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Latest News and Blog Posts from Wayne “Pendragon” Owens.
BBW – Sams Cafe 2025
Sam’s Cafe have been hosting an annual event in aid of Blood Bikes for 4 years now, with a variety of fundraising events like a ride out, raffle, cakes, selling donated items, etc.
This year they raised an amazing ยฃ760 (๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต).
The crew at Sam’s Cafe have been supporting Blood Bikes Wales for many years now, so if you are passing by pop in and have a coffee, a bacon sandwich and say thanks to them for their continued support.
The Year of a Not so Busy Mason
Well the first month of the new Masonic Year/Season is now over. And as I posted before, I will not be running my “Year of a Busy Mason” this year because in theory I will not be as busy this year as I normally am due to the following.
- Quit Wynnstay Chapter (4 meetings, 4 rehearsals, 2 committee meetings a year),
- Quit Wrexhamian Lodge (8ย meetings, 8 rehearsals, 4 committee meetings) a year.
- Quit being the Assistant Provincial Grand Mentor in Craft and Royal Arch (Lots of work over the year).
- Quit being a member of the Provincial Pathway Team.
- Quit being a NWAMS committee memberย (Lots of work over the year).
- Stood down as Secretary of MLIM.
So that is at least 30 evenings a year (a whole month), not to mention all the other work. All to say, I will not be running my normal yearly meeting posts this year. Saying that. Month one of the new season so far has included.
- Committee Meeting = 2
- Rehearsals = 4
- SRIA Meetings = 2
- Rose Croix Meeting = 2
- Craft Meeting = 3
It is so good that I am not going to be busy this year.
Knights of the Pelican and Eagle
Tonight was the rescheduled meeting of Valle Crucis Chapter Rose Croix.
Recently we have had around ten joining members, and a load of new members that can not make the second Friday in September, so this year we temporary moved the meeting to the last Monday, and as of now we are moving it to some Monday in October. This is a bad since it took two hours to set up the rooms, and takes almost as long to put it all away. Normally this is fine when we meet on a Friday, as a small group go on the Saturday morning to put it all away before grabbing a pint in the pub. But meeting on a Monday with people working Tuesdays means it has to be put away the same night. So meeting, meal, toasts, and then when everyone is stuffed we need to put everything away late into the night. Well those who voted for the Monday meeting went home, or stayed in the bar drinking.ย
Other than that, it was a great evening, we had two new members to the order, and have at least four or five candidates waiting. So the Chapter is growing in strength. It will be nice to see where it gets too in a few more years of people joining.ย
Leaving Wrexhamian Lodge
I have been a member of Wrexhamian Lodge for twelve years, the first ten have been an enjoyable time. I Filled in for the Junior Warden a couple of times, the Senior Deacon,ย was the Lodge Mentor for five years, was the Lodge Representative to the NWAMS, wrote and managed their website, and even went through the chair.
Unfortunately the last two years of my membership has left me no better than a visitor (And occasionally worse than a visitor). The Lodge decided to start using WhatsApp for communication, which I do not use since my phone is used for work (WhatsApp itself states if you use your phone for work you can not use normal WhatsApp because it breaks GDPR) so I do not get the messages. I did not mind when it was just chat, social stuff, etc but they started doing all communications over WhatsApp.
So if they need to arrange what we are doing in the next few meetings, or get volunteers to do parts of the work, or even arrange a committee meeting it was only done over WhatsApp. So I (along with others) were excluded. This has led to the DC bringing his friends for his mother lodge along to do parts of ceremonies, and act as Wrexhamian Officers while there are multiple Lodge members sat watching and not being allowed to take part.
It got so bad that last year while I was at a meeting in the Province of Cheshire, a member of a Lodge told me he was visiting Wrexhamian’s next meeting to see the first degree tracing board, and he had heard about it from a member of a Lodge in a different Masonic Hall. That was the first I heard what we were doing, so I as a member of Wrexhamian was not told of what we were doing, but multiple other Lodges, in other provinces had been told.
