Latest news with #Freemason
Leader Live
2 days ago
- Health
- Leader Live
Wrexham: Residents urged to Walk for Parkison's this summer
David Finlay, 74, a retired police officer, is set to take part in his first Walk for Parkinson's just months after being diagnosed with the condition. David will be walking alongside his wife Lesly, as they take on the event at Alyn Waters Country Park, Wrexham, on Saturday June 28 - which will be the first time it has ever been held in north Wales. David received his diagnosis in January this year, a moment that he recalls as being a huge shock to him and his family. But rather than sit still, David is determined to stay active, raise awareness and give back to Parkinson's UK. He said: 'I was completely floored by the diagnosis. But within days, I found myself signing up to the walk as a way of channelling the shock into something positive. Taking part has helped me feel in control again.' David and Lesly will be taking part in the shorter, fully accessible 1.7 mile route as they both manage ongoing health conditions as David also lives with angina, and Lesly lives with a brain tumour (pituitary adenoma). David added: 'Lesly and I believe in staying active - it's the word that keeps popping up for us. We're part of a Parkinson's UK Zoom group and have met so many great people going through similar things. "We're not going to let this condition define us. It's not easy, but doing something - anything - helps. This walk felt like a natural step for us.' TOP STORIES TODAY To find out more about Walk for Parkinson's and to sign up to walk or volunteer visit: or email: walk@ Originally from Chester, David, has spent decades fundraising for a number of causes as a Freemason and former Round Tabler. Even in retirement, he continues to raise money for charity through his two seasonal roles; as a historical mill guide during the summer and as a professional Father Christmas during the festive season. David and his wife Lesly as Mr and Mrs Claus to raise money for charity. (Image: Parkinson's UK) David said: 'I donate 75% of everything I raise through both roles to charity, and Parkinson's UK is now part of that. It feels right to put my energy into something that's directly helping people like me and Lesly.' Parkinson's is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world, affecting 153,000 people across the UK including around 8,300 in Wales, but thousands of them currently don't have access to the care they vitally need. Walk for Parkinson's is Parkinson's UK's flagship series that this year is aiming to raise vital funds to improve access to specialist Parkinson's care across the UK. Keri McKie, Community Fundraiser for Wales at Parkinson's UK Cymru, said: 'David and Lesly's story is an inspiring reminder of how powerful it can be to stay connected and keep moving, even in the face of a life-changing diagnosis. We're so grateful to them for taking part and sharing their story. 'Last year's Walk for Parkinson's in Wales raised more than £27,000 thanks to the amazing 300 people who took part. This year, we're excited to bring the event to north Wales for the very first time, and we'd love to see even more people step up to help fund the specialist care and support that's urgently needed.'
Otago Daily Times
24-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Freemasons' Arrowtown story ends
Among the last members of Arrow Kilwinning Lodge are, from left, Edis Embil, Chris Buckley, Gary Lonsdale and Kent Dow. PHOTO: SUPPLIED The curtain has come down on nearly 150 years of Freemasonry in Arrowtown. About 50 Freemasons from throughout Otago and Southland went to the final meeting of the Arrow Kilwinning Lodge in its historic Wiltshire St building on Monday. Its last 10 members will now join their Queenstown counterparts at the Lake Lodge of Ophir, based in their equally historic building in Marine Parade. Member Kent Dow says the loss of Arrow Kilwinning Lodge's identity is sad, but its membership's dwindled to the point where it didn't make sense to continue. "We need to share the load." On the bright side, the move will boost the membership of Lake Lodge of Ophir to about 60. Its numbers are on the rise, sustained by the Whakatipu's growing, multicultural population, Dow says. The Heritage New Zealand-listed Arrowtown lodge building will remain in Freemason hands though, and they're on the hunt for a tenant for its front room to help pay for its ongoing maintenance. The inner room, with its rare, hand-painted friezes and emblems depicting Masonic symbolism, will remain a "sacred space", he says. Fellow member Edis Embil says Arrow Kilwinning Lodge was formed in 1878, with members travelling on horseback from as far away as Skippers, Macetown and Cardrona to attend the monthly meetings. They met at a hotel for a decade until the Wiltshire St building was completed in 1888. Lake Lodge of Ophir was established first, though, with the Marine Parade building completed in 1864, Embil says. The oldest stone building in the resort town, it's also the oldest building in the country still in use by Freemasons. Freemasonry has its origins in the medieval stonemason guilds of Europe, and is the oldest fraternity in the world, he says. "It used to be thought of as a secret society ... it's a little bit more visible and transparent now." Dow says the idea is to "make good men better". "We're taught to be charitable in our personal lives, but we're fortunate to also be charitable as a lodge." In the past two years alone, it's made grants of about $200,000 to local organisations.
New York Times
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
You've Attended the Tale of Sweeney Todd. Now Hear Mrs. Lovett's Story.
