Lay Sorority

The Lay Sorority (Dael Siúreachas do Nithe Tuata) is one of the three chambers of government in Odann. Uniquely in the developed world, it is the only organ of government exclusively composed of church officials; this is perhaps one of the most obvious manifestations of the extent to which organised Cairony dominates daily life in the Sacred Kingdom.

The usually-used Ellish name is somewhat misleading in that its membership is definitely not comprised of laypersons; all members of the Sorority are accredited officiants of the Argan of Odann, up to and including the Holy Mother herself (although her own activities within it are largely ex officio). The full Dael name translates more correctly as “Sisterhood for Lay Matters”, more properly indicating its remit; however, the short form has gained more widespread currency outside Odann.

Origins

The Lay Sorority in its current form dates from 1774, and was largely the work of Niamh ní Shé, then the Holy Mother. Although the Argan had always had a strong influence within government councils – a state of affairs going back as far as the Convocation of Gárran na Ríthe in 1229 – its governing body, the Holy Council, had encountered increasing resistance to its involvement outside purely churchly matters, with the Council of Nobility sternly enforcing its traditional prerogatives. The end of the Third Reform War, and the apparently permanent schism between the Orthodox and Reform branches of Cairony which it had confirmed, had nonetheless strengthened the hand of the Argan in a country where the Reformists were coming to be seen as “dangerous foreign radicals”. Ní Shé, whose personal prestige was close to its height after her denunciation of the Savamese Holy Mother Téodora de Beldopoule some two years earlier, persuaded the Defender of Odann, Liam VIII, to accept an expansion of the existing Holy Council (which, in its strictly clerical role, effectively became a subset of the larger body), thus more closely mirroring the existing Council of Nobility. Liam, although somewhat sceptical, was sufficiently disinterested in church matters – and very interested in any Odannach claims to supremacy, secular or faithly – as to yield the point to the Holy Mother.

Ní Shé, given a fairly free hand, used this opportunity to vastly increase the numbers of churchwomen in government. The new Lay Sorority was almost seven times as large as the existing Holy Council, drawing its membership from across the church community – down to the level of individual temples in some instances – with its name chosen to reflect that, although it was a church-based body, its remit would not be confined to matters of faith alone. The resultant creation was of similar size and stature to the Council of Nobility, and has remained as a counterweight to the older body since then, forming a part of an tríchosach, “the tripod”, since the establishment of the Chamber of the People in 1887.

Recent years

The Lay Sorority has become increasingly embattled in the last three decades, since the accession to the throne of Ultan II. The new Defender has been one of the most visible exponents of a philosophy within government that Odann was essentially the victim of an unjust war in the 1950s, and that its will to fight was sapped by incompetence bordering upon treason by its leadership at that time. In this context, the Argan was a distinctly viable target; as a body, it had withdrawn its support for the war in its later stages following the 1956 Autumn Leaves address, pushing for a negotiated settlement, and this had led to the imprisonment of several leading churchwomen on sedition charges.

The Lay Sorority has been a severe critic of Odann’s military build-up under Ultan, which it sees as inconsistent with the aims of Restoration, and as a drain on resources which could be more effectively used elsewhere. It has been claimed by some observers of Odannach politics that it is only the profound respect for the Argan within Odann that has prevented Ultan from taking more overt action against it and against the Lay Sorority.

However, this is not to suggest that the body promotes more generally progressive attitudes; it has gone some way to actively hindering the kind of socially progressive programs which have been displayed in Savam and other Reform Cairan countries, and it frequently seems to view developments in the Reform sphere as potentially dangerous moves towards greater individualism, which will ultimately distract from the more critically important work of Restoration. A not-untypical view was that of the then Holy Mother Sinead an hÉadrom in a 1969 address to the Sorority, in which she asserted that “if everyone tries to get everything of what they want, no-one will get enough of what they need.” Sorority legislators have perhaps been more active than their counterparts in the other houses of government in creating laws to hamstring the collectivist movement (still regarded as heretical within Orthodox Cairony). This has gained the Sorority something of a reputation for regarding opposition as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end – while possessing sufficient weight to make that opposition emphatic; a television comedy in which the Argan of Odann was described with the slogan “ach a rá ar bith” (“just say no”) was taken off the air after one episode in 1977 following protests by the Lay Sorority.

Operation

While the smaller Holy Council continues to operate from Cairn in eastern Odann, the traditional base of operations for the Argan, the Lay Sorority is based in Ráth, alongside the other houses of government, the Council of Nobility and the Council of the People. It maintains a physical separation from the others, and has met at the purpose-built Teach Bhrigid na hIorras in the city’s eastern suburbs since 1982. While the Holy Mother is officially the leader of the Sorority, her actual status is principally ex officio, given her other responsibilities within the argan. Day-to-day control of the Sorority rests with the Mother in Council (Máthair i Tionól); this has, almost of necessity, become one of the more influential positions within the argan’s remit, and has been often held by experienced matrons and church officials with a view to their becoming more “fully seasoned” before actively being considered as potential Holy Mothers. In many instances the Mother in Council has been additionally one of the Advisors to the Defender, a group drawn from all three houses of government and the equivalent of a cabinet in other Messenian countries.

The existence of three governing bodies has frequently been cited as one of the main reasons for the slow pace of Odannach government, as well as a significant brake on change within the country, since all three houses must support new developments before they are presented to the Defender for his approval. This has been difficult for extended periods in the past, and was perhaps demonstrated at its worst by the Great Impasse of 1920, in which all three houses were deadlocked and government in Odann effectively ceased to function for more than three weeks in Metrial and Floridy of that year.