General Meeting and Dinner (April 2019) – The Enlightenment in Australia (Part 2):

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The second Edmund Burke’s Club general meeting for 2019 will be held on Friday, 26th April at the Melbourne Savage Club. Attendees are asked to arrive at 6 pm for a 6:30 pm start.

The presentation will be on the topic of Archbishop John Polding and his response to the forces of the Enlightenment in Australia. Like our last talk, club President Lucas McLennan will draw upon aspects of his own Master’s research into this topic area.

Whereas in the last presentation, the focus was on the life and times of the first Australian Anglican Bishop, this paper will look at the Catholic Church.

At the conclusion of the talk, there will be a two course dinner with wine included, at the Savage Club, for $65 per person. Attendees are asked to book and pay online at the following link:
https://www.trybooking.com/BCHJC

General Meeting (February 2019) – The Enlightenment in Australia:

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The first Edmund Burke’s Club of Australia general meeting for 2019 will be held on Friday, 22nd February at the Savage Club – arrive at 6:00pm for a start at 6:30pm.

The presentation will be on the topic of the Enlightenment in Australia and the involvement of several key political and ecclesial figures in opposing aspects of this movement. President Lucas McLennan will draw upon aspects of his Master’s research into this topic area.

Dinner will take place afterwards at a nearby Italian restaurant after the meeting. Please note that this is a different location from the usual arrangement at the RACV Club. The RSVP date is Tuesday 19 February and can be made via email at edmundburkeclub@gmail.com.

December General Meeting 2018:

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The final Edmund Burke’s Club of Australia General Meeting for 2018 will be held on Friday, 7th December at the Savage Club. Members and guests are asked to arrive at 6 pm for pre-drinks with the talk to commence from 6:30 pm.Our speaker at the meeting will be Mr Patrick Byrne, the National President of the National Civic Council. He will be presenting on his recent publication, ‘Transgender: One Shade of Grey”.

 

We will also be holding a two-course (main and dessert) dinner at the Savage Club at the conclusion of the meeting. The price for this dinner will be $75.00. This price includes drinks during dinner.

We hope that you will be able to join us for this occasion.

The RSVP date is Tuesday, 4th November, which can be made via our email address at edmundburkeclub@gmail.com.

A reminder that the dress code for the Savage Club is tie & jacket for men and the equivalent for ladies.

Thank you once again for your support of the Edmund Burke’s Club in 2018.

 

Annual General Meeting – 2018:

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The Edmund Burke’s Club of Australia Inc. will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2018-19 on Friday, 19 October 2018 at the Savage Club in Melbourne. The business of the AGM will involve the conduction of elections for the forthcoming year on the Club executive. Members and guests are asked to arrive by 6 pm for drinks and finger food. The meeting will then commence at 6:30 pm sharp.

Following this, we will hear from philosophy student Hugh Samuel-King’s concerning the important and decisive role that late medieval philosopher, William of Ockham, played with respect to the development of western society.

As usual, we will have dinner at the RACV Club afterwards.

The RSVP date is Tuesday, 16th October, which can be made via our email address at edmundburkeclub@gmail.com.

A reminder that the dress code for the Savage Club is tie & jacket for men and the equivalent for ladies.

Finally, a reminder for all members who haven’t yet renewed their membership for 2018-19 (or for those who joined us recently as guests or visitors) that this can be done via electronic funds transfer using the following details:

BSB: 083-781 Acct No: 142948446 Acct Name: EDMUND BURKE’S CLUB AUSTRALIA (INC)

Membership fees are as follows:

Entrance fee (once only) $25.00 Annual membership fee: $50.00 Student membership yearly flat fee: $25.00 (no entrance fee)

For those wishing to be by cash, the Treasurer will be available before the meeting to accept cash payments. 

General Meeting (June 2018) – William Pitt the Younger and Revolutionary France:

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A General Meeting of the Edmund Burke’s Club of Australia will be held on Friday, 15 June 2018, at the Melbourne Savage Club – arrive at 6 pm for pre-drinks with the talk to commence from 6:30 pm, which will be delivered by one of our own club members, Mr Brendan Tam.

Brendan will be speaking on the topic of William Pitt the Younger and his role in the defeat of Revolutionary France in the Napoleonic Wars. This topic is of particular interest to our Club due to the importance of Pitt and the conflict with France to the historical context surrounding Edmund Burke and the spirit of the revolution.

Brendan has recently completed his honours thesis on this topic at the University of Melbourne.

As usual, we will have dinner at the RACV Club afterwards. RSVPs for those able to attend the meeting and/or the dinner are needed by Tuesday, 12 June and can be made by contacting edmundburkeclub@gmail.com.

As always, the dress code will be tie and jacket for men and the equivalent for ladies.

Edmund Burke’s Club Conference 2018

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The Edmund Burke’s Club of Australia’s annual conference for 2018 will be held on Saturday, 24th of February.

This important event will explore the meaning of conservatism in today’s world with the assistance of three eminent scholars in their fields.

A dinner will be held in the evening at Geppetto Trattoria in East Melbourne from 7 pm. No pre-payment is necessary.

Tickets for the conference are $40 and registration is now open through TryBooking from the link below:
https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=343093&

Further information about the programme for the day can be found immediately below on this page.

The RSVP date for the event will be Monday, 19 February 2018.

