An account of the events leading up to and during, a forced Period of suspension of normal Masonic activity due to the ‘Covid – 19’ Pandemic commencing on 17th March 2020.
Following the normal events of Christmas 2019 and New Year we were all looking forward to shaking off the turkey and champagne and returning in 2020 to our usual further two meetings, including a meeting in January and our installation meeting on the fourth Saturday in March.
In January, we were treated to another superb lecture by W.Bro. Ray Hudson who expanded on various aspects of the Third Degree and, after a long period of demonstration ceremonies, the announcement of a new candidate for initiation.
In order to bring our new candidate in as soon as possible, and the fact that it was not possible to hold an additional meeting ahead of the normal March Installation date, it was decided to dedicate the March meeting to both Installation and an Initiation.
At the Lodges of Instruction held in January and February 2020 the work required to hold the March meeting in this format was discussed and practiced and the ‘dining list’ started to grow including visitors from various other Lodges who had attended our Installation meetings in the past.
Whilst all this planning was in motion however a storm was brewing in China which was to quickly lead to a major world event not seen on this scale since the two world wars in 1914 and 1939 and the ‘Spanish Flu’ Pandemic of 1919.
In Late February 2020 events started to unfold of another major outbreak of a new ‘Flu-Type’ virus later known as ‘Covid-19’ emanating from the town of Wuhan in Central China. This virus quickly spread amongst the peoples of Wuhan causing the Chinese Authorities to completely ‘Lock-down’ the town in an attempt to contain the virus. However, it appeared that this was too late, as the virus broke out in various other parts of the world which again quickly spread and later became a serious pandemic.
Early attempts by various Governments around the world failed to stop the relentless march of the virus which was termed at the time as ‘a new kid on the block’ by Scientists and Health Experts worldwide and by the beginning of March it was evident that a major, but little known pandemic was at large!
On March 17th, 2020, The Grand Master sent advice to the Masonic Community as a whole that all Masonic activity would cease for a period of four months as a direct result of the ‘Covid-19’ Pandemic.
This unprecedented action, not seen since the Second World War, caused a sudden halt to all our, and many others plans for the foreseeable future and we have set out below a ‘timeline’ of events that then unfolded from the 17th March 2020 together with a section dedicated to the Lodge Members own personal accounts of their experiences.
This period became known as the ‘Lock-down’ period in general and the ‘In Suspension’ period relating to Masonic activity.
TIMELINE of EVENTS
| Date | Description of events |
|---|---|
| 17th March 2020 | Notice by The Grand Master that all Masonic Activity ‘Suspended’ for a period of four months. |