A few more hours and we leave 2018 and enter 2019 and whether you are celebrating with family of friends let me be one of the first to wish you a very happy and healthy New Year.  

I know that many people will make New Year resolutions fully intending to keep them, but alas I fear they may well be broken by the end of January, if not before.

However, if there is one resolution I would like the people of the world to make it is this. Be kinder to one another.  Now you may think that a strange request, but it is in keeping with the principles and tenets of Freemasonry and as Royal Arch Companions it should be quite natural for us to be kind to each other.  

It is only by being kinder to each other that we can truly say 'Happy New Year' and mean it, and i am sure we do mean what we say.   Just imagine if we could replace hate with love, fear with hope - what a difference that would make in the world.

 

The world in which we live is one of conflict, socially, economically and polltically.  Freemasons are not immune from the effects of such things, and those who from circumstances of of unforeseen calamity and misfortune are reduced to the lowest level of poverty and distress, may find solace from the support of their Companions.

 

A New Year offers us the opportunity to not only make resolutions it also allows us to start afresh, a new year, a new beginning.  We can be the change that changes the world.

 

Companions, I am confident that the future for the Holy Royal Arch in Wiltshire is very bright indeed.  A very Happy New Year to you all.