_Email from HAI Member Andrew Devine-Rattigan
to his fellow members
_Dear HAI member,
I am writing to seek your support in order to convene an Extraordinary Meeting of the HAI so that we as members can discuss and vote on issues related to the HAI Board’s decision to endorse the Civil Registration Amendment Act.
The issue
I and other HAI members believe that, in endorsing this law, the HAI Board is in direct conflict with the aims we publicly proclaim on our website. The new law on the face of it allows the HAI to nominate celebrants to be legally allowed to solemnise marriages and so the Board views this as a progressive step. However, in endorsing this law, the HAI has to comply with a set of requirements that religious solemnisers don’t have to adhere to. This is blatant discrimination of the non-religious, something the HAI explicitly purports to campaign against, both on our website and in various documents. Of particular concern is the requirement that secular bodies, in order to qualify to legally solemnise marriages, must not ‘promote a political cause’. Religious bodies are of course free to promote any political cause whilst still being legally allowed to solemnise marriages.
We all know that the HAI openly promotes the political cause of the separation of Church and State. However, the board of the HAI claim they don’t promote a political cause but a social one. I actually accept that the HAI does promote social causes, but in order to advance these causes we have to engage with the political process, thus giving our social causes a political dimension. For example, no one would deny that the campaign for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland was both a social and a political cause. As a member I have great concerns about how endorsing such legislation could affect our work in the future. I ask you to consider whether the board is honouring the principles of equality and non-discrimination that we espouse on our website:
“The HAI campaigns for equal treatment by the state of the non-religious with the religious; the abolition of religious privileges; and ultimately the total separation of Church from State. It aspires to a balanced secular society.”
What I am asking you to do
When I wrote to tell the Board that I was seeking an EGM to discuss these issues, the Board responded by writing to members asking you to support their position by a postal ballot without discussing the issue. This ballot has no legal standing under the Companies Act and has been employed by the board in order to have their say before myself or other members contact you by email or letter. You also need to do one other thing if we the members are to have a chance to discuss and decide on how the HAI responds to this issue. If 10% of us, the members, officially seek an EGM then the Board is legally obliged to hold one. If the Board refuses to convene such an EGM, the law allows us to convene this EGM ourselves.
So I am asking you to contact me supporting the following request:
We the undersigned, as members of the Humanist Association of Ireland, requisition the Board of the Humanist Association of Ireland to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss and vote on the following proposals:
1. That the HAI reiterates our core values of equality and non-discrimination, and our policy of promoting the political cause of a secular state, and we cease to endorse the Civil Registration Act which conflicts with our policy and values.
2. That the HAI ceases to nominate celebrants to become legal solemnisers of marriage under the Civil Registration Act, and any HAI legal solemnisers cease to solemnise marriages, until such time as the Act is amended.
3. That the HAI reiterates our existing policy that a Board member may not hold any salaried office or place of profit under the company, and we clarify that this means that HAI Board members may not be paid humanist celebrants accredited by the HAI.
4. That the HAI will review the process by which we accredit celebrants, including the relative merits of the HAI managing the scheme directly and/or celebrants acting independently, and we will make an informed decision about this at our next AGM.
5. That this EGM appoints, and/or asks the Board to appoint, the following members onto the Board of the HAI: Aaron Keohane, Peter Ferguson; and also asks other HAI members to consider putting themselves forward as Board members.
Please note that I am not asking you to commit to supporting any or all of the motions. All that I am asking you to support is the convening of the EGM so that we, as members, can discuss these issues reasonably and then democratically decide what the HAI should do.
I would be most grateful if you could print your name below, in one of the two options provided to indicate whether you are in agreement, or not, with the calling of an EGM to discuss and vote on these motions.
1. I …………………………………………………………………………………. wish to express my support for the requisition of an EGM of the HAI to discuss and vote on the above motions.
1. I………………………………………………………………………………………do not support the requisition of an EGM of the HAI to discuss and vote on the above motions.
When you have indicated your preference email me at: [email protected]
If you are interested in being involved in facilitating change in the HAI please visit the website of the HAI Reform Group which has been set up by several members hoping to initiate positive changes within the HAI: http://haireformgroup2013.weebly.com/hai-objectives.html
Thank you for your reading and responding to this email.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Devine-Rattigan
I am writing to seek your support in order to convene an Extraordinary Meeting of the HAI so that we as members can discuss and vote on issues related to the HAI Board’s decision to endorse the Civil Registration Amendment Act.
