28/07/2025
It is with profound sadness that we learned of the passing of our most highly regarded Past Supreme Grand Commander Sir Knight Cyril Glass.
Cyril was a stalwart of our Order the Ancient and Illustrious Order of Knights of Malta otherwise known as the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem rising to the rank of Supreme Grand Commander.
He was a born leader who led by example and service which was testified to by his role as Imperial Grand Master of the Independent Loyal Orange Institution, band master of Killycoogan Independent Accordion Band and held office in the Apprentice Boys of Derry for many years. He was also involved with Unionist politics with the Vanguard movement and as an advocate of unionist unity he stood for election as a UUUC candidate.
A Black lecturer for many years, he was instrumental in the conferring of our degrees upon generations of Malta men. His own encampment David’s Chosen Few RBE No 21 is the largest and most active in our Order in no small part due to his ceaseless work.
At this sad time we extend our sincere condolences to his siblings Hugo, Jean, Kenneth & Norman as well as the wider family circle and brethren at Killycoogan and assure you all of our prayerful support.
Funeral service will be held in Townhill Presbyterian Church, Portglenone at 2pm on Wednesday 30 July. Visitors are also welcome at Caldwell’s Funeral Home, Portglenone on Monday and Tuesday from 7-10pm.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Matthew 25:23
We include a prayer from our Burial Ritual as a tribute to a life which was an example of Christian Knighthood, and in the comfort that he is today with his Lord and Saviour
Sir Knight Commander.- In accordance with the time-honoured custom of our Order of Christian Knighthood, and in consonance with its teachings, we are gathered here today for the purpose of bidding farewell to the earthly tabernacle of our departed Sir Knight Companion. It is eminently proper that we, who have been so intimately associated with him, should accompany his remains to the narrow house appointed for all living; and by so doing manifest to the world not only the sincerity of our friendship, but the Christian spirit of our fraternity. We do not offer up this solemn service under the impression that it will avail the soul of the departed at the throne of the Universal Judge, for as the tree falls so shall it lie; but we do this that our thoughts may be directed away from the concerns of life to the contemplation of that eternity to which we are all hastening. Nature and revelation both point to the tomb as the universal allotment of mankind.
The Inspired Word teaches us that as we have been moulded out of the dust of the ground by the fiat of an Omnipotent God, so, likewise, according to the Divine Will, shall we be resolved-sooner or later—into the original elements out of which we were taken.
The present is another mournful example of the force of these oft-reiterated truths. Our companion, once so vigorous in the pursuits of earthly enjoyments, now lies helpless in the merciless arms of the King of Terrors. And he, with whom we have been accustomed to practice the secret rites of our Order, has now partaken of a mystery only communicated to those who have passed through the portals of the unseen world.
It should be our duty, while we drop a tear of affection on the grave of the departed, to extenuate his conduct wherein he may have erred; to bestow a generous degree of praise upon his excellencies of character; to be instructed by his shortcomings, and to emulate his virtues.
Here, far away from the busy scenes of human activity, we consign his remains to their parent dust. The tread of martial hosts will not disturb him; the conflict of armed warriors will not wake him; the bugle of earth's chivalry will not cause him to rise. In this quiet spot he will peacefully repose until the resurrection morn, under the sainted benediction: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; yea saith the Spirit, for they shall rest from their labours, and their works do follow them."
May the present example of our mortality incite us to make the necessary preparations for eternity, so that when it shall please Almighty God to call us hence we may be prepared to meet Him. May we not halt between two opinions in the matter of our eternal welfare, but choose that better part which not even death with its gloomy horrors will be able to deprive us of in the lonely perishability of our nature and the perpetuity of our friendship. We deposit this token in the grave of the departed to signify that our love for him reaches beyond the confines of the tomb; and that although we mournfully consign his body to the ground, we do so in the anticipation of a glorious resurrection.
(The Sir Knight Commander will then drop his sprig of evergreen into the grave upon the coffin, and all companions will move around the grave each depositing a sprig of evergreen …)
