I recently visited friends in the North of Scotland. My friend took me to look at his Masonic Temple which is in an old church. 
Lodge Tap O’Noth No 1210 is one of 14 Lodges in the Province of Aberdeenshire West. It meets in the village of Rhynie,
it has 8 members and will be 100 years old in 2020. If it wasn’t for the help of the nearby Lodge in Huntley, there would
be times when there were not enough Masons present to hold the meeting, the Tap O’Noth members also make up numbers for Huntley.
The old church hasn’t aged gracefully and is in need of some loving care. Walking in the front door and turning right into the ‘Harmony’ you can see that work has started.
Turn left at the front door and you enter the temple. It is cold and damp and the picture here makes it look better than
it really is.
Look closely and you can see the portable heaters. It gets cold.
Plans are underway to allow the building to be used by the various groups in the village as a way to enable the raising of funds to make the urgently needed repairs. There is an obvious desire to keep the center open for Masonry and to provide a much needed resource for the village.
This visit reminded me how fortunate we are with our center here in Sheerness. Our Club and our Temple are well looked after, warm and in excellent repair, and our Lodges have a long way to go before we have so few members that we are in danger of having to make up numbers in our sister Lodges to be able to hold our meetings. We will only be able to keep things as they are or improve things if we have the support of our members. We are very fortunate with our United Masonic Club.
Long may it remain.