Brethren we are at the point where I am to address you on the objects of the meeting but unless you have accidently just walked in from Great Queen Street I am assuming you know why you are here, the 250+ founders most certainly will.
A new addition to any family is a very special and memorable occasion and today is certainly no exception.
Our new addition today, Freemasons Without Borders was an idea born in March 2020 as we moved into lockdown with the pandemic in its infancy. W. Bro Mahir Kilic went to a meeting with Bro Ameet Watts with the idea of creating a platform of sorts to keep Brethren engaged at the time when meetings could not take place.
How forward thinking was that.
The idea Mahir put to Ameet was to create an online forum hosting talks on all things masonic on a zoom platform.
The forum had to be easily accessible to all where ever they lived and one where we could all advance our masonic knowledge, bringing Freemasons together in one place albeit on line in this new place ‘zoom’ which dropped down on us from nowhere and even those with little or no I T skills were able to easily embrace it.
The zoom platform was developed and the first talk took place on 7th April 2020 and FWB has hosted some 68 talks since then and more are following.
I could give you many more impressive statistic about the success of the platform, but for the moment I will simply thank W. Bro Mahir Kilic and Bro Ameet Watts for their amazing achievement and I will say rather more about these two Brethren a little later.
Following the initial series of talks and to maintain the momentum of the platform the admin team needed to grow and W.Bro Sotiris Sakelarious, Murat Gulbakan, Gurdeep Virdee and Robert Anderson were drafted in.
With the team strengthened and the talks becoming ever more popular and as we moved to come out of covid restrictions Mahir and Ameet discussed what the future of the platform would be. If the success of all that had been achieved was not to be lost, it would be necessary to capitalise on the success and togetherness that had been created.
Mahir, I understand, has always had a desire for a Lodge where Brethren could travel for meetings globally – indeed meetings without borders.
With his affinity for the degree of Mark Master Masons he saw the perfect opportunity to have a unique, almost international Mark Lodge built on the back of the simple platform commenced back in March 2020 which is why we are here today.
A consecration requires much administration to bring it together.
A consecration of a lodge of today’s size and complexity requires huge administration skills and dedication and today has had that from W. Bro Ray Bodell. My congratulations and appreciation to him.
Brethren we will begin this consecration by asking the Chaplain to give us the benefit of prayer
