PRESS RELEASE
Provincial Grand Master, Stephen Martin Blank, the leader of Cheshire Freemasons is shining a new and revealing light on our organisation, which we believe for a long time has been treated unfairly with public doubt and suspicion surrounding our true motives.
Even though across England and Wales more than £100 million has been donated to charities and medical research in recent years (making Freemasonry one of the biggest charity donors in Britain), our fraternity is widely burdened with a public misconception alleging ‘back-scratching’ in a hidden way.
The central rulers of Freemasonry, headed by HRH the Duke of Kent, have advocated greater openness for many years. Now this new mood of revelation and openness is being taken on by our Provincial Grand Master Stephen.
He was appointed to lead our 5,000 strong band of Freemasons scattered across the length and breadth of Cheshire. Now the father-of-four from Altrincham is intent on breaking a mould that took Freemasonry out of public view, where it happily lived since first being launched 300 years ago, and placed it behind a veil of unnecessary secrecy since the Second World War.
All that is about to be swept aside as Freemasonry celebrates its 300th anniversary or Tercentenary next year, marking the time when the first Freemasons Lodges joined together in London back in 1717 to form the Grand Lodge, now the United Grand Lodge of England based at Great Queen Street, London.
Why? Because it’s impossible for something perceived as a ‘ closed society’ to survive in today’s age of internet openness. Shrouding your existence in secrecy does not make sense when it comes to recruiting new members, its lifeblood, either.
So this is where veteran accountant and former corporate finance advisor Stephen Blank comes in, in his role as Provincial Grand Master of the Freemasons of the Province of Cheshire. But let’s remember that it means nothing to the uninitiated and public at large. Indeed, when he put the role on his Linked-In page, he was forced to choose ‘CEO’ or Chief Executive Officer to describe it!
Fortunately for the future of Freemasonry (which like all voluntary organisations has seen a decline in membership since the last world war) Right Worshipful Brother Stephen Blank is a well-grounded man with an expert head for figures – and who knows too well what adds up when it comes to a reality check.
For he agrees with the Rulers of Freemasonry that if it is to survive for another 300-years as a movement that fosters brotherhood among fellow men from every walk of life, religion or culture, and which often leads to lifelong friendships – a new mode of openness and transparency is vital for its continued existence.
“We can no longer carry on in the fashion common after the last world war when Freemasons kept their membership firmly hidden, where they never spoke publicly about their activities or their giving to charity. In those days, membership was by invitation only. Maybe that was because dictators like Hitler who tried, and failed to take over Europe, targeted Freemasons as well as others to lock up in concentration camps.
“Now things have changed,” says the PGM. “We welcome enquiries from men interested in Freemasonry, and we have a public website (Cheshiremasons.co.uk) which men can use to contact
us. But membership is by no way automatic even now. Like any other club, social, sporting or otherwise, application for membership is a two-way street. An applicant has to be sure it is a club that suits him, and likewise the club committee assesses whether he will fit in well.”
Keeping it to ourselves – but nothing to hide
“We have nothing to hide,” the Cheshire masons’ leader insists. “However we want to keep parts of our rituals to ourselves out of respect to candidates who wish to become Freemasons. And even these are really no mystery these days, as every detail of ritual is easily found by Google, and on public view in books in the British Library in London.
“But we like to keep our rituals under a veil of mystery because it adds to the dramatic impact that a newcomer to masonry experiences when he joins and then progresses through a series of ceremonies after which he becomes a full member, known as a ‘Master Mason’.
“In fact our ritual merely involves learning by heart the words of a series of morality plays, constructed around the historic role of stone masons of old, who built grand buildings across the ages,” he added.
For in days of old, when certification of qualification and ability were unwritten, the only way a truly experienced stone mason could prove himself a time-served apprenticed craftsman was through membership of a club, or guild. Membership of the guild was proven by a handshake known only by fellow qualified craftsmen. Hence the masons’ special handshake that proves a fellow mason within their lodge ceremonies.
Continuing his theme of openness in Freemasonry, he insisted: “The perception that Freemasons pledge to look out for one another, that much is true. But not systematic ‘back scratching’ or covering up for each other.”
While promising to help a fellow mason or his family in distress, this pledge stresses in the same breath that a mason will emphatically not support or defend his fellow brethren in anything unlawful or detrimental to the common good.
