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Prayers at Council Meetings
In January, Dartmouth Town Council voted to continue with prayers, but atheist Councillor Brian Boughton got into trouble for wearing his iPod during the prayers - he said it was turned off but he was wearing it as a protest.
In May the North Devon Journal reported that the new Mayor of Bideford, Councillor Andy Powell had decided to replace prayers with a two minute contemplative silence. We all got excited about this development but it turned out to be a false report based on the fact that a Quaker conducted a two minute silence in the prayer slot at just one meeting ... the prayers at Bideford Town Council continue.
In November a Bideford councillor criticised two of his fellow councillors for not