The issue
I and other HAI members believe that, in endorsing this law, the HAI Board is in direct conflict with the aims we publicly proclaim on our website. The new law on the face of it allows the HAI to nominate celebrants to be legally allowed to solemnise marriages and so the Board views this as a progressive step. However, in endorsing this law, the HAI has to comply with a set of requirements that religious solemnisers don’t have to adhere to. This is blatant discrimination of the non-religious, something the HAI explicitly purports to campaign against, both on our website and in various documents. Of particular concern is the requirement that secular bodies, in order to qualify to legally solemnise marriages, must not ‘promote a political cause’. Religious bodies are of course free to promote any political cause whilst still being legally allowed to solemnise marriages.
We all know that the HAI openly promotes the political cause of the separation of Church and State. However, the board of the HAI claim they don’t promote a political cause but a social one. I actually accept that the HAI does promote social causes, but in order to advance these causes we have to engage with the political process, thus giving our social causes a political dimension. For example, no one would deny that the campaign for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland was both a social and a political cause. As a member I have great concerns about how endorsing such legislation could affect our work in the future. I ask you to consider whether the board is honouring the principles of equality and non-discrimination that we espouse on our website:
“The HAI campaigns for equal treatment by the state of the non-religious with the religious; the abolition of religious privileges; and ultimately the total separation of Church from State. It aspires to a balanced secular society.”
What I am asking you to do
When I wrote to tell the Board that I was seeking an EGM to discuss these issues, the Board responded by writing to members asking you to support their position by a postal ballot without discussing the issue. This ballot has no legal standing under the Companies Act and has been employed by the board in order to have their say before myself or other members contact you by email or letter. You also need to do one other thing if we the members are to have a chance to discuss and decide on how the HAI responds to this issue. If 10% of us, the members, officially seek an EGM then the Board is legally obliged to hold one. If the Board refuses to convene such an EGM, the law allows us to convene this EGM ourselves.
So I am asking you to contact me supporting the following request:
We the undersigned, as members of the Humanist Association of Ireland, requisition the Board of the Humanist Association of Ireland to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss and vote on the following proposals:
1. That the HAI reiterates our core values of equality and non-discrimination, and our policy of promoting the political cause of a secular state, and we cease to endorse the Civil Registration Act which conflicts with our policy and values.
2. That the HAI ceases to nominate celebrants to become legal solemnisers of marriage under the Civil Registration Act, and any HAI legal solemnisers cease to solemnise marriages, until such time as the Act is amended.
3. That the HAI reiterates our existing policy that a Board member may not hold any salaried office or place of profit under the company, and we clarify that this means that HAI Board members may not be paid humanist celebrants accredited by the HAI.
4. That the HAI will review the process by which we accredit celebrants, including the relative merits of the HAI managing the scheme directly and/or celebrants acting independently, and we will make an informed decision about this at our next AGM.
5. That this EGM appoints, and/or asks the Board to appoint, the following members onto the Board of the HAI: Aaron Keohane, Peter Ferguson; and also asks other HAI members to consider putting themselves forward as Board members.
Please note that I am not asking you to commit to supporting any or all of the motions. All that I am asking you to support is the convening of the EGM so that we, as members, can discuss these issues reasonably and then democratically decide what the HAI should do.
I would be most grateful if you could print your name below, in one of the two options provided to indicate whether you are in agreement, or not, with the calling of an EGM to discuss and vote on these motions.
1. I …………………………………………………………………………………. wish to express my support for the requisition of an EGM of the HAI to discuss and vote on the above motions.
1. I………………………………………………………………………………………do not support the requisition of an EGM of the HAI to discuss and vote on the above motions.
When you have indicated your preference email me at: [email protected]
If you are interested in being involved in facilitating change in the HAI please visit the website of the HAI Reform Group which has been set up by several members hoping to initiate positive changes within the HAI: http://haireformgroup2013.weebly.com/hai-objectives.html
Thank you for your reading and responding to this email.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Devine-Rattigan