Freemasons New Zealand – ANZAC Day Media Release
April 23, 2020Covid-19 and the Financial Outlook
May 6, 2020
130 Years of The Grand Lodge of New Zealand
The Grand Lodge of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons of New Zealand was constituted on 29th April 1890 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The next day the first Grand Master Most Worshipful Brother Henry Thomson of our Grand Lodge was installed at the first Grand Installation.
Our 130th Anniversary will go down in history as the year of the ‘Covid-19 Pandemic’ and one of the few years in our long New Zealand masonic history (which stretches back to 1837), where masonic lodge meetings were suspended for a period of time (late March through to end of May 2020). Although we did meet with ‘virtual masonic gatherings’ using various social media Apps throughout the country.
New Zealand faced a similar situation about 100 years ago with the ‘Flu Pandemic’ just towards the end of World War 1, which killed over 20 million around the world then, but we hope because of today’s measures will not do the same this time around.
Our Installation and Degree Ceremonial and other masonic activities will be tightly fitted into the latter half of 2020 with health and safety restrictions on social distancing, hand hygiene, large gatherings and responsibility towards our more vulnerable members.
In those 130 years, our principles and learning’s have helped thousands of New Zealand men to become better within themselves. The effects of this have flowed on to their partners, families and the New Zealand community through the demonstration of our core values: integrity, charity and goodwill.
We look forward too many more years of being part of our communities, developing ourselves, and those around us. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of our organisation and continues to be.
Some interesting information can be found in past issues of the New Zealand Freemason magazine online at www.issuu.com/fmnz especially from December 2015 until March 2016. Also go to your Divisional Websites www.themasons.org.nz/ndiv or cdiv or sdiv as a lot of history is contained in the back issues of the forerunners of the New Zealand Freemason magazine.
