Events to mark Disestablishment 150

As you may know, the Church of Ireland is currently marking the 150th anniversary of its Disestablishment (summarised succinctly as D150). The Act of Union 1800 united the Churches of England and Ireland ‘into one Protestant Episcopal Church’, a status which continued until the Irish Church Act 1869. Our theme – ‘free to shape your own future’ – reflects the independence which the Church experienced from that time onwards.

Forthcoming events will include:

special choral evensong on this theme at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh (Sunday, 22 September 2019);
a free public lecture by Professor Stewart Brown (Edinburgh University) entitled: ‘Dissolving the Sacred Union: The Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, 1869’ at the Armagh Robinson Library (Tuesday, 8 October 2019);
as part of the Dublin Festival of History, the Church of Ireland Historical Society is hosting a talk by Dr Miriam Moffitt. Her lecture is entitled: ‘”Betrayed by friend and foe alike”: the unlikely collusion of politicians and prelates in the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland’. It will be held at St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin (Thursday 10 October at 8 pm). All welcome and free of charge.
the national commemorative service at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, followed by a panel discussion in conjunction with the Swift Festival with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Mary McAleese and others (Saturday, 23 November 2019);
Disestablishment Colloquium, including talks by Professor Alan Ford, Dr Miriam Moffitt and Professor Salvador Ryan at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (Saturday, 30 November 2019);
a half-day Royal Irish Academy conference (Thursday, 27 February 2020);
Church of Ireland Historical Society will dedicate its winter conference to mark Disestablishment at Christ Church Cathedral (Saturday 7 November 2020);
a service in Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, to ‘book-end’ the programme (Sunday, 22 November 2020) with the Archbishop of Wales preaching.

For more information on all of the above, please check out our D150 website – www.ireland.anglican.org/d150 – or contact our D150 co-ordinator, Caoimhe Leppard, at caoimhe.leppard@rcbdub.org

The Church of Ireland is marking the 150th anniversary of Disestablishment over the course of the next year

We’re keen to spread the word about D150 as widely as possible and any assistance with this would be much appreciated. We hope that this will be of interest in your research and also look forward to maybe meeting you and your colleagues at these events over the next while.