The Legon Lodge will mark its 50^th anniversary with a walk and health screening at the University of Ghana.

The event comes off Saturday September 21, 2019 at the Sports Directorate of the university. The walk starts from Legon to the Mall and back to the campus.

The Legon Lodge is under the district Grand Lodge of Ghana which is led by the District Grand Master, Right Worshipful Isaac Owulaku Hood and the worshipful Master EAK Kalitsi.

Brief on the first worshipful master of the lodge:

First Worshipful Master Nii Amaa Ollennu (1969-1970). He was a jurist and judge who became a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, the acting President of Ghana during the Second Republic from 7th August 1970 to 31st August 1970 and the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana from 1969 to 1972.

The Legon Lodge was established in March 1969.

ORATION DELIVERED BY THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON R.E. ASHITEY (OF DEPARTED MERIT) AT THE CONSECRATION OF LEGON LODGE NO. 8266 ON SATURDAY 29TH MARCH 1969

We are here assembled tonight to crown the aspirations of those Brethren who, themselves duly instructed in the mysteries of the Craft, have persevered for some time in their greatest aim of establishing a new Lodge that will spread the gentle philosophy of our Order among the alumni of the University of Ghana and those who work for this University.

We rejoice in their success in overcoming the inherent difficulties of such an enterprise and offer them our sincerest congratulations in bringing into being the Legon Lodge No. 8266, the 29th Lodge of our District.

It is quite a remarkable coincidence that a hill named “Legon” which is a Ga expression meaning “The Hill of Knowledge”, so named by the ancestors of the Gas in very ancient times, should become the seat of the first university in Ghana, thus reinforcing the significance of the hill as a symbol of wisdom.

In ancient times, the summit of this Hill which stands at about 300 feet above sea level, offered a secluded and quiet preserve for the training of the young in the tasks of manhood. It was also a place where novices to the local priesthood passed through their novitiate to become fully-fledged priests and priestesses. It was a hill of Knowledge and Wisdom.

This hill also provided a vantage point from which, in those days of internecine conflicts, the movements of an enemy could be surveyed and effective counter-measures taken for his defeat.

To the top of this hill, the Ga people retreated when hard pressed, as to an impregnable bastion, and from the sheltering and commanding position afforded them, repulsed the attack and routed the enemy. This hill has always been to the Gas not only a hill of wisdom but also a Tower of Strength.

Today, the hill supports the building of the University of Ghana, These buildings truly magnificent architectural creations and seen in their settings of lovely drives with long distance vistas, well-mown lawns, neatly-combed gardens, trees gay with blossoms of tropical beauty and luxuriance, open skies, bracing air, distant forests and distant mountains-offer a splendid panorama and captivate by their loveliness. Here is beauty made manifest. Thus, Legon connotes Wisdom, Strength and Beauty.

Our Lodges are supported by three pillars - Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. Wisdom to contrive, Strength to support and Beauty to adorn. The three great pillars supporting a Freemasons’ Lodge are emblematical of Divine attributes.

The Universe is the Temple of the Deity whom we serve. Wisdom, Strength and Beauty are about His Throne as pillars of His Work; for His Wisdom is infinite, His Strength omnipotent and His Beauty shines through the whole of creation in symmetry and order.

So, Brethren, we have in Legon those masonic attributes, Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, which provide a strong foundation upon which any new Masonic Lodge can be safely built. From the foundation laid this evening, we can be sure that a superstructure will arise, perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder.

Great Masonry can evolve from small numbers. The smallness of the Lodge, far from being a handicap, is a great advantage. Deep sincerity in each member is the quality needed to enable each one of them to dedicate themselves to the furtherance of the true aims and objectives of the Order.

We, as Masons, should go forward - present days call for action; the future waits impatiently; now is the time, now is the opportunity to spread the wide humane principles of our Order and prove to those who desire to join that Freemasonry has much to give to all who are willing to share its responsibilities. But we can go forward effectively if we do so in love and unity; In this way we can enrich ourselves by communicating happiness.

The motto of this University is “Integri Procedamus” which, if I may be permitted a somewhat free translation means “let us go forward in love and unity”. This motto has a peculiar message for all of us who are members of the Masonic Order.

From whence our Order came, we know not; nor when the first noble impulse gave birth, but this we know, that throughout the centuries it has enshrined belief in God and a constant call for men to combine in mutual support, mutual service, mutual affection to all of which our Order enjoins an unswerving adherence.

Masonry is thus something more than just a pleasant society of good neighbors each pledged to the other. If this were so, it would have failed long since; for every Mason knows that duty to one’s neighbour is only half the duty of man. Masonry is a society of men pledged wholeheartedly to the service of God, and through Him and Him alone, to our neighbour. Self and self-interest must be submerged and unified action for the “good of all” through the GAOTU should be our guiding principle.

Should we have the aim of advancing in love and unity, we must always be vigilant and guard against all snares and pitfalls.

The working tools are ample for our guidance, viz. The use of time, control of thought, word and deed, the value of education, uprightness and integrity, level and square conduct and finally the three tools which point to God Himself.

You and I are only here for an allotted period of time. If Freemasonry is what we believe it to be, we ought to be better men from our association with it. For Masonry gives us a working philosophy and a practical rule of life - a vital guide to those matters most sacred and most urgent to our ultimate well-being.

In a short while, and the wisest of us knows not how soon, we shall come to the final threshold where the philosopher ceases to be wise and the song of the poet is silent; where Dives bids farewell to his riches and Lazarus to his poverty; where the strongest man has no supremacy and the weakest needs no defence. We shall then come face to face with the written records of our thoughts, words and actions faithfully recorded by the Almighty Architect who will reward or punish as we have obeyed or disregarded His Divine Commands.

So, Brethren, in wishing God’s blessing on this Lodge - the Legon Lodge No. 8266 and all its members both now and in the days to come, what better motto can I leave them than “Integri Procedamus”.

May the GAOTU bless the members of Legon Lodge and bind them together in brotherly love and unity now and evermore. SMIB