W Bro John Harper is the Lodge Mentor for Ashley Hill. Here he writes about mentoring at Ashley Hill, and what it means for the Craft.

Freemasonry inevitably appears rather complicated and esoteric to the new mason and he is immersed, from his first experiences, in unfamiliar terms and actions which mean very little without explanation.

To remedy this deficiency – not on the part of the innocent Initiate, but in the organisation he has joined – a movement started in the earlier part of this decade which is termed Mentoring. The concept, simply put, is to ‘inform’, by an orderly progression, aspects of Freemasonry which might defeat the most intellectual or enquiring of minds – unless guided. Too many masons were feeling isolated or neglected by this exclusion, but were given little advice for enlightenment.

Berkshire Province, under the leadership of our present Deputy Provincial Grand Master, VW Bro Martin Peters, was an earlier player in the field, and held instructional classes for every lodge’s newly- appointed Mentor, under whose guidance programmes have been developed in each Lodge.

In Ashley Hill, the undertaking of this task was put in the hands of W Bro John Harper, who had long held the view that more had to be done to assist the new mason in his baptism of fire, which included much which was incomprehensible not only to Initiates but, indeed, Fellowcrafts and Master Masons. Personal Mentors were appointed for each new mason, to put sense into the masonic ‘fog’.
Supplementary lodge booklets have been developed and it is believed that, in partnership with each Initiate’s proposer, real progress has been made in making the principles and practices of Freemasonry more immediately clear.

The feedback clearly indicates that the policies have been successful.

W Bro John Harper

The new Masonic year starts in September, with Ashley Hill promptly meeting on Tuesday 1st September. Ashley Hill meets on the first Tuesday of September, November, February, April and June.

The meeting will be an initiation of a new member.

We hope you are looking forward to the new Masonic year as much as you are. If you are a member of the Craft and would be interested in attending any of our meetings, please go to the Contact section of this website to get in touch.

Some additions have been made to the Ashley Hill website. The first feature you probably will have noticed are the ‘News Tags’ floating on the right. Each article posted on this website is now ‘tagged’ with specific key words. These key words float gracefully on the right. The bolder and larger the word, the more often it has been a tag. To read any article(s) tagged with a certain word, simply click the word on the right.

Photos of the Berkshire Masonic Centre have also been added here. New software allows for you to enlarge photos, or view a slideshow, without leaving your browser. Please click here to see this new photo gallery. We hope it will be the first of many, as new media is added to the site over the coming weeks and months.

Stay tuned for more updates and additions to the Ashley Hill website. There is more in the pipeline, including a version of this website for the iPhone and Blackberry…

Do not hesitate to get in touch with any queries, feedback or suggestions you may have.

Ashley Hill is currently in the fortunate position of having two candidates for Initiation, as well as other work to undertake.

In view of this it has been arranged for Enborne Lodge 7906 to carry out a Ceremony of Passing on our behalf at their regular meeting on Tuesday 21st July at Pangbourne Temple.