IN ITS own way it was a historic moment. On the lawn of the Church of Ireland College of Education in south Dublin stood the education representatives of almost every religious faith in Ireland Catholic, Protestant and Muslim.
They were united in their determination to resist Niamh Bhreathnach's efforts to reform Irish education by passing the control of schools to boards of management equally representative of parents, teachers and church interests.
The Church of Ireland, whose sensibilities as a once embattled minority are particularly tender when they feel their schools are threatened, had organised the event. Their senior education spokesman, the Ven Gordon Linney, said the realisation of the unanimous religious opposition to the Education Bill's proposals on the control of schools had only emerged in the previous 72 hours.
But the seeds of co operation between the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland on the issue went back to the beginning of the 1990s. The secretary of the Hierarchy's education commission, Father Dan O'Connor, said they had been consulting closely ever since the days of Mary O'Rourke's Green Paper.
It was clear that on this occasion the Catholic Church was happy to take a back seat, knowing that its arguments were being put most forcefully by a spokesman for the main minority church.
It knows that throughout the education reform debate of recent years the Government has been acutely aware of Protestant sensitivities, conscious that any attempt to impose reform against their wishes would inevitably be seen by their fearful northern coreligionists as a restriction of Protestant freedoms in the Republic.
The unprecedented depth of the churches' concern and the breadth of the religious alliance against the Bill was clear from the turn out for yesterday's press conference. All the heavyweights of Catholic education were represented: Sister Eileen Randles of the Catholic Primary School Managers' Association, Mr George O'Callaghan of the Association of Managers of Catholic Secondary Schools, and Sister Teresa McCormack of the Conference of Religious in Ireland.
On the Protestant side, Archdeacon Linney was joined by the secretary of the Church of Ireland board of education, Mr David Meredith. Mr Brian Duffy, the Rev Graham Hamilton and Mr Brian Murdock represented the Presbyterians, the Methodists and the Quakers respectively. Archdeacon Linney said the Jewish community supported their stand.
The Muslim Imam, Mr Yahya Al Hussein, put their case most bluntly and simply. "We would prefer denominational education, supported by the State, to continue." Such a system would be better than one "controlled by the State". Archdeacon Linney spoke of the "great fear" they shared chat the Education Bill would start opening doors - that was the image used - until eventually the churches' running of schools would be totally undermined.
They were "most unhappy" that under the Bill the Department of Education would have the power to impose boards of management with which the religious owners of the schools did not agree.
The Church of Ireland leadership is known to be deeply concerned that their school boards of governors and similar ownership - bodies will in future have no say either in the managing of their schools' assets or any way of ensuring the maintenance of their schools' distinctive Protestant ethos.
All the churches clearly believe that the Education Bill is the first step towards creeping state control of the church dominated Irish schools system. "The Bill seems to give the impression that boards of management would relate to the Minister for Education and the education boards in a way that they currently relate to the patron, said Archdeacon Linney.
For the Methodists, Mr Hamilton called the Bill a "statutory takeover of our schools. The patron will have no input into management. The Methodist Conference is the patron of our schools, but it will be helpless to actually do anything about either ethos or day to day structures."
Archdeacon Linney thought the Bill might be unconstitutional on the grounds that it could restrict the right of religious bodies to own and administer institutions for educational purposes.
He referred reporters to the "brilliant analysis" of the Bill by the Catholic Church's Conference of Religious. CORI argued last month that the Bill might be unconstitutional because it so misrepresented religious patrons' role that it would be impossible for them "to actively engage in influencing the direction of the school in relation to matters of ethos".
Sister Teresa McCormack of CORI said yesterday her main concerns were the Bill's failure to reflect the White Paper's commitment to a diversity of school types, and the right of the patrons to "protect and promote" the particular religious ethos of their schools.
She referred to the White Paper's acknowledgment that this protection and promotion were a legitimate right of patrons, trustees and owners, and that they should have "the practical means to discharge this responsibility".
Fianna Fail's education spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin, yesterday agreed with Sister McCormack, saying that the Bill would undermine both the role of the patrons and the autonomy of lay and religious run voluntary secondary schools in particular.
He also agreed that it was contrary to the White Paper's commitment to "nurture and maintain a diverse range of educational provision". He promised that if a Fianna Fail government was returned it would scrap these sections.