Address from the Provincial Grand Summus
Firstly, I would like to thank all Companions who have joined our Virtual Business Meeting,
some from far parts of the world. But most especially, I am eternally grateful to the Most
Distinguished Grand Summus for conferring upon me the high rank of Provincial Grand
Summus. It has been somewhat of a unique occasion as I understand we in Surrey may be the
first Scarlet Cord Province to hold our meeting in this format making it a truly memorable
occasion.
I am obviously highly delighted and honoured to be the Provincial Grand Summus of this
wonderful Provincial Grand Senatus of Surrey and I look forward with enthusiasm to the
opportunities and challenges ahead.
I offer my grateful thanks to my predecessor R.Dist. Comp. Louis Keats for all his hard work
and effort in developing this Province to what it is now and all the assistance he has given me so far, and which I am sure, he will continue to give in the future. I have also quickly realised that we are very lucky to have Eminent Companion Chris Eley as our Provincial
Grand Recorder as the amount of work he gets through is truly phenomenal.
I thank Dist.Comp. Chris Hatton for accepting the post of Assistant Provincial Grand
Summus for a further year and welcome Dist.Comp. Nigel Thomson as my Deputy
Provincial Grand Summus, his first Executive Office in any Masonic order. Unfortunately I
have been unable to install either of these two Companions today, but look forward to
investing them at some stage in the future and working with them both over the coming year.
I must also congratulate all those Companions that have been appointed or promoted in
Provincial Grand Senatus who will assume those ranks as from today. When our meetings
return to some normality, I will have the pleasure in investing you all with your appointment or promotion, when visiting your individual Consistories. It is my intention to visit all
Consistories officially at their Installation Meeting where I hope to be accompanied with as
many of the Provincial Grand Officers as possible. Full details will follow shortly.
The Provincial Tzaddikim has a new Captain this year, Comp Steve Rowlands with Eminent
Companion Robert Anderson remaining as Deputy Captain who between them I am sure will
do an excellent job. I look forward to meeting up with them and all the other members able to
attend when I make Official Visits during the forthcoming year.
It is unnecessary for me to name those honoured with Grand Rank earlier this year as of
course full details have been on our website for several months. I am delighted however to
offer my personal congratulations to all those Companions who were honoured as such.
Well deserved and hearty congratulations to them all.
Turning now to the membership, I think there is still plenty of scope to recruit more members
and I would like to see us reach 100 members as soon as possible over the next few years
which I believe is achievable.
As you are aware, every prospective Candidate must be a Prince in the Order of the Secret
Monitor. Having looked at several OSM Summonses recently a good number of the brethren
were not members of this wonderful Order and therefore missing out on our beautiful
ceremonies. This is an area I am looking to exploit and I have the full backing of Dist
Companion Colin Beerling, Provincial Grand Supreme Ruler, so you may well see me or my
Deputy or Assistant at your OSM Conclaves spreading the word.
Colin has recently launched a new website which includes a separate section on the Scarlet
Cord which is a very helpful step forward. I have also been approached about the
possibilities of consecrating a new Consistory. It is very early days yet but shows there is a
positive attitude throughout the Province.
I am sure that with your support we can progress this Province from strength to strength.
Finally, Companions I wish you all well for the future and look forward to visiting your
Consistories, enjoying your company again when masonry restarts and in particular, working
together to further develop this Order. Please make sure that you continue to keep in contact
with all your Companions as I am certain we will emerge even stronger when we return to
normal meetings.
May the God of our Fathers have you all and your loved ones in his Holy Keeping now and
evermore.
R.Dist. Comp. Arnold Long
Provincial Grand Summus
16 July 2020
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