Newsletter

Address from V.W. Bro. Barry Prior

Deputy Provincial Grand Master

Onwards & Upwards!

Change of Festival Chairmanship

Festival Fundraising Events

Over the last two years the groundwork has been laid for an exciting and enjoyable Festival and Banquet. We are slowly working towards achieving a respectable total but much still remains to be done. It is encouraging to see that both individuals and Lodges are beginning to engage with the Festival.

At the moment, one of the focuses of the committee is to raise the deposit for the Festival Banquet to be held at the Examination Schools.

At the moment, money raised other than by Regular Giving or Gift Aid is held in the Festival Support Fund. Once ticket sales build up, those monies will be transferred to the MBF to the credit of individuals and Lodges. In the meantime, OMMBA, your Provincial charity is match funding events organised by individuals and Lodges, to a maximum of £1,000 per event and a donation of £150 to any gift-aided individual event.

OMMBA has recently donated almost £3,000 to MBF for the following events:-

The monies will be credited to the individuals and Lodges immediately and will count towards honorifics.

A number of events are in the pipeline and information about these will be found elsewhere in this newsletter; more involvement of Lodges will be greatly appreciated.

In addition, the Provincial Grand Master has set a challenge to all Lodges to raise £1,000 by any legal means by 11^th May 2023. Once a Lodge has achieved that figure, he will arrange for him and the Provincial Team to attend a meeting of the Lodge to present a certificate recognising the achievement.

Festival Committee Vacancy

There is a vacancy on the committee which we would like to fill. W.Bro Grahame Lee has stepped down as Northern representative for personal reasons. The role is to encourage and advise the "northern" Lodges; Cherwell, Bowyer, Wychwood, and Weyland in organising individual or combined events during the Festival period.

If you would like to be involved either in that role or generally with organising the Festival or Banquet please get in touch with W.Bro David Cumming, Festival Committee Secretary, on secretary(at)oxonMBF2025.org.uk (replace "(at)" with "@") or give him a call on 07875 501704.

Brethren, your 2025 MBF Festival is at last gathering momentum, please get involved and share some of the excitement.

Finally, may I take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and, for the Festival, a prosperous New Year.

V.W.Bro. Barry Prior DepPrGM

MBF Honorifics Presentations in November

At the RAM Assembly in November, a number of Brethren were presented with MBF honorific collarettes by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, V.W.Bro. Barry Prior, in recognition of their financial contributions to our MBF Festival effort. Collars were presented to Adrian Barlow, John Grout, Allan Dishington and Ray Harrison.

Then, at a meeting of Cherwell Mark Lodge, Nick Walker was presented with his MBF honorific collarette by the Festival President and Provincial Grand Master, R.W.Bro. Ian Wright.

Finally, at the November meeting of Thames Mark Lodge, the Festival Chairman presented collarettes to Stan Crooks and Tony Wright.

All these Brethren are to be congratulated on gaining these honorifics. They have been achieved through a combination of one-off contributions, standing orders and organising events.

Provincial Class of Improvement

Whilst the sessions of the Class of Improvement will be of particular use to those who may be still young in their Mark Masonry and just starting out on the journey through the progressive Offices, all members of the Province (including Directors of Ceremonies and their assistants) are welcome to attend. Having a familiarity with the ritual assists in both learning, teaching, and delivery. We only get one opportunity to make a first impression which is both good and well received by the candidate. The Class of Improvement can help to supplement rehearsals as well as serving as a friendly atmosphere in which to get to know brethren from a wider circle of lodges across the province.

www.oxonmarkmasons.org.uk/province.html

Provincial Assembly of Royal Ark Mariners

On Friday 4th November, Oxfordshire's Provincial Assembly of Royal Ark Mariners was held under the banner of the Abbey Lodge of Royal Ark Mariners No. 225 at Cosener's House in Abingdon. All Oxfordshire lodges were well represented and the brethren had a very enjoyable evening as the below pictures attest. The brethren also raised the fantastic sum of £114.60 for the 2025 Festival through Gift Aid envelopes at the festive board.

Mark Lodge Meeting Dates

Calendar

Installation Dates are displayed in bold italic.

We have been advertising Lodge meeting dates on our social media exactly one week before a meeting takes place. In order to benefit from these helpful reminders, please ensure that you are following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Lodge	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr
University Lodge No. 55	Sat, 28
Abbey Lodge No. 225		Thu, 23		Thu, 27
Alfred Lodge No. 247				Wed, 19
Cherwell Lodge No. 847	Tue, 31		Tue, 28
Marlborough Lodge No. 980		Tue, 14
Thames Lodge No. 1183	Fri, 20			Fri, 28
St. Mary's Lodge No. 1242			Fri, 3
Windrush C&M Lodge No. 1386				Fri, 7
Wychwood Lodge No. 1443			Thu, 9
Godstow Lodge No. 1546			Wed, 1
Bowyer Lodge No. 1655			Mon, 13
Menatschim Lodge No. 1838			Mon, 27

RAM Lodge Meeting Dates

Calendar

Installation Dates are displayed in bold italic.