The outdated obsession about keeping thing hidden among masons in the past has also proved to be counter-productive for the movement. Taught to be cautious and modest in their conduct in the course of their morality plays, they rarely spoke publicly of their generous donations to charity in their community – a sum exceeding £100 million nationally in recent times.
Few got to know about the generosity of the 200,000 strong national membership of ordinary men from all walks of life, which makes Freemasonry one of the largest donor to charity in Britain. During the last 12 months alone, the UGLE’s (United Grand Lodge of England) Masonic Charitable Foundation has provided over £14.2 million in support of Masonic families experiencing a financial, health or family need.
In the Province of Cheshire, 119 Freemasons or their family members have benefitted from a wide- range of support and services with grants amounting to £306,312. During the same period, it has also looked beyond Freemasonry and awarded over £4.7 million in financial grants to charities that help our communities, advance medical research and provide vital support services such as hospices and air ambulances.
So the millions of pounds a year raised by Freemasons out of their own pockets does not just go to fellow masons and their families in times of distress or hardship. Although a lot of it does, there is the reasonable maxim ‘charity begins at home.’
Such modesty and reticence deprived them of the ability to highlight such benefits and ‘privileges’ of being a mason – a vital recruitment factor ‘hidden beneath a bushel.’
Striving for a modern image relevant to today’s man
But now under the guiding light of grandfather seven-times-over Stephen Blank, Freemasonry in Cheshire is shedding its cloak of secrecy and striving to show how it is still particularly relevant to men of all ages in the 21st century.
Younger men often transient in the search for work, might feel a loss of friends back home and yearn for a way to find new friends, he felt. “Freemasonry offers them a way to meet people from all backgrounds, races and religions in a friendly social situation, and where discussion of politics and religion is forbidden,” he explained.
“Many Freemasons say the rituals and formality within our Masonic ceremonies help with their personal development in ways that translate in their work and family environments,” the PGM said.
He added: “Its successful appeal to younger men is illustrated in more recent times with the launch of the Universities Scheme Lodge in Cheshire, which has proved itself especially attractive to students at the University of Chester, who are now joining Freemasonry in large numbers each year.”
With life expectancy extending, together with a trend for early retirement or unexpected job loss, today’s maturing man can so often find himself at a loss, feeling isolated and no longer needed by family or work. Loneliness in older men has become a huge social issue
With this social mix in mind, Freemasonry has the potential to meet many of these needs of men, both young and old, looking to make new friends in new places; providing a point of being for those with so much life experience to share and give back to their community; offering a moral sense of purpose perhaps lost in today’s hectic existence; and possibly a lifeline for men feeling isolated and no longer needed.
For Stephen Blank, transferred from the Province of East Lancashire where he had significant roles as APGM and then DepGSupt to take charge in Cheshire, the challenge ahead to revive Freemasonry is one he is tackling from up front.
He has set himself to be the ‘face of Freemasonry’ in Cheshire so as to lead a concerted drive to raise greater awareness of how Freemasons support the community through a myriad of personal and charitable initiatives. In a move to blow away the perceived veil of secrecy over masonry, he is planning a ‘Masons meet the media’ day when Cheshire’s press and broadcasters will be invited to look inside the inner sanctum of a Masonic Temple.
This is the tranquil place with chequer-board floor, a room where legendary rituals of Masonic initiation take place with ceremonial regalia on show. He will also field a no-holds barred question and answer sessions with reporters and media types about the myths and misconceptions of masonry that abound in public.
Nationally, Sky TV will be kicking off the Freemason’s 300th anniversary year in late January with a four-part ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentary revealing the mysterious art of Freemasonry that has been hidden from the public for so long.
Meanwhile back in Cheshire, Man United fan and Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master Stephen Blank will be making it his business to meet up with civic, business and religious leaders throughout the county.
He intends to surprise them with the news that his Cheshire Freemasons will be handing out more than £500,000 next year to Cheshire charities such as hospices and community projects to celebrate
their 300th birthday as Britain’s most altruistic club. This is over and above grants made by Freemasons’ UGLE central charity.
In a final word, Stephen says: “These days we need to be loud and proud about being a Freemason. My role as Provincial Grand Master is out there for all to see on my Linked-In page on the internet. And I for one intend making a lot of noise about what we are doing, especially to celebrate our 300th anniversary year.”
Some of our ceremonies may sound a bit odd, but if that’s what it takes to foster a spirit of fellowship and generous giving in our community, it may be worth people taking a closer look at our body of unassuming men in our pinnies and lodges after all.