For half a century — much longer, if you go back to the original 1840s penny dreadfuls — people have thrilled to the story of Sweeney Todd, the murderous London barber who cut short the lives of priests, fops, sailors and one especially loathsome judge before he met his own gruesome end. Sweeney's tragic losses and appetite for vengeance have been well documented, most notably by the musical genius of Stephen Sondheim. But what of his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, who popped his poor victims into her pies? Does her tale not need attending, too? David Demchuk and Corinne Leigh Clark's epistolary novel 'The Butcher's Daughter: The Hitherto Untold Story of Mrs. Lovett' gives the woman beside the man her own turn in the spotlight. Part Victorian historical fiction, part grisly horror, the book follows a mysterious woman, Margaret C. Evans, a.k.a. Margery, as she recounts her life story to a never-seen (and, we learn at the opening of the book, missing) journalist, who is investigating the disappearance of Mrs. Lovett 50 years before. Though she does not disclose her true identity outright until fairly deep in the novel, it is clear within the first few pages that Margery is Mrs. Lovett, who — in a departure from the source material, where she is killed by Sweeney — is very much alive and confined to a nunnery. Margery's harrowing tale reframes Mrs. Lovett not as a villain but as a maligned girl fighting to survive. She's a seductively evocative narrator, making it easy to forget that her every word should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. It will surprise nobody familiar with the musical that this is a gory book. The violence starts early, at Margery's father's butcher shop, where she is awakened each morning by the sounds and smells of sheep being slaughtered, and where it is a shame bordering on sin to let anything go to waste. At 16, Margery catches the eye of a wealthy surgeon when a toddler is hit by a carriage in front of her shop and, in an attempt to save the child's life, she amputates his leg. When Margery's father dies soon thereafter, her mother sends her to work for the doctor. The horrors only increase from there: In the surgeon's home, Margery faces medical experiments, botched abortions, Freemason conspiracies. By the time she lands in the pie shop on Fleet Street, she has been drugged and forcibly inseminated, fallen in love with a deaf prostitute, had her baby stolen and murdered the shop's owner — oh, and discovered there's a serial killer upstairs who keeps dropping corpses in her back room. Demchuk and Clark have clearly done their research, crafting a ghoulish version of 1830s Britain that sets the stage for Margery's misadventures. The book seems to be aiming for the sort of feminist reclaiming of familiar stories that have proliferated in recent years, from the lushly literary ('Circe') to the fantastically irreverent ('My Lady Jane'). But in making Mrs. Lovett a vulnerable yet determined teenager, and in focusing on the brutal realities facing women — especially single, working-class ones — in the early 19th century, the authors lose some of the madcap genius that makes her so fun onstage. That Lovett is enterprising — an innovator, if a macabre one; this Lovett struggles to stay afloat. That Lovett is disturbingly zany; this one is, by unfortunate necessity, a realist. This is a wild, high-octane, blood-soaked tale, but by the end, everything crimps together just a little too neatly (with one final, groan-worthy twist). Life, like baking or butchery, is a messy business. I wish the authors had left a bit more room for untidy possibilities.
Belfast Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Belfast Telegraph
Outrage at ‘obscene' video for Irish rapper filmed at Freemasons' HQ showing dissident inmates spitting on Queen
A Freemason has condemned a 'morally repugnant' music video filmed in the organisation's Dublin headquarters which depicts dissident republicans spitting on the Queen.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Tour the 200-year-old Masonic Lodge in Franklin
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Freemasons claim to be the largest fraternity in the world. Hit films like 'The Da Vinci Code' showcase the mystery surrounding these men. News 2 travelled to Franklin where one of the oldest Freemason lodges in the state has stood tall for more than 200 years. Freemason Bruce Barker, a previous master of Hiram Lodge No. 7, unlocked the history behind this beautiful brick building on Franklin's Second Avenue for News 2. 'Andrew Jackson stood on this step and spoke to five Indian nations,' said Barker, standing outside the lodge. Hiram Masonic Lodge No. 7 claims the title of the longest continuously operating Masonic Lodge in all of Tennessee. Construction started in 1823, and 200 years later, senior warden at the lodge, Jeffery Paul Pedigo, feels a deep connection to this building. Clock over East Nashville High School honors 59 killed in WW II 'I see things that people I'm related to might have felt, seen, smelled, touch, and I feel a part of it,' said Pedigo. 'One of my favorite parts is the stain-glass window when you walk in.' The Freemasons have owned Hiram Lodge since day one, but over the centuries, they have graciously opened their doors to the community. Perhaps one of the most consequential historical moments was the Treaty of Franklin in 1830. In the first floor meeting room, President Andrew Jackson held negotiations with Chickasaw Nation to give up their land and move west. 'You are now walking in a building that Andrew Jackson and chiefs of five Indian Tribes, teachers, community leaders. If these walls could talk kind of moment,' explained Barker in the main meeting room. Why these cottage-style homes were once gas stations Fast forward 30 years after the Treaty, and the Civil War was underway. Again, the Freemasons opened the lodge to the public as a field hospital during the Battle of Franklin. 'This is some graffiti during the Civil War,' Barker said, as he showed the preserved etchings on what is a now a restroom wall. In the 20th century, schools and churches also used the lodge, but at its heart, the brick building has stood strong as a home base for the Freemasons. News 2 was allowed to step inside one of the ceremonial rooms where they hold their secret meetings. Many of the discussions in the room can not be made public, but these men are adamant their focus is not secrecy; it's about bettering themselves and their community. 'The secret is that there's no secret,' said Pedigo. 'The real secret is that you can look inward and find the secret to living, and that's what we are here to teach people.' ⏩ Hiram Lodge No. 7 is starting to show the passage of time; its seven layers of paint is starting to peel. But, a multimillion dollar restoration effort is just getting started to keep one of Tennessee's oldest building arounds for the ages. 'It's been here for 200 years, and all of us now think it's incumbent upon us to make sure it's here for another 200 years.' Hiram Lodge No. 7 is listed as a National Historic Landmark. Click here for information on its restoration efforts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
