Provincial Grand Lodge of Valencia

On 17th November 2018 Old Tower Lodge No 49 held their annual Ladies Festival at Las Ramblas Golf Resort Restaurant. 121 Masons, guests, family and friends, some who had travelled from the UK, attended to support WM Paul Burletson and his Lady June.
The evening started with a Cava and Canapé reception followed by a fabulous meal of homemade bread and ali oli, prawn cocktail with avocado and tobiko roe, serrano ham and manchego cheese, Las Ramblas salad, tomato & mozzarella cheese, beef entrecote with Maldon salt and Béarnaise sauce, cheese, biscuits & Port. For those with a sweet tooth there was a sweetie table with all the old-fashioned favourite sweets.
WM Steve Cardwell did an exceptional job as Toast Master for the evening and many toasts were taken with Masons and guests. The Ladies Song was sung beautifully by RWBro Jeff Hyde, who had lost his voice a week before, but luckily recovered a couple of days prior to the event.
The WM presented his Lady with a Pandora bracelet and bouquet of flowers from Old Tower Lodge.

Once the formalities were concluded, the WM and his Lady led the dancing with a slow dance to Unchained Melody sung by their entertainer for the evening, Sandy Fitz.
Special thanks to VWBro Rodney Bignell and his wife Jeannette for helping organise this successful event and Wendy Porter for taking the photographs.

The Freemasons of Arenal Deportiva Lodge recently held a Banner Dedication Ceremony in their Lodge in Javea. This is quite an unusual ceremony as it is usually only held when a new Lodge is created. The reason for Arenal Deportiva holding one however, is because two years ago the two Lodges, Arenal and Deportiva decided to merge into one. For this reason, a new banner was thought necessary showing details of both Lodges.

The ceremony was presented by the Provincial Grand Master of Valencia RWBro Michael Shilan and many Masons attended to see a ceremony which many had never seen before. The Provincial Grand Master arrived in full splendour with his escort, consisting of the Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies, the Provincial Grand Standard Bearer, the Provincial Grand Sword Bearer, the Provincial Grand Chaplain and six Provincial Grand Stewards.

After a brief prayer the Provincial Grand Master unveiled the new banner and dedicated it to the new combined Lodge. The banner was then paraded around the Lodge. The Provincial Grand Chaplain made a short presentation on the use of banners generally and of Masonic banners in particular. WBro Brian Imber, who designed the new banner, then gave a short speech explaining the symbolism and meaning of the various details on the banner.

It was fitting that the previous Provincial Grand Master RWBro Norman Wheatley was at the ceremony as he had conducted the Ceremony of Amalgamation two years previously. It is also quite unusual to have both the past and present Provincial Grand Masters at the same ceremony, particularly one in which both had played such an important part. This was a splendid and unusual ceremony which all present enjoyed enormously.

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.

On Saturday, 20th October, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Valencia, held their annual Ladies Night at the Hotel Grand Bali, in Benidorm. This is one of the most prestigious Masonic gatherings of the year, held by the Province and run under the auspices of the Provincial Grand Master, RWBro Michael Shilan and his lovely wife Muriel.

It is a time when Freemasons from all over the Province gather together to pay tribute to, and say thank-you to, their long- suffering wives. Throughout the Masonic year most Freemasons attend an enormous number of meetings and many charity functions to raise money for the less privileged and deserving causes. Throughout the year our wives have a lot to put up with. Either through not seeing their husbands for a sufficient amount of time or being asked to help out at various functions.

In general, our wives do so without thought or complaint, sometimes at a huge cost to themselves and always taking valuable time and effort. This meeting is our way of saying thank-you for all their help and support. I think most Masons would agree that without the constant support of their better halves they would not be able to do as much, or enjoy their Masonic tasks to the same extent.
The meeting opened at 1815, with a cava and canape selection. Later at 1915 a four-course meal was taken by all. Music was supplied, in the first instance, by the ever-popular WBro Ian Henry who played and sang a huge variety of music in his usual excellent manner. Later, local group, Black Glitter, took over and played many songs designed to entice the by now replete diners onto the dance floor. They succeeded!

For the slightly more formal aspects of the evening, the Master of Ceremonies, WBro Clifford Gingell, presided over the proceedings with his usual style. The loyal toast to HM King Felipe VI was given by RWBro Michael Shilan, the toast to the Ladies was given by WBro William Russell in his inimitable style and the Ladies song was rendered in excellent manner despite the singer, RWBro Jeff Hyde, having an awful cold. Mrs Muriel Shilan then responded to the toast with an eloquent and witty speech which was appreciated and enjoyed by all, particularly the Ladies.

A grand charity raffle was held which raised the magnificent sum of one thousand five hundred and eighty euros. This money, along with other monies raised throughout the year, will be used, by the Province, to sponsor under-privileged children to go to a summer school in Guadalest. This has now become an annual event having been supported for the last four years. Each year we have managed to support more children than the last and this year we managed to sponsor a record forty-two children to visit the school and for the coming year we hope to beat the record yet again. This was an immensely successful evening and I believe most of the Masons, Ladies and guests thoroughly enjoyed it.

John said that he and his wife Denise chose A.F.A. as his charity for my year as Master of Old Tower Lodge as it is a organisation close to our hearts, having watched my mother suffer with this illness many years ago.

During my year we raised money for this well deserving charity by arranging various money raising functions  including Denise’s Ladies Night which was extremely well supported. As a result I have been able to donate just under 2.200 euro’s to the A.F.A in Torrevieja. This has enabled them to purchase 15 high back chairs for their patients comfort and 2 new I Pads to improve their technical capabilities.