Dr. Kenneth Milne in a personal paper to the Conference of European Churches has outlined the approach taken by the Church of Ireland in what were politically divergent approaches to social issues in the two jurisdictions.
He states,”given the overwhelming numerical strength of the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic, and the effectiveness of that church’s discipline, social legislation and social mores in the Republic, especially where family matter such as divorce and contraception were concerned, have, until comparatively recently, been strongly influenced by Roman Catholic teaching. Because Northern Ireland has experienced since the 1940s the benefits of the British welfare state and of a largely free education service, and it is only in more recent years that social welfare provision in the Republic has begun to match that in the United Kingdom, society in the two jurisdictions has developed along separate lines.”.
Dr Milne contends that there has been a convergence in process in recent times
He says,” This is due to several factors affecting the Republic in particular. The economy of the Republic has made huge advances, recent setbacks notwithstanding, enabling the state to intervene to a much greater extent in social provision. Whereas in the past health and education services in the Republic were largely dependent on church effort, mainly, but by no means solely, under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, this extremely high church profile in social provision is in decline. Again, because of immigration to Ireland, partly, but not exclusively from within Europe, the Republic has become a much more diverse society than had traditionally been the case, bringing about a situation where the Muslim population is the third largest faith community after the Roman Catholic Church and the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. A further agent of change has been the revelation of grave shortcomings in the past in the Roman Catholic Church’s response to serious abuses in some church-run institutions, so that that church’s influence may not be what once it was.
“In an endeavour to meet such a transformation of society in the Republic, the government has initiated a consultation process whereby it intends to meet with representatives of the churches and other faith communities on a regular basis. However, as with the citizens’ initiative provided for by the Lisbon Treaty, this Irish initiative will in large measure depend on the churches themselves if it is to bear fruit”
He refers to different initiatives taken in Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The full text is available on the C of I web site at:
http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=news&newsid=3188
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