It is with great excitement I learn of the creation of the District of Romania’s own Website and I am again honoured and flattered by R.W. Bro. Cristian’s invitation to write a forward for inclusion in this latest development in the evolution of Romania’s Mark and Royal Ark Mariner Degrees.
The journey up to this point has indeed been a rapid, enjoyable and highly successful one. It has been my great privilege to be associated with and take part in, the development of your Mark and R.A.M. Lodges since the earliest days of their consecrations, the formation of the Inspectorate of Romania and, within an incredibly short time, its elevation into a District.
I still have so many happy memories of my visits to Bucharest to assist in and indeed to lead some of the ceremonies, which have resulted in the formation of this vibrant and progressive Masonic community. Those memories are kept alive in my memory by the encyclopaedic photographic record of the various ceremonies, Gala Balls and excursions outside of Romania’s capital city. My close personal association with the District of Romania counts as one of the happiest highlights of my time as PGM for London Mark; and indeed my whole masonic career to date, which now exceeds 50 years since I was Initiated, Passed, Raised and Advanced in 1975 in my native Scotland.
This fraternal bond has expanded into other branches of Masonry as I can now meet my Romanian friends and Brothers at occasional London Conclaves of the Order of the Secret Monitor and more frequently within my Craft and Chapter meetings at Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Street, where several of you have become Joining Members.
I am confident that this new and commendable venture in technology, will enhance and ensure the continual improvement and development of Freemasonry in general, within Romania and specifically within our much loved Mark and R.A.M. Orders. I look forward eagerly to the access it will provide to stories and reports of Mark, R.A.M. and Companion Order Meetings and to the pictorial evidence which will be published. Similar to the London Mark Website, it will provide practical guidelines for current Members and of course will build a source of valuable information for future historians and the generations of Masonic researchers still to come.
Sending my own and the very best wishes of the Province of London, to all our Romanian Brothers and our congratulations and hopes for the great success of the launch of this new Website.
Mark Well, my Brothers.
Tom Quinn