St Blane Royal Arch Chapter No 163 brought Paul McIlroy over on 19 August 2017 for us to put him through his Royal Arch Degree. This was a great honour for 893; it’s the first time we’ve had the opportunity of putting a candidate from another Chapter through a degree either in our own Chapter or elsewhere.
I won’t say the sun shone on our proceedings. In fact, as the ferry came in with our companions aboard at 10:45, you could barely see her through the rain! It didn’t dampen proceedings, although it did dampen a few jackets.
The meeting started at 1 p.m. and, as it was our business meeting, we had the nomination of office bearers for the coming year with the installation taking place on 19 September. Cams Campbell was nominated as First Principal, Andrew Martin as Second and Colin Daniel as Third. Our Treasurer, Tim Keen, gave us a presentation of the accounts and then it was onto the business of the day, the exaltation of Paul McIlroy.
I’m pleased to say that the degree went well and was enjoyed by all the Companions present. Thanks are due as always to the companions who stepped in to fill vacant offices. It was particularly nice to have two companions from St Blane Royal Arch Chapter No 163 step into offices that were involved in the degree work, including our own Provincial Grand Superintendent A. Iain Morrison. Special thanks also to Murray Hunter for taking care of the visitors as they arrived by seeing to the tea and taking care of the raffle after the meeting. And let’s not forget Donald Galbraith, our own Director of Ceremonies for supplying harmony food and taking on the office of Janitor for the day.
Our next meeting is our installation on 19 September at 1 p.m.
