DISESTABLISHMENT

movement for the separation of Church and State: theoretically founded on the contention that a connection between the secular power and the Church, which is a religious organization whose head is Christ, is incompatible with the nature and rights of the Church. As a practical political question disestablishment is proposed, to abolish what is described as an unjust preference given to one particular religious organization in the State over others. The suggestion that the absence of a State Church tends to irreligion is rebutted by reference to those countries which have no State Church, The Church of Ireland (Episcopal) was disestablished in 1869. The Welsh Disestablishment Bill became law on Sept. 18, 1914: but a Suspensory Act, which became law on the same day, postponed disestablishment until a date fixed by Order in Council after the end of the war, March 31, 1920. In France the separation in Church and State was brought about in 1905.