Prayers disappearing from Council meetings

An investigation has shown that only 22 per cent of local councils now have prayers at the start of their meetings.

 

According to the Mail on Sunday, 59 out of 271 town councils include a time of prayer or Bible readings at the start of their meetings.

 

 

The news comes following a high-profile legal challenge to the practice of praying at the start of meetings. 

 

In February 2012, secularists successfully brought legal action against Bideford Town Council for holding prayers. 

 

Mr Justice Ouseley ruled that Bideford Town Council had “no power... to hold prayers as part of a formal local authority meeting, or to summon councillors to such a meeting at which prayers are on the agenda.”

 

 

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, immediately responded to the judgment by declaring that councils could continue with such prayers under the Localism Act.

 

However, the Mayor of Bideford, Trevor Johns, announced that Bideford Council would not resume the prayers, claiming that the Government’s intervention did not go far enough and left the legality of Council prayers in a grey area.

 

“It’s ambiguous at the moment... it worries me. The judiciary are supposed to be the highest law in the land, above Government. How Eric Pickles, out of the goodness of his heart, can overturn the judiciary, I have my doubts.”

 

 

Nevertheless, councils across the country have taken prayers out of their meetings, sometimes in favour of a time of reflection or poetry. 

 

19 of the 271 councils that responded to the Mail on Sunday investigation said they had stopped holding formal prayers as a direct result of the case. 

 

A Sunday Telegraph survey in 2012 showed that 40 councils had dropped or 'watered' down such sessions, in contrast to 21 who would continue with their arrangements.

 

Eric Pickles responded to the pattern:

 

‘It is clear that some politically correct town hall officials are still trying to marginalise faith and impose an illiberal and intolerant secularism. We have given clear guidance that councils can pray and councillors who want to do so should ignore any flawed advice that says otherwise.’