Marine Receives and Passes All in One Meeting
Lodge Marine No 232 E.C. founded in the 1800s in Calcutta and now meets at Nailsea Masonic Hall on a Saturday morning four times a year and this occasion, it was a little special.
Not only did our worshipful master have a second-degree ceremony to perform for one of our candidates who is a serving naval seaman, but we also received the travelling trowel from the worshipful master and several members from Estune Lodge No 6817.
After we opened the meeting and greeted the senior officers in the lodge, we received the travelling trowel by several members of Estune Lodge. On the face of it a trowel may seem like just like any other tool, however, in our case it is the hand of friendship, which was warmly received. The members of Marine will build on the friendship with Estune by visiting and supporting each other in activities within and outside of Freemasonry. The next journey of the travelling trowel will be for Marine to pass this on the Forest of Mendip Lodge (Yatton Masonic Hall) on 19 May 2023.
Our worshipful master quickly got on to another key part of the morning which was the second-degree ceremony. The ceremony was well conducted, timely, the candidate well prepared, and every officer performed their duty in a professional and courteous manner.
After the ceremony we had a short time to catch up before it was time for lunch which is always an extremely well-prepared meal. In our case gammon and chips for our main course which went down well!
Marine is fortunate to have been able to bring back some of the items which it had on fine display including some recent papers of a brother who passed away and left papers for the lodge to put on display for visitors. A tradition which is still retained today is to ring the watch bells irrespective of what might be going at the time – some can be a little startled when they hear it for the first time, in good fun!
We concluded the afternoon with several toasts and a raffle which was a lovely way to continue the rest of the weekend.
