Page 22 - EM-Issue-90

Provincial Almoner

The Almoners Corner

This time last year I opened up with a few words from the book of Hebrews:
“Let brotherly love continue, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
remember those who are in dark places as though you were there yourself,
remember those who are being mistreated as if you were also being mistreated,
give to others what you can afford and be content with what you have”
I was not to know at that time just how relevant these words were to be in the last year and I
make no apology for reminding you of the words again.
I do hope that you will find this Almoners Corner useful with a compilation of what we have
worked at doing last year, as well as a bit about the future.

The Future with a new PGA
Over the holiday period I have informed the Dep. Prov. Grand Master in Charge, Paul Reeves, that I will not be accepting
his kind invitation to me to remain in office for the next 12 months.
The role as I have carried it out, has been full time, it has been immensely satisfying and rewarding and all made possible
by the friendship and support generated with Lodge Almoners and in particular with the Provincial Almoners team. I
thank you all for this and for all the great work you are doing.
Social Welfare Work – Our New Approach
I reported last year that we were working on trying to improve the interaction that our widows without a lodge have with
the masonic community. Loneliness is one of the terrors of our modern life and as we live longer so
the problems worsen. Social Isolation usually affects the elderly but not always and many young and
middle-aged people can be affected.
Loneliness often leads to other illnesses, bad lifestyles, poor eating and little or no exercise. As a
result, serious ill health is often the outcome and so we have been, and continue to be, very keen
to make a difference in this work.
To continue our efforts in tackling this, Gary Neilson, Social Welfare Officer, has been helping our
widows who are not attached to a lodge and who live in or outside the Province, to try and become formally adopted
with a lodge that is near to where they live; this way they will be able to integrate more with lodge social activities.

The outcome has been that out of 98 unattached widows who live in the Province 47 have been adopted with 23 not
wanting to move, leaving 28 widows for us to look after. My thanks to all the lodges who have supported this scheme
and who have adopted a widow.

Out of the 25 widows who live out of the Province, we have got 23 adopted and 2 have sadly passed away. I am very
grateful to the other Provinces involved for their support of the scheme.
Gary Neilson can be contacted on 07786 151587 if you have ideas to help him and he will be continuing with this work
in 2021.

An Update on the Role of the Lodge Almoner
Over the past year I produced a paper about the current role of the lodge almoner; it was then distributed to all almoners
and secretaries in the autumn from the Provincial Office.
The paper received a lot of positive feedback and especially because it gives advice to lodges about
succession planning in this role. If anybody requires further copies please contact me: nick@nickclarke.
f9.co.uk
In 2021 it is hoped that the MCF in conjunction with UGLE will be reissuing an updated National Almoners
Guide and this will be distributed via UGLE.

Provincial Grand Almoner

W.Bro Nick Clarke PAGDC nick@nickclarke.f9.co.uk
22