Conference Venue: Clifton’s Conference Venue 1440 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000

The Conference Program:

All presentations will be followed by a plenary discussion and questions from the audience.

9:00 am – 10:00 am:

Registration

10:00 am – 11:00 am:

What does it mean to be a conservative in a digital, post-Christian age? – Dr Kevin Donnelly

11:00 am – 11:30 am:

Morning tea

11:30 am -12:30 pm:

Conservatism today – Dr John Carroll

12:30 pm -1:30 pm:

Lunch

1:30 pm -2:30 pm:

Understanding and challenging the discourse of the left – Dr Jennifer Webber

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Afternoon tea

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: 

Plenary discussion

CONCLUSION

2nd EBC Meeting for 2017 (Friday, 21 April)

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Friends,

I would like to again thank those of you who attended our first meeting for 2017. The discussion and contributions made by attendees were all very illuminating and this bodes well for future meetings.

Our second meeting for 2017 will be held on Friday, 21 April.

We will once again be meeting at the Melbourne Savage Club. Our Vice President, Dr. Peter Janssen, will be presenting a paper on Edmund Burke and his thought with regards to England’s ‘Glorious’ Revolution.

There will be a slightly different format for this meeting. Rather than gathering for dinner at the RACV Club after the meeting we will instead be having unique evening at the Savage Club.
We will meet later (at 7:45pm) at the Savage Club for a 2 hour function including food and beverages.

The price of this event is $45.00 (beverages included). You are able to book through the Trybooking link below.

I hope you will be able to attend this interesting discussion. The RSVP date is Thursday 13 April. While there will be a Facebook page please reply to this email if you plan to attend.

Yours sincerely,

Lucas McLennan
President
Edmund Burke’s Club of Australia

TryBooking link:
https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=274171

Edmund Burke Conference 2016

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Edmund Burke’s Club (Australia) Inc is organizing its second annual conference on the political philosophy of Edmund Burke at the Clifton Conference Centre in the Melbourne CBD for Saturday 19th of November 2016. The conference theme will be the state of conservatism in Australia seen through the framework of the thought of Edmund Burke. A dinner will be held at Melbourne’s Savage Club on the evening of the conference.

An examination of the state of conservatism in Australia is a pressing task. For some years, it has become apparent that some self-described conservatives have a deficient idea of what conservatism is as a political philosophy. The aim of the 2016 Edmund Burke conference will be to present a clear understanding of the political and philosophical issues. Edmund Burke’s historical context and the influence of his thought in Australia and on modern conservatives such as Michael Oakeshott and Roger Scruton will be examined.

The Edmund Burke Conference 2016 will be a marvellous opportunity for conservatives and those whose interest in conservatism has been recently sparked to be become engaged. Political events in Australia during the last few years – especially the demise of Tony Abbott and his government – call on conservatives to clarify their philosophical position and discuss action to counter the grip of leftist thought on Australian state and society.

For information about the conference go HERE

Conservatism Beyond Markets

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Anthony Daniels

R. S. Thomas, the Welsh poet, was curmudgeonly by nature and when he saw how the Czechs used their freedom after the destruction of the Berlin Wall he was appalled, all the more so as he had detested communism. The first fruits of their freedom were precisely the things in modernity that he most disliked or despised, such as a vulgar consumerism and a militant licentiousness. In the same vein, Generalissimo Franco told General Walters that after his death there would be everything in Spain that they (the Americans) liked: democracy, pornography, etc.

Conservatives are attached both to freedom and to the preservation of a cultured tradition. There sometimes seems to be a conflict between the two, in so far as the exercise of freedom results in the destruction of a cultured tradition. In this respect, some socialists have been more conservative than some conservatives: Their ideal was the extension of the appreciation and availability of the best of civilization to those who previously had little access to it, rather than the radical destruction of that civilization that now seems to be the main aim of radicals—a destruction that market forces alone also successfully effect.

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Belloc versus Tolkien: Two Views of Anglo-Saxon England

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hastingsEditor’s Note: Joseph Pearce has written this article to commemorate the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, which falls on this day.

Picture the scene. An expectant audience, which includes the great Catholic writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, awaits the arrival of another great Catholic writer, Hilaire Belloc, the latter of whom has been invited by the University chaplain, Monsignor Ronald Knox, to give a talk to the Catholic chaplaincy at Oxford University. Seated just behind Tolkien as Belloc gives his talk is the celebrated Jesuit Fr. Martin D’Arcy, who records what subsequently transpired in his memoirs:

In his talk Belloc came out with one of his pet themes: that the Anglo-Saxons were utterly unimportant in the history of England. Now, there was present on this occasion a man who was probably the greatest authority in the world on Anglo-Saxon subjects and was the professor of Anglo-Saxon history [sic] at the time. He is presently professor of English Literature at Oxford. The man’s name is Tolkien, and he was a very good Catholic …. Well, Tolkien disagreed profoundly with Belloc on the question of the Anglo-Saxons. He was sitting just in front of me, and I saw him writhing as Belloc came out with some of his more extreme remarks. So during the interval, I said to him, ‘Oh, Tolkien, now you’ve got your chance. You’d better tackle him.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Gracious me! Do you think I would tackle Belloc unless I had my whole case very carefully prepared?’ He knew Belloc would always pull some fact out of his sleeve which would disconcert you! Now, that was a tremendous tribute from probably the greatest authority in the world at the time on that particular subject.*

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