To All Knight Priests
April 2012
Dear Knight Priest
INTRODUCTION TO OUR CENTENARY PILLAR FUND
I send to every member of our Order my best wishes and greetings and those of the Deputy Grand High Priest and Assistant Grand High Priests.
It is with pleasure that I introduce to you and launch our Centenary Pillar Fund. As you are aware, our Order in its present form as a Sovereign Masonic Body was founded in 1924 and our Centenary will soon be with us. As you are also aware, due to various factors, we recently took the opportunity to terminate the lease we had on offices at Castlegate House which had been our home for around ten years and move to other accommodation in York.
In order to celebrate the Centenary of our Order by the procurement of our own premises as Headquarters for our Order, it has been decided to set up a special fund to this end. It is envisaged that these premises would house the administration of our Order, including all Committee and Council Meetings, a Museum and it has been suggested that there be space for Tabernacle meetings to take place with a refectory.
A number of levels of qualification of contributors to the Fund are proposed as follows which show qualifying accrued payments.
Individual Members Tabernacles (individual equivalent) District
Green £100.00 £70 per member }
Sky Blue £150.00 £100 per member } as per
Grey £400.00 £275 per member } Tabernacles
Royal Blue £750.00 £500 per member }
Consideration may be made in future for further Colour Awards.
A certificate acknowledging the level of contribution will be sent to the Knight Priest concerned at their home address. On qualifying as a Green contributor, a newly designed lapel pin will be awarded. When a Tabernacle attains the first level of contribution, a collarette and jewel for that level will be issued which is to be worn by the High Priest and passed to his successor. On subsequently reaching a higher level, a different coloured collarette will be issued.
Contributions to the Fund can be made at any time, either as one-off payments, or by regular standing order, for which an appropriate mandate is enclosed. Knight Priests who are members of more than one Tabernacle should designate which Tabernacle they wish their contributions to support. As the Fund cannot be registered as a charity, Grand College is unable to utilise “Gift-aid”. Tabernacles do not need to rely solely on the members individual contributions to reach a qualifying level. For example, if a Tabernacle has 20 members, there needs to be contributions of £1400 for it to be a “Green” Tabernacle. This could be reached by 1 member at Sky Blue, 4 at Green, 7 members having contributed £50 each (halfway to individual Green) and £500 from the Tabernacle funds.
To facilitate the operation of the fund, it is recommended that each Tabernacle appoints a Centenary Pillar Fund Representative (who may be the Treasurer) to encourage members to play their part in donating to the Fund. They should ensure that any ad-hoc donations received at Tabernacle meetings are forwarded to the Administrator at York who will keep appropriate records to ensure the certificates and Jewels are issued on reaching the qualifications. To assist in keeping those records, details of any standing orders (amount and frequency only) should be sent to the Deputy Grand Recorder either by post or to .
Supported by my Deputy and Assistants, I believe that this fund is worthy of a contribution from every member of our Order. If members individually and Tabernacles collectively promote the Fund, then they will play an important part in celebrating the Centenary in securing a permanent home for our Order.
Yours sincerely and fraternally
E P Donnison
Ernest Peter Donnison
Grand High Priest