Recently, Freemasons of Oliva La Safor Lodge celebrated their one hundredth meeting. This was a major milestone for the Lodge and, amazingly, two of the Lodge’s founding Brethren, WBro John Mony and WBro Derek Moseley, were there to celebrate this very special meeting. The meeting was held in Viva España restaurant in Oliva and was a ceremony to raise Bro Robert Monte to the third degree.
The ceremony was conducted in an exemplary fashion by the Worshipful Master of the Lodge, WBro Malcolm Burt and all of his Officers and, to further celebrate, the Lodge was honoured by two very special guests. The first being the Provincial Grand Master of Valencia, RWBro Michael Shilan, the other was no less than the Grand Master of Spain, MWBro Oscar de Alfonso Ortega.
Both of these honoured guests were very pleased to be invited along to take part in what was to be a very special evening. It is unusual to have one such high-ranking Officer to attend a meeting and extremely unusual to have two, the first being the highest-ranking Mason in Valencia, the other being the highest-ranking Mason in Spain.
We were particularly lucky to receive a visit from the Grand Master as, only the day before, he had returned from Central America where he had been visiting several countries as the Grand Masonic representative of Spain. Despite being exhausted from his journeys and a twelve-hour flight home he still made time to come and visit the Lodge.
The Grand Master was welcomed with full honours and enjoyed, not only the ceremony itself, but also the Festive Board dinner served afterwards. He stated that he felt Oliva La Safor Lodge to be one of the best in the Province and hoped he might be invited back in the future. A charity raffle was held which raised two hundred and fifty euros which, with other monies raised, will be presented to a local charity in the future. A very special evening which everyone enjoyed immensely. Special thanks must be offered to the Provincial Grand Master and the Grand Master for giving up their valuable time.