300th anniversary of the Freemasons

2017 marks the 300th anniversary of the Freemasons in this country. That makes Freemasonry older than the American Republic. George Washington, the first President of the USA, was a Freemason.

To coincide with the anniversary there was a five part documentary on Sky TV giving an insight into the ancient rituals and practices of the this band of brothers.
300th anniversary of  the Freemasons
To mark the anniversary the three different Abingdon Freemasonary lodges joined together for an outreach event on the Market Place today. A lodge is the basic organisational unit, and the three Abingdon Lodges are:
* Abbey Lodge
* St Edmund Lodge
* St Swithun’s Lodge

They had a sign the read ‘Don’t wait to be asked’, and were there to tell people more about themselves, and why they had joined. They told me that they do a lot for charity, not collecting from the general public but raising money through their own events. One recent event was a charity horse racing night. One charity they currently support is the Abingdon Bridge who offer help for Abingdon young people living through difficult circumstance.

At the end of the day they had met eleven people who expressed an interest in finding out more, and met with a large number of people.

I was also asked  to mention an upcoming concert in aid of the Abingdon Bridge. It can be found at https://www.abingdon.org.uk/future_events on November 3rd. The Abingdon School Big Band will perform,  and be joined by Joe Stilgoe, an internationally acclaimed singer, pianist and song writer.

7 thoughts on “300th anniversary of the Freemasons

  1. Badger

    pjh64 – Probably a thought that many people have, the only way to find out for sure would be to get to know them better by meeting and talking to them. I should add that I’m not one of their members but have some small knowledge of their actions as a relation was a member years ago.

    Reply
  2. CaptainOX14

    it’s all good fun. used to be a member of the Henley lodge for many years, had to leave for personal reasons. Its all pomp, ceremony and charitable fund raising…surprisingly little Devil worship or New World Order stuff.

    Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met were masons

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