It’s 3:00pm – Wednesday 4th September and the Ramsgate Masonic Centre is being carefully prepared to welcome some special guests. Banners are being strategically placed, those with talking parts are rehearsing their lines and Just-Ask-One cards are being cunningly added to the place settings at the dining table.
Royal Navy Lodge 429 have had a long affiliation with the Round Table organisation and we reached out to the Margate branch to invite them to our centre for a chance to learn a little bit about Freemasonry and to take a tour of our wonderful Lodge Room.
The Lodge Membership Team at Royal Navy are always looking for new ways to drive social engagement and to widen our reach across our local community. Inviting Margate Round Table to our centre is something that had been in the planning stage for some time and September 4th was the date that finally suited both diaries.
For those who are unfamiliar with Round Table, it is a service organisation with many ideals that run parallel to our own – camaraderie, charity and the desire to socialise with like-minded people are very much the backbone of Round Table. It is a “young man’s” club: Men between the ages of 18 – 44 years are welcome to join, but you must leave Round Table when you reach 45 years of age.
Three of of Royal Navy Lodge’s members are also past members of Round Table (difficult to believe given the youthful looks) and still maintain contact with the current members of Margate Round Table. We have supported them at some of their social functions and likewise in their charitable aims.
The visit to Royal Navy 429 has now cemented the bond between our respective units and we are committed to writing mutual events into our calendars. I’m not sure that we can muster a beach volleyball team, but we’re reasonably certain that we can hold our own if ever challenged to bowling, or golf?
Whilst we have zero intention – or desire – to “pickpocket” their members, it remains that at 45 years of age the current members of Round Table need to make a choice. There is (within the Round Table family) an after-club that newly exited Round Tablers are invited to join, however they might look to try something new? We hope that by offering them a glimpse of what Freemasonry has to offer, we may be able to welcome one or two into our ancient and honourable institution?
Margate Round Table Chairman offers thanks to Royal Navy 429
I know that I can speak for us all when I say that we thoroughly enjoyed hosting Margate Round Table, and reciprocally, the overwhelming appreciation from our guests for the efforts made by the Brethren of Royal Navy were warmly received. This was unarguably a great and memorable night filled with warmth, fun and harmony. If I had to offer one takeaway from our event, it would be that we needn’t necessarily be members of the same club, in order to be brothers.
The post RN429 Opens its doors to Margate Round Table appeared first on Royal Navy Lodge No. 429.