When the issues of WhatsApp were brought up, and how multiple members of the Lodge were not getting any communications the DC (Who was only organising ceremonies and volunteers/officers on WhatsApp) stated it was nothing to do with him, he was not doing it, and the Secretary stated “I am too Important and busy to send multiple communications out, its just easier to post on WhatsApp so tough if you don’t get anything just ask people if they have received any news”
So after twelve years, this evening I handed in my resignation. I can not justify paying hundreds of pounds to be a member of a Lodge where visitors get more communication and participation.
WhatsApp is a very handy tool for the members to keep in touch with each other, and interact and keep the social aspect alive, BUT when it is used as the official communication method it is harming Lodges. I have seen it cause issue in multiple units in several orders.ย
Moving to the Backbenches
This evening was the Installation meeting of the Maesgwyn Lodge of Installed Masters, and my last night as the Secretary. It will be the last time I sit in the North with all the notes and information needed for the night to go smoothly.
It does mean I have less say on the speakers and talks we book, but since some people who have not attended in years are looking to turn it into a daytime dining Lodge, I will probably be missing the meetings anyway.
Being Secretary of this Lodge was my last role in any Craft Lodge, since I have already stood down as Lodge Mentor, Assistant Provincial Grand Mentor, Provincial Pathway Team Member, and so on. I am now free to just sit on the back benches and enjoy the meetings I want to attend.ย
Coronatio Quadrans – “Ye Sons of the Widow”
Coronation Lodge No. 2927 has a quarterly Masonic Publication associated with it called Coronatio Quadrans, or CQ for short.
One part of the publication is “Question from the Master” This is where the Lodge’s Worshipful Master asks a esoteric or masonic question to the Lodge Mentor who will answer it in an article in the next edition. After the Mentor answers the question, the “Question” is thrown open to all, and anyone can try and answer it themselves anonymously. The CQ Editors will read all the submissions and pick the best which gets published in CQ.
The Question in the last edition of CQ was “To what extent are Masonic rituals Theurgic Rites?” The question intrigued me, so I decided to enter the competition again. I won, and my prize again was to write a paper on a topic of my own choosing.
The topic I selected was “Ye Sons of the Widow” which is my attempt to answer the question โwhy do Freemasons get called the Sons of the Widow or Widows sonsโ
I first asked myself this question when I needed to wrote a short paper as part of the LOLS paper writing challenge during Lockdown.
Three Meetings, Three Orders, Three Days
Over the last three days (M-T-W) I have been out at three different meetings, and oddly of three different orders. If you add this to the two installation meetings, of two orders, over two days (F-S) that I just had, it makes me query my belief that this year will be a lot quieter than any over the last decade, and so to not do the Year of a Busy Mason this year.
Monday (Craft)
Monday evening was the rehearsals for the Installation meeting of the Maesgwyn Lodge of Installed Masters. Any time we have to do ritual with the Installed masters it is a laugh because the members are all past masters, and come from a collection of different lodges. This melting pot of members has the interesting side affect that everyone’s ritual is slightly different, and of course everyone thinks they are doing it the correct way. It makes it interesting for the DC.
Luckily I am but the Secretary, so I just have to organise the event and sort out all the paperwork. I get to stand back and ignore the ritual stuff.
Tuesday (S.R.I.A.)
Tuesday was the meeting of Bishop Wilkins College Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.) which was held over the border in England. Again I was the Secretary so had the paperwork and administration to sort out. I also stood in on the evening as the Celebrant (master). We had a grade four ceremony and a paper. Then to thank my hard work I had an extra pie during the festive board, since a couple of people had to drop out at the last minute and the catering staff brought out the spare pies for us to share.
Wednesday (Royal Arch)
Wednesday was a short notice extra month early rehearsal meeting for Wrexhamian Chapter, along with a committee meeting. The committee meeting made sense, but the rehearsal was a bit pointless since two of the three principles had not even looked at the work yet since the meeting is a month away, and the incoming J has not looked either. Plus they were not going to rehearse the inner workings. So I am not sure why it was called as a rehearsal and not just a committee meeting. We did head to the pub after for a few drinks.
SRIA Certificates and Ceremonies
This evening was the meeting of Bishop Wilkins College.
