Meridian Lodge 9629

Date Established: 1996

Meeting Dates: 2nd Tuesday in April, May, June, November, December at 10:30am

Number of Members: 26

Contact: mjheeley@talktalk.net

Meridian Lodge attracts many visitors from other Lodges and enjoys reciprocal visits from other Daylight Lodges together with Lodges that meet in the evening. The Lodge also enjoys various social activities where members, family and friends get together.

“Daylight Freemasonry” allows some variation in meeting times and opportunity. Many members are Past Masters of other Lodges, but have ventured to make their services available to the Lodge by progressing to the Chair.  Others have been keen to undertake other duties and derive the full satisfaction of active membership.

The History of Meridian Lodge

Meridian  Lodge of Derbyshire was formed in 1996, the first Daylight Lodge to be consecrated in the Province od Derbyshire.   Formation of the new Lodge was in response to the growing interest from a number of freemasons in central and northern districts of the Province.    Whilst uncommon to meet during daylight hours, it is a fact that “the sun is always at it’s Meridian where freemasonry is practiced”.     Despite this fact, other Daylight Lodges were in existence at this time, locally having grown in number!

Almost 24 years since consecration, the Lodge continues to flourish, albeit fortunately our losses in membership have been balanced by the recruitment of new members.

Despite the consecrating members being mainly from locally based Lodges, a keen interest has since been shown from freemasons based elsewhere. The Lodge has attracted many initiates into freemasonry and records indicate that “ daylight meetings” are particularly popular to those who are required to work “unsocial hours”.  The Lodge also provides an opportunity to those more elderly members who prefer not to drive during the hours of darkness or be away from home in the evenings.