News
150 Disestablishment Colloquium
As part of an ongoing series of events to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland a colloquium was held at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute on Saturday 30th November. A sizable audience gathered to hear papers by three leading authorities on church history in an Irish context. Miriam Moffitt spoke insightfully and in detail about some of the ways in which the Disestablishment created the possibility of a constitutional crisis in London, and how many of those at the heart of British government, including Queen Victoria, formed a complex network of information exchange and political anxiety. Alan Ford delivered a paper on the ways in which the Church of Ireland’s disestablishment impacted upon the power structures of the church and the influence this had on the ways in which Canon Laws were understood, followed (or not!) and enforced in the Church’s new–found status. Finally, Salvador Ryan followed in a long tradition of making a Roman Catholic response to the debate, speaking about the impact that the Disestablishment Act and consequent disendowment had on other Christian denominations in Ireland, with a particular focus on the effects on the seminary at Maynooth and its funding.
Welcome : The Revd Canon Dr Maurice Elliott
Professor Alan Ford ‘“Flagrant breeches”: the making, breaking and re–making of the Church of Ireland canons, 1870–1974’.
Dr Miriam Moffitt ‘“Truly thankful do I feel”: a constitutional crisis averted by the queen’
Professor Salvador Ryan ‘A Roman Catholic Perspective on 150 Years of Disestablishment’