“Ask and it shall be given you...
Seek and ye shall find.”

A brief history of our Chapter

The First recorded meeting is that of November 4, 1873, in Masonic Temple of Jenkintown.  “A meeting of seven Companions of Royal Arch Masonry who having obtained demits from their several Chapters for the purpose of petitioning the Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania for a Charter, under which a new Chapter could be opened and worked.”

The New Chapter was Constituted and Installed on November 28, 1873 and opened at 7:45 o’clock.

According to the first entry in the cashbook and records in the minute book it cost $100.00 for the Charter and $113.01 to entertain the Grand Officers at the installation with “Food and Musicians.”

Each of the seven members donated $25.00 and paid $5.43 each for dues so that the books would balance.

Our First regular meeting was held on December 4, 1873, with three officers present and three members present – there were three visitors.

The subsequent minutes show that the dues were 25¢ per meeting night.  The meetings to be held the Tuesday after Friendship Lodge Night.  The rent for the use of the meeting room in the Masonic Temple was $1.75 per meeting.

In 1958 by virtue of a merger with Kensington Chapter No. 233 our membership was increased by 185.  In the same year we marked 80 Companions making a total increase for the one year of 260 Companions.

In June of 1979, Germantown Royal Arch Chapter No. 208 unanimously approved a merger with Abington No. 245 effective July 1, 1979.

On December 18, 1981 Siloam Royal Arch Chapter No. 226 also voted unanimously to merge with Abington 245.

In the combined Chapters we have had over 200 different Companions serve as High Priest.  39 of these were alive and active in 1973.

In Abington, in the first 100 years, we have had nine secretaries  – several serving only for a year or two.

All our records, minute books, cash books, and books of marks are intact and in fine condition and are kept in the vault in the Masonic Temple in Jenkintown.

Our first Minute Book, which is a work of art with beautiful and magnificent handwriting, was donated by one of the Companions.

The Jenkintown Masonic Temple

In the summer of 1867, six Freemasons residing in or near Jenkintown, petitioned the Right Worshipful Grand Master of Pennsylvania for a Warrant to establish a Lodge in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.

This lodge was named “Friendship Lodge #400.”

For the first five years, the lodge met in various locations in Jenkintown.  In 1870 the Worshipful Master approved a committee to consider a better home for the Lodge.  Under this committee, a Masonic Hall was erected at 443 Old York Road, Jenkintown and the lodge moved into this building in 1873.  It was in November this same year that Abington Royal Arch Chapter No. 245 was Constituted.

Since that time the building which was purpose built for Masonic Meetings,  has been the home to Friendship-Williams Lodge #400 (now merged with Concordia Lodge No. 67), and Abington Royal Arch Chapter No. 245.

Informally known as “The Wanamaker Lodge,” owing to the fact that Brother John Wanamaker who was Worshipful Master in 1905, was instrumental in securing the deed to our building as Past Master and Chairman of the Public Hall Corporation, Ltd., to the Trustees of Friendship Lodge in January of 1913.

Today, this building is home to several Masonic Organizations including: Concordia Lodge No. 67, Abington Royal Arch Chapter No. 245, Philadelphia Council No. 11, and Kensington-Kadosh No. 54.

Stuart Konefsky PHP

A Letter to Master Masons

Dear Brother,

We present this letter to you as a Master Mason, with the hope that you wish to continue your search for that which was lost – that which is the foundation upon which all Masonic Degrees are erected; and that it will interest you in Royal Arch Masonry – The York Rite.  The ceremony of the Royal Arch Degree does supply this broken link in the chain of Ancient Masonry.

Many other beautiful lessons are taught in the Royal Arch Chapter, but its final and supreme glory is the recovery of the Word.  That word is ours; we teach the lessons necessary to interpret it correctly; and Masonry cannot be a failure to him who know its ancient and true interpretation.

The Royal Arch is not a “Higher degree,” for Masonry is not a series of degrees to be sold to those who have the money to purchase them.  It is in the explanation of Masonic symbols, not in the sense of numbers, that one of our degrees is higher than another, and an Apprentice may have a clearer conception of the Deity, humanity, and the truths of religion and philosophy, than one who holds the highest rank. 

The Royal Arch, however, is the second volume in a sublime symbolic story which has no end.  There are many other volumes in the great library of Masonic Experience and Masonic Thought, but Volume Two is the Royal Arch, as surely as the Symbolic Lodge is Volume One.

Every reflective Mason knows that the Third Degree leaves a desire for something which it does not give, and that Masonry is indeed taught by degrees only.

From the moment you crossed the Apprentice threshold, your Masonic path has been a progress out of Darkness into Light, and your study of our Masonic symbols has been in the search for Truth.  Both of these come closer to you as the degrees of the Arch unfold.

So, this suggestion of the Beauty and further Light to be found in the degrees of Royal Arch Masonry is offered to you, as it was offered to us, with the sincere hope that you will join the many Companions who have here found a deeper understanding of the glory of our Ancient Craft.

“Ask and it shall be given you; Seek and ye shall find.”

Sincerely and fraternally,
Stuart E. Konefsky, MEHP