TAMWORTH

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Lodge Fidélité et Prudence, which is in Geneva, it’s a big mistery, even today, June 2012 to which Gavel is in
Geneva
Roger moved to Belgium10 years ago from Adelaide, Australia. In regard to your missing gavel a “hurry up”
message has been sent to our Grand Lodge Office who has promised to contact the four Belgian lodges you
mentioned previously. If you get any replies in the next week or so please let me know. I’m afraid Belgian
lodges are notorious for NOT replying to email enquiries (including those from the Grand Secretaries offices’
Just to make things a bit more complicated Freemasonry in this country has a number of divisions.There’s
around 12,500 Masons here but less than 2,000 are in regular lodges. The rest are in lodges that are not
recognised by the Grand Lodge of NSW, UGLE, etc. I hope (and expect) that your gavel has in fact stayed
within the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium.
The other thing is that lodges here work in French, Flemish (Dutch) and two in English. The French don’t like
the Flemish, and vice versa, and they both (usually) don’t respond to enquiries made in English. As you
probably know Charleroi is a town outside of Brussels, so that doesn’t help us much with the name of the lodge.
But for now I suggest we just leave it to the Grand Secretary’s office and their enquiries, perhaps you can email
me around the 1 st January and if you have had no reply I will contact some lodges personally. 2006 isn’t that
long ago so someone should remember it.
A couple of years ago I did attend an installation in Navy Lodge in London with some other brethren from King
Leopold in Mons, and there was some sort of presentation of a travelling something or other, frankly I didn’t
take much notice, it may have been a gavel, may not have been. Anyhow, keep in touch and if you get nothing
from our Grand Lodge by 1/1/2010 I’ll make further enquiries for you.
Travelling Gavels whereabouts in general:
Keeping in constant contact with my 12 International Travelling Gavels has been quite a daunting procedure;
however, no matter how much I try there are some Lodge Secretaries and country Lodges that just seem to make
this task an impossible item. I have sent thousands of letters and have made many phone calls all over the world
looking for these Gavels. If a Mason is thinking of starting a Travelling Gavel Project, I urge him to think very
seriously about it. I was writing to an overseas Mason for quite a while, where he stated that he, had started a
Travelling Gavel, where he travelled to quite a number of countries and presented his Gavel personally. He
eventually left his Gavel with a Lodge and then went back home, he had asked them to pass it on to another
Lodge. Well, it wasn’t too far down the track he wrote to me to say that his Travelling Gavel was lost
somewhere, I tried to tell him that this would happen, but he said that this wouldn’t happen to him,
be warned.
Dear Rick
I am forwarding the email below, and also the one attached, so you can see first hand the details of what
happened to your travelling gavel in Belgium. Our W. Bro. Bruno Monaco has completed the detail up to its
presentation to the GLNF lodge on 19 September 2009 in the attached word.doc document.
I am sure that there is someone around in your area who can translate the attached word-for-word into English
for you if you want. However, basically, in February 2008 it was presented to W. Bro. Christian Alacoque of the
L’Avenir et L’Esperénce Lodge #5, RGL of Belgium, in the orient of Charleroi. Then on 19 September 2009 it
was presented to WB Jean-Marie Monaco of the Lodge Chrestien de Troyes #398 in the Province of Brie
Champagne, under the GLNF. WB Bruno doesn’t say, but I suspect that WB Jean-Marie Monaco (sharing the
same surname as WB Bruno Monaco) was a relative of his. No doubt, if you wish, you could email WB Bruno
about the matter, his email address is below.
In regard to pursuing the gavel into France, you should be aware that irregular Freemasonry in France is still
very active so you need to make sure that any correspondence goes to the correct Grand Lodge (their www page
is http://www.glnf.asso.fr/). Also 151ention membership is very discrete, so any direct approach to a lodge in
France (if indeed you can get a name or email address) may well go unanswered ... particularly if it is not in
French.
I’m not sure that I can help you much more than that. I will send a copy of this email to our Grand Secretary’s
office since they have also received your correspondence, just to let them know what has happened.