I am the Secretary (and Director of Studies)ย of Bishop Wilkins, and due to the Celebrant not being able to make the meeting I also stood in for him.ย This did lead to some comedy gold where I (wearing Celebrants hat) would ask me (wearing Secretary’s hat) things such as minutes, etc.
Being in this strange double roll did have one unexpected treat. We had a load of certificates to hand out, so I requested the Chief Adept to present them, and I read out their names so they could go and receive their certificates. After the last one was being taken back to his seat, I sat down and the Chief Adept sat down. I then acted surprised, and stood back up “ooops. Sorry I missed one!” I then looked at the DC and asked could he collect…. And I named the Chief Adept. Who on hearing his own name looked extremely shocked and confused.ย
I then had the pleasure of presenting the Chief Adepts Certificate to the Chief Adept at his mother college.
Pictured below is the Chief Adept along with members of the Third Order who were present at the meeting.
We also had an enjoyable rest of the meeting with a Grade IVยบ ceremony, and the candidate afterwards presented his first paper which was interesting and led to many questions.
I will not mention that the top table got extra pie’s with their meals due to a couple of no shows. So overall it was a great evening.
Are we a third world country?
The heating in my place is via storage heaters. So they heat up over night on cheap electricity and then discharge the heat over the day. To do this they are all wired into a separate fuse board that only becomes live when the meter switches to over night mode.
For those not familiar with the UKs system, think of the meter as having one incoming feed, and two outgoing. One outgoing is live 24hours a day, the other turns on at a set time, and then off again. This switching is all done automatically.
OR….. It used to be done automatically, it has not been working for a few days. I did not spot when it stopped working because it is not the cold yet so I only had the one heater on. When I spotted that heater not working, I tested it, and then turned some others on to check. All remained cold the following day.
Ergo, theย meter is not turning the second feed on, so must be broken. Sever calls to the Power Supplier who just kept suggesting I hire an electrician to come check the heater, until I could get them to understand the issue is on their part of the system. And they agreed to send out an engineer.
The engineer turned up and said I needed a smart meter, I said No. I did not want spyware in my house. It was then that I found out that the original plan was for all normal meters to be turned off last June, and they needed to be replaced. If you want access to cheap overnight power you needed a smart meter, if you were happy for the same price 24 hours a day you could have a dumb one (but they had no dumb ones anyway).
It was while chatting to the engineer that I discovered the reason for the change was (and I am still in shock). The UK meters are controlled by radio waves from radio stations. They play a sequence of beeps at a set time to turn the overnight on, and then off again. And since UK radio stations are all going digital the signal is going. The government has pushed it back a bit from the June deadline since a large number of the UK still runs off radio waves.
All our technology and we need Radio 4 to control our meters… Madness
The engineer sorted the meter swap so heating worked again, and it only took him 2.5hours to do what I calculate as a 30 minute job (And that 30 includes a coffee break).
Two Installations in Two Days
The season has really started with a vengeance. In the last two days I have attended two installations (Technically one was an enthronement).
Installation one.
On Friday evening Robert Lomas invited me to visit Mold Lodge’s Installation. I normally can not make this meeting because the second Friday in September is the meeting of Valle Crucis Chapter, but this year we have moved our Chapter meeting and I was available. I enjoy visiting Mold Lodge, the Lodge room has lots of interesting artifacts, and the people are very friendly. I believe there were over 40 people in attendance, the ceremony was good and the conversation at the festive board was enjoyable.
Alas I did not win the raffle, the Goddess of Luck and Raffles still hates me. I had a strip of numbers 140 to 144. The winning numbers were 139 and 145. I swear she is now openly mocking me.
Enthronement two.
After getting home late Friday evening, I was back up and suited early Saturday morning to head out to Rhyl for the Enthronement meeting of Rhodri Fawr Rose Croix Chapter. This was another enjoyable meeting. I like Rhodri Fawr because it is the Past Sovereign Chapter, and so the members come from all over North Wales, this means you get to see people you do not see very often.
Again the meal was excellent, but then both Masonic Halls have the same caterer and Ian never fails to provide.
As an aside, I realise I have meeting coming up on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of this coming week, then Monday, Tuesday, Friday of the following. And I am not doing the Year of a Busy Mason this year due to not being so busy.