I have been reflecting, in awe, at the incredible work of successive Brethren, who over the past 150 odd years have compiled this publication. From WBro John Sherren’s 150 pages in 1892 through to WBro Matthew Burt’s superb 456 pages in 2018/2019, my bookcase creaks with 128 little books. They are a continuous record of our Province. I am told Brethren like WBro Mark Hinsley and WBro Jeremy Shaw (and others) have even older copies, so it is with a due cognisance of those previous tomes that I forward this edition.
We have chosen to populate the Craft, Royal Arch, Mark and RAM information from the data held on Adelphi and in Keystone (the Grand Lodge databases) rather than using the heroic methods of our predecessors who would spend around 400 hours manually entering data used in producing the Calendar . This does mean however, that if the Calendar isn’t entirely up to date for you or for your Lodge, the database must be out of date too. Your assistance in ensuring that our records are up to date would be greatly appreciated; let us know of any changes or additions.
I would like to thank John Allan, John Pearce, Andrew Ward, Mark Hinsley, Sev Cardy, Andy Gale, Nocturin Lacey-Clarke, Nigel Leonard, Nigel House and Bob Parkes for their contributions in meeting with us to help decide what should and shouldn’t be included in this new style calendar. We met in the midst of Lockdown by Zoom and I am immensely grateful for their wisdom and creativity. We have removed a few things from the Calendar which are (or should be) readily available elsewhere; we trust that the resulting publication fulfils the spirit of its predecessors. We have adopted a very open page style, with space for you to annotate your copy or add new data.
As far as a printed edition is concerned, we will fulfil all the orders already received and you can expect those to arrive in mid-April. We will update the Digital version of the Calendar in early November and present the new 2023 edition in April 2023.
Mark Burstow
Provincial Grand Secretary
The Provincial Grand Lodge of Dorset and Royal Arch Chapter of Dorset