Lodge	April	May	June	July
Abbey Lodge No. 225		Fri, 3
Alfred Lodge No. 247				Wed, 19
Marlborough Lodge No. 980			Wed, 15
Thames Lodge No. 1183		Fri, 24
St. Mary's Lodge No. 1242			Fri, 3
Windrush Lodge No. 1386			Thu, 16
Bowyer Lodge No. 1655				Thu, 6

Provincial Team Visit to
Windrush Car & Motorcycle Lodge No. 1386

Windrush Car & Motorcycle Lodge were kind enough to host a Provincial Team Visit on their fantastic Christmas White Table night, Friday 9th December. The lodge business was conducted swiftly, after a rather extensive list of fraternal salutations, such that the brethren could return downstairs to the company of their partners and (most importantly) the bar! A very informative and interesting talk was then delivered by Christine Bovingdon-Cox about her career in policing, followed by an outstanding Christmas meal at the Festive Board. The evening was concluded by traditional carol singing, with W.Bro. Peter Smith on the keyboard. All visitors had a wonderful evening and enjoyed the company of their brethren, as can be clearly seen in the pictures below.

Festival Banquet Update

It seems like a long time until we celebrate the end of the Festival in July 2025, but we're making good progress in putting together a weekend to remember and be proud of, both for members of the Province and for the hundreds of Mark Masons and partners who will come from all over the country to see what Oxfordshire Freemasonry is all about.

The culmination of the weekend will be a sumptuous banquet, with music and dancing, at the historic University Examination Schools, at the heart of the City of Oxford. But we're drawing together a range of unique activities over the weekend, that collectively will make the event a real festival of cultural events celebrating Oxford and Freemasonry (Woodstock without the mud ... or Blenheim). We will be offering tours of the city and university, punting on the river, tours of our world-leading museums, and insights from those involved in developing the COVID vaccine that has made such a mark on humanity as a whole. We hope also to offer an informal welcome event on the Friday evening.

Of course, putting up the best of the best comes at a price, and we expect the banquet will come in at around £115 per person. However, the silver lining is that we have secured an inflation-proof price.

There's lots already planned, but so much still to do. If you'd like to help, please contact me on weekend(at)oxonMBF2025.org.uk (replace "(at)" with "@"). We'll be booking hotels, bands, activities, selling tickets, but enthusiasm is the only prerequisite.

A Masonic Journey: Chapter 1

From Darkness into the Light – well, not quite!

What Festival events are coming up?

We will be doing some of this

Studley Wood Golf Day - date to be confirmed

Badgemore Park Golf Day - 22^nd September 2023

Golf vouchers available for 15 courses

– contact John Grout for details

And some of this

This could be you in the Lord’s pavilion

– we are arranging two trips in 2023

We will be going to this

Newbury Races Friday 21^st July 2023

And to this

Speedway at Oxford Stadium

We also plan to go to the dogs

Greyhound racing at Oxford Stadium

Perhaps a little bit of this

Clay Shooting at Oxford Gun Company

Adrian will be doing this

Adrian is climbing Scafell

Adrian Barlow's Challenges

Following Adrian's successful 'Mad March Hare' challenge in 2022, he plans to repeat this in 2023. He aims to walk 16,250 steps each day in March 2023.

As if that was not enough effort (and pain), Adrian will be climbing Scafell in May/ June 2023.

Adrian will be looking for sponsorship to raise funds for the Festival and a Just Giving page will be established to administer this. We will circulate the details in due course. Please support Adrian and, even better, see if you can think of something you could do yourself.

Look out for further details of all these events and others which will be sent to you. Then go along and support them and, even better, talk to members of your Lodge to see what you can do to organise a social event, to get our Province together and raise some money for our Festival.

How can I support the Oxfordshire Mark Festival?

A Mark Festival in support of the Mark Benevolent Fund (MBF) is hosted by a single Province for the year. The Mark Province of Oxfordshire will be hosting the celebratory dinner on Saturday 5^th July 2025 being the conclusion of our current fund raising efforts. At this event we also be receiving many guests from Provinces from around England and Wales together with a deputation from Mark Grand Lodge.

Donations and fund raising in support of the Festival can be as individuals, the Lodge, and the Province. All events held should be fun and enjoyable.

As Individuals

Purchase the Oxfordshire MBF Festival Stewardship Jewel. The application form may be downloaded here.

Now that the Craft Festival has finished you may wish to this opportunity of making the regular contribution by Standing order to the MBF.

Ad-hoc single donations.

The forms may be downloaded here.

Arrange an event to raise funds.

A range of merchandise is also available, please contact your Lodge Charity Representative, your Lodge's Festival Area Representative or visit the website here.

The Lodge

Arrange an event or series of events to raise funds. Don't forget to invite other members and Lodges from around the Province.

Hold a raffle at the end of the meeting.

Province

A number of events to be held have been planned. The exact dates will be announced in good time to enable you to reserve the timing in your diary.

Details of Lodge and Provincial events will be publicised here.

The Oxfordshire Mark Masons Benevolent Association (OMMBA)

Where funds are raised through an event either as a Lodge or by an individual, our own charity OMMBA has agreed to match the funds raised to a limit of £1,000 per event for a Lodge or £100 for an individual.

Further information

Our dedicated Festival Website.

The motto of the MBF is "Bis dat qui cito dat" – he gives twice who gives promptly

Competition(s)