This is an order in Freemasonry, closely associated with Craft Freemasonry.

The first documented evidence of a ‘Royal Arch’ comes from Ireland in 1743; it seems likely that this was an ‘added extra’ worked within craft lodges in England , Ireland and Scotland for many years. Thus it came to be regarded, by the Antients in England , as a fourth degree in Freemasonry.

The Moderns, on the other hand, do not appear to have officially recognised the degree at all (with a few exceptions), leading in due course, to completely separate Royal Arch Chapters.

These differences were partially resolved at the Union of the Grand Lodges in 1813, by a compromise: the new United Grand Lodge of England declared the Royal Arch to be an official and accepted part of ‘Pure and Antient Freemasonry’.

In December 2003 the United Grand Lodge of England acknowledged and pronounced the status of the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch to be

an extension to, but neither a superior nor a subordinate part of, the degrees which precede it.

Whilst the Royal Arch is, therefore, an integral part of Freemasonry and interwoven with the Craft, it is organised as a separate Order, distinct from the Craft degrees, the teachings of which it completes.

Cathedral Chapter 7814

Cathedral Royal Arch Chapter 7814
Cathedral Chapter was founded on 30 November 1994 some time after the Craft Lodge that bears the same name and number. The Chapter met in the now closed Blackburn Masonic Hall and move to Whalley in January 2022.

Cathedral Chapter meets on the fourth Monday of January, March and October and on the third Monday in May which is their Installation meeting.

Cathedral Chapter became a Patron of the Grand Charity in 2004 and a Patron of the East Lancashire Masonic Charity (ELMC) in 2020.