Past Grand Master of Mark Master Masons, who was Installed as the Grand Master of the Order. By the turn of the century there were twenty seven Councils and a similar number Consecrated by the end of the second world war. The Order then grew rapidly with the number on the Roll at the end of 2013 being over 250 Councils.

The Degrees in the Order - four in total - are often referred to as the 'Cryptic Degrees', and the Order sometimes as 'Cryptic'. The ceremonies complete the Solomonic legend as they prove the essential link between the Degrees of Mark Mason, the Raising in Craft, and The Royal Arch.

order bottom

Royal & Select Masters

Royal and Select Masters “Outreach Programme” arrives in Cheshire

Outreach Programme

L to R: Ian Currans, R.W. & E. Master; Kessick Jones, Grand Master; Paul Norman, D.C.; Stephen Ayres, Conductor; Len Millings, Tyler, with “The Marches” in the background.

On Thursday 19 July 2018 M.Ill.Comp. Kessick J. Jones, Grand Master, accompanied by a team of Officers from Grafton Council of Anointed Kings, arrived at Christleton in Cheshire to confer the Degree of Excellent Master on eight Candidates from the North of England.

This was part of the Grand Master’s “outreach programme”; taking the conferral of the Degree away from its usual London base of Mark Masons’ Hall, and was the third such outing, following visits to Bristol and Leeds.

They were welcomed by R.Ill.Comp. Shaun Crutchley, Dist.G.M., and his team, who had gone to great lengths to ensure that the furnishings required for the Ceremony were in place.

Cheshire View, the Masonic Hall in Christleton, looked magnificent in the summer sunshine. Its sun-trap patio was the perfect place to relax and enjoy the views, across the immaculately manicured bowling greens, to the splendour of the rolling countryside in the distance, before being called to dinner.
What better location, and a perfect opportunity, for the Grand Master to announce that, in light of recent conversations with members of the District, he was now considering changing the name of the District from “Cheshire, Shropshire and North Wales” to “Cheshire and The Marches”, bringing out of relative desuetude a term for an unclearly defined geographical area along the English/Welsh borders.

From the audible approval that greeted the announcement it appeared to be a very popular decision.

 

 

More Articles ...

  1. Consecration of Captain James Cook Council of Installed Masters No. 342
  2. Address by The Most Illustrious Grand Master - 2018
  3. Address by The Most Illustrious Grand Master