I hope everyone has enjoyed the summer break and is looking forward to the new Masonic season ahead.
While many of our Lodges and Chapters have been enjoying their summer recess, the Surrey 2030 Festival certainly has not stood still. Over the summer, we enjoyed two excellent events: the Priory Gate Lodge BBQ and Race Night and the Provincial Summer Barbecue.
Both events brought together Brethren, families and friends from across the Province while raising substantial funds for the Festival. My sincere thanks go to everyone who organised, supported or attended either event and helped make them such a success.
As we begin the new Masonic year, I also want to address the recent announcement concerning the future sale of the RMBI Care Co homes.
Understandably, this has raised questions across Surrey about what it means for older Freemasons, their families, the Masonic Charitable Foundation and our own 2030 Festival.
The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution has an extraordinary history of caring for older Freemasons and their families stretching back more than 180 years.
Nothing about the decision to sell the homes diminishes that history or the enormous contribution made by their staff.
Nor is the decision a reflection upon the quality of care being provided. RMBI Care Co continues to operate highly regarded homes, with its English homes rated Good or Outstanding and its Welsh homes compliant with their regulator.
The intention is for the 15 homes, which provide approximately 958 beds and employ around 1,500 people, to be sold as going concerns to operators capable of continuing that care. Residents will remain in their homes, care will continue as normal and the homes will continue to accept new residents during the process.
What has changed is the question of whether Freemasonry should continue to own and directly operate a national estate of care homes, or whether its charitable resources could support a greater number of older people through a more flexible system of grants and assistance.
RMBI Care Co is a separate registered charity and care operator with its own Board of Trustees, although it forms part of the wider MCF group. The decision to sell followed a detailed review undertaken by RMBI Care Co with the MCF.
There are significant practical and financial reasons behind that decision. Many of the existing buildings were not designed to meet today’s increasingly complex nursing and dementia-care requirements.
Rising maintenance, staffing and energy costs, pressure on local-authority funding and the substantial future investment required to modernise or replace an ageing estate all contributed to the conclusion that the current model was no longer sustainable.
In the previous financial year, more than £13 million of charitable support was required to bridge the gap between local-authority funding and the actual cost of providing care.
A further £2.34 million was spent on building maintenance and refurbishment alone, before considering the much greater long-term cost of replacing or extensively modernising the homes.
As Freemasons, our purpose is to care for people, not necessarily to own the building in which their care is provided.
Even here in Surrey, where we have James Terry Court in Croydon and Shannon Court at Hindhead, those locations will not necessarily suit every Surrey Mason or family member requiring care.
Someone may need to remain close to their children, access specialist nursing provision elsewhere or stay within the community in which they have spent their life.
RMBI has already tested a more flexible approach. A pilot launched in the North-West in 2022 provided advice, guidance and financial assistance, enabling Freemasons and their families to access a care home suited to their individual circumstances rather than requiring them to occupy an RMBI-owned bed.
By February 2024, that pilot had supported 100 people, including helping one lady move closer to her daughter. This demonstrates how Masonic support can be tailored around an individual’s needs rather than the location of a particular property.
The precise future arrangements have not yet been finalised, and we should not make promises about what the eventual model will look like. However, the stated direction is clear: moving away from direct residential-care provision creates an opportunity to support a larger number of older people throughout the country.
The proceeds from selling the homes will not disappear into a commercial organisation or leave Freemasonry. After sale costs and the repayment of RMBI Care Co’s borrowing, the funds will continue to be used for charitable support in accordance with RMBI’s charitable objects.
It is also important to remember that the work of the Masonic Charitable Foundation extends far beyond the ownership of care homes. During 2024/25, the MCF provided more than £27 million in support to individuals, families, charities and residential care.
Here in Surrey, more than £600,000 was provided to local charities, individuals and families, including organisations supporting people affected by dementia and issues connected with the wellbeing of older people.
The message I believe we should give our members is therefore clear: the sale of the RMBI care homes is not the end of Masonic support for older people. It represents a change in how that support may be delivered.
These buildings carry enormous history and emotional attachment, and those feelings should be acknowledged.
However, if the resources currently tied up in an ageing and geographically fixed estate can ultimately support people in their own homes, contribute towards residential or specialist nursing care, provide respite or enable someone to remain close to their family, Freemasonry may be able to help more older people rather than fewer.
That is why I do not believe this announcement undermines the case for our Surrey 2030 Festival. In many ways, it reinforces what the Festival is actually about.
We are raising money for the Masonic Charitable Foundation so that Freemasons, their families and people within our communities can receive assistance when their circumstances change and they need help. We are raising money to support people, not simply to maintain buildings.
The way that support is delivered will continue to evolve, just as Masonic charity has evolved throughout its history. Its fundamental purpose has not changed: helping people when and where they need us most.
To everyone already supporting the Surrey 2030 Festival through a Regular Payment Promise, thank you. Your continued commitment remains every bit as important and valuable as when you first signed up.
Please continue your support with confidence, knowing that your contribution is helping the MCF assist individuals, families and communities across Surrey and beyond.
Alongside that continuing support, we must encourage more of our members to become involved.
I would therefore like to set every Charity Steward across our Lodges and Chapters a simple challenge: identify two members who may be interested in signing up for a Festival Jewel.
Start the conversation. Explain what we are working together to achieve and the difference their support can make. If every Lodge and Chapter secures just two new Festival Jewel sign-ups, collectively it will make a significant difference to our progress.
Two members.
Two conversations.
Two Festival Jewel sign-ups from every Lodge and Chapter.
If you require information or assistance speaking to your members about the Festival, please contact Julian Tidmarsh or me. We will be more than happy to help.
Thank you for your continued support of the Surrey 2030 Festival and for everything you are doing to help us achieve our goal.
W. Bro. Nick Dyer
Festival Chairman
Surrey 2030 Festival