Ritual Book Reprint

As most of you know, we have been in the process over the last four months of re-printing our Ritual book.

Why re-do it, you ask?

Good question: The original printing plates and film that were used to print the Ritual book in 2002 are no longer in an acceptable shape to withstand another print run. This is further complicated in that the printing industry now uses digital techniques. Since the Ritual book had never been in a digital format we couldn't just simply 'make' another set of printing plates. So we have taken this opportunity to completely re-typeset the Ritual book in a larger and easier-to-read font and size (and correct any typographical errors).

The old style small Blue Book that we are all used to had a hand- sown binding, which was the norm in the 1900's, but in today's market is exceptionally expensive to produce, therefore alternative bindings also had to be investigated.

We therefore had the Divisional Grand Masters take a poll to get opinions regarding a larger-sized book (A6, or A5, or A4) to identify an acceptable replacement. Here are the overwhelming results:

• People want a small book, similar in size to the Royal Arch ritual book (smaller than A6) but they also favour a larger A5 version for use as the prompt's reading copy.
  
• People favor having a spiral-bound book which can open flat instead of a binding which does not open flat.
  
• People want a larger type size in an easily readable font.

We have taken these considerations on board and are in the process of producing a cost-effective and workable Ritual book.

However, this may still be a month or two away as there are many production tasks that need finalizing. In saying that, we know that there are some Lodges who need Ritual books right now for various reasons.

We are asking all of the Districts, District Grand Masters, Lodge Masters and Secretaries for help during this time while we are waiting for the new books.

Look around your Lodge storage rooms. Do you have any spare copies of the Ritual book?

If you do, please let your District Grand Master know so that we can get them to the Lodges who need them.

Your Lodge will be fully reimbursed with new Ritual books when they arrive.

Thank you.

Laurence Milton
Grand Secretary
Freemasons New Zealand