PAWEL CANCHAYA KRALEWSKI
Worshipful Master, Kronos Lodge, No. 130, Grand Lodge of Peru
It was 1960, more or less, when my father Anibal (Peruvian) finished his studies as Mechanic Engineer in Peru when he received a scholarship to travel and study in Poland, so he accepted it and during his studies he met my mother Maria (Polish); when they finished their studies, Anibal as a MSc in Electronics and Maria as a Physical Rehabilitator, my brother Pedro (who now lives in Poland) was born. Two years later they decided to travel to Peru for a while and this while is lasting until today. Six years later on March 8th, 1976 I was born and six years later the youngest of us Alex (who is living in Dublin, Ireland).
I studied Anthropology, Tourism and Theatre but finally I am working in the family business, the Travel Business, and we are very happy to show Peru to foreign tourists, mostly Polish Tourists, because of my mother’s language which we do speak perfectly.
About 12 years ago I met my wife and about 9 years ago her uncle invited me to the Order. It was May 11th, 2006, the birthday of my elder brother. The day of my initiation my wife’s uncle, Armando, came to my apartment and took me to the Lodge. I was all the time blindfolded. My Mother Lodge is Constitution Nº 100 (York Rite) from Callao Valley in Peru. It was an unforgettable day.
From the beginning I was invited to visit another Lodge closer to my home, but I received the Second and Third degrees in Constitución Nº 100. Already as a Master Mason I decided to change Lodge and went to Kronos Nº 130 (Lima Valley) which as I said is closer to my home and office. But still until today I have very good relations with the brethren of my Mother Lodge.
It was about 6 years ago when my brethren decided to give me the Master Mason degree; one year later I received the Mark Master Mason, Excellent Master and Royal Arch Mason degrees in a Royal Arch Chapter of Scottish Constitution in Peru; one year later I received the Royal Ark Mariners and Red Cross degrees and one more year later the degrees of the Cryptic Council; all these degrees in the same Royal Arch Chapter. One year ago I was invited to be a Knight Templar (Masonic), also of a Scottish Constitution Preceptory. Now I am also Honorary Member of another Preceptory in Peru.
In the Craft Lodge I paid my duty as Senior Expert, Treasurer, Junior Warden and Senior Warden, and also I was the depute for four years of a Craft Lodge of Cajamarca Valley in the Grand Lodge Meetings of the Grand Lodge of Peru. And now I am the elected Worshipful Master installed on June, 09th 2015 for one year.
During this time I was a member of a Rotary Club and was elected as President of this Club and later a Depute of the District Governor of Rotary International in five Rotary Clubs. But in time I had to decide to reorganize my time specially for health reasons and the Rotary became the less important activity in this time, I do never close the door to returning.
I am always looking for more in masonry, and so when I was raised to the Master Degree I asked for membership in the Internet Lodge and after some conversations by mail finally I received the invitation from brother John Dutchman-Smith and between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 I was sending my filled form. On March 2010 all Brethren accepted me in the Lodge, and since then I am a proud member of the Lodge, learning a lot from my Brethren from whole the World.
During my term as Master of my Lodge I tried to restore traditions such as the Entered Apprentices serving elder brethren the Wine and Meal during the Masonic Dinners in order to teach them to serve and humility (as I was taught, but it is not practiced in all the Lodges), and to make the correct ritual toasts of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite which we do practice in our Lodge Kronos Nº 130. But also we have in our plans to start more operative actions as written on the Constitution and Laws the need to be in the avant garde of the philosophic and scientific movements for the benefit of mankind. One of our goals is to make ours the task of defence of family: children, women, and old people. Other goal is to help reducing the age average of the Grand Lodge of Peru, because we do have more than 40% of members who are 65 and more years old.
These are maybe the most important but not the only goals of our Lodge, and taking advantage of this article I invite all Brethren to make recommendations, maybe telling me their experiences, or probably the way to obtain financing for an old people’s home, or a children’s hospital or women rights defence foundation, etc.
As culmination of this article, I must to say in general that Freemasonry has changed my life and is changing it every single day. I do have Brethren all over the World, some of them became my friends (I have been and visited Lodges in Venezuela, Poland, Ireland, and was always received like a member of the big family we belong to). I think more about what to do, thinking if it is good for me, and for the others and if it is good for everyone. Only then I will know that I am doing something to the glory of the G.A.O.T.U.
