QC’s Lodge meeting on Thursday, 14 September 2017 (4.00 p.m. at FMH, Great Queen Street, London) will include the 2017 Prestonian Lecture: ‘The Grand Design’. The lecturer is Dr Jim Daniel. Jim has been a Freemason since 1961. Previously a cultural diplomat (1964-89), he is known best as the past Grand Secretary General of the Ancient and Accepted (‘Scottish’) Rite (1989-98), and past Grand Secretary of UGLE (1998-2002). Jim is a past master of QC and now an honorary member of the lodge. An exciting evening is guaranteed.

Jorge Alfredo Gavira-Lievano is back as a Local Secretary for Bogotá, Colombia. He can be contacted by phone on ( 57) 3187357825 and at jgaviria33@gmail.com.

Leo Lusicic, the Master of the ‘Quatuor Coronati’ research lodge for Slovenia, has volunteered to represent QC and QCCC as Local Secretary covering Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. Leo can be contacted at leo.lusicic@ad-con.com.

An outstanding celebratory meeting of the Worthing Lodge of Installed Masters took place at the Charmandean Centre on 24 June, the exact tercentenary anniversary of the founding of the first grand lodge. The meeting was attended by the PGM for Sussex and twenty-seven members of the provincial team, and around 100 Sussex masons were present to hear QC member Ric Berman deliver a paper to mark the occasion. The meeting was followed by an excellent festive board enjoyed by all.

Although several items from the Quatuor Coronati collection are on display within the main exhibits at the Library & Museum of Freemasonry, the bulk of the collection – another hundred plus items – are held in storage. The collection is unique and ranges from the early eighteenth century, through the Napoleonic Wars to the Victorian period, with many valuable and irreplaceable items. All being well, we intend to produce an illustrated guide to the collection and make this available to QCCC members.

A great turnout in Recife last Saturday (10 June) to hear a lecture and Q&A presented by Ric Berman with simultaneous translation into Portuguese. The afternoon presentation was followed by dinner and drinks and preceded on Friday 9 June  by a meeting of Lodge Academia do Paraiso. Many thanks to Emilio Elesbao, our QCCC Local Secretary in Recife, for organising; and many thanks to the Grand Master and Grand Officers of the Grand Oriente of Pernambuco.

Welcome to our latest Local Secretary, Diego Arana, a member of Union Fraternal lodge, No 21, under the jurisdiction of the Great Lodge of Panama, and a member of Union Justa 257 lodge, No 351, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Argentina. Diego will be representing QCCC in Panama and can be contacted at diegoaranaparera@gmail.com.

A warm welcome to our newest Local Secretary, Isaac Augusto Damsky, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Isaac is a lawyer and Senior Adjunct Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Buenos Aires Law School. He is also the current Secretary of Union Argentina Lodge, No. 134. Isaac is working on developing a research lodge in Argentina under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Argentina; he can be contacted at isaacaugustodamsky@yahoo.com.ar.

There was a tremendous turnout at Snorri Lodge of Research in Reykjavik for Ric Berman’s lectures covering the early years of freemasonry through to the rivalry between the ‘Moderns’ and ‘Antients’. The lectures were either side of lunch and continued with a spirited Q&A session into the afternoon. Freemasonry in Iceland is more popular than ever and this was an excellent example of cooperation between two research lodges. Many thanks to Olafur Magnusson and his colleagues for organising the event.

Leif Endre, the incoming Master of Niels Treschow Lodge – the Norwegian Lodge of Research, and our Local Secretary in Norway, had the opportunity to promote QC in the latest issue of Frimurer Bladet, the official magazine for The Order of Norwegian Freemasons. We hope that this will encourage members of Norwegian freemasonry to consider joining the QC Correspondence Circle and visiting with us when they are in London. Thanks Leif.

The link to Frimurer Bladet is here: https://issuu.com/frimurer/docs/frimurerbladet-01-2017