L to R: Deputy PGM Bill Glanville, PGM David Chambers, Speaker Paul Renton and Mess President Alan Brundall

The Grand Officer's Mess held on Friday 27 September at Duncombe Place, York heard a most interesting presentation by Excellent Companion Paul Renton, PGSwdB, entitled "Archway and beyond".

EComp Renton is the Chair of the Royal Arch Membership and Communications working party.

EComp Alan Brundall, Mess President, writes:

The Royal Arch is termed “The Climax of Freemasonry” and “The Foundation and Keystone of the whole of the Masonic Structure”;  “The Root, Heart and Marrow of Masonry”
And it is described as “More August, Sublime, and important than any other degrees which precede it”; “The Summit and Perfection of Ancient Masonry”

The English Royal Arch adopted as its legend the Rebuilding of the Temple, whereas the Irish based their legend on the Repairing of the Temple.

In the English legend we have as the three chief officers, Zerubbabel, Haggai and Joshua; whereas in the Irish legend the three Officers or Principals, have completely different names.
Scotland and America took the Royal Arch legend from England, but America borrowed the names of the principals from Ireland. And is therefore working the English legend, but with principals different in name from those that we know. This is not to say that the American and Scottish Systems are the same as the English. They are not. In Ireland there is a sequence of three grades: Excellent, Super Excellent, and the Royal Arch. In America there is a sequence of four grades: Mark Mason, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and the Royal Arch.  In Scotland the same system is followed as in England, where a Brother who has been raised to the Third Degree in Craft Masonry is eligible for the Royal Arch.

The point I am trying to make – is the English, of course, have never been a logical and systematically regimented race. and our present “system” is really no system at all.

In the 1700’s the Royal Arch Degree was confined to Masters and Past Masters, an arrangement which restricted the number of eligible candidates.

I was in the Chair of my Craft Lodge in 1978-79 and I joined the Royal Arch in 1980 for the Royal Arch was then really a PM Order. You could not proceed through the Chair of the RA until you had been through the Chair of a Craft Lodge. In 2003, the UGL of England acknowledged and pronounced the status of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch to be “an extension to, but neither a superior nor a subordinate part of, the Degrees which precede it.”

This was designed to acknowledge the RA as an important “extension” to the Craft in a way that will allow it a greater flexibility in administrative matters. The ratification of the Strategic Working Party on the Royal Arch Report by SGC on November 19th 2004, made several changes. The aim of the report was to widen the appeal of the Royal Arch and make it more accessible. Nobody could quarrel with the basic aim - of more involvement of all Companions. To put it more simply – to make the Royal Arch FUN and leave companions looking forward to their next meeting. Amongst the changes, the requirement that a candidate for the Third Principal’s Chair must be an Installed Master was removed – and a new password introduced. However, it was recommended that the practice of electing Installed Masters to the principals’ Chairs should continue to be the norm.

In London there is now a real determination at all levels to promote the “indissoluble link” created more than 200 years ago, between the Craft and the Royal Arch and to communicate the many ways in which the Order enriches our experience of Craft Masonry. In the Autumn issue of FMT, in 2020, I wrote a letter to the Editor – which to my surprise they printed – in which I said:
“Will the day come when a candidate for Freemasonry is Initiated, Passed, Raised and Exalted, and then one grand certificate is issued for the candidate’s complete journey of Pure Ancient Freemasonry?” Listening to our speaker this evening perhaps that day is now not too far away.

Alan Brundall
President of the Grand Officers’ Mess Yorkshire North and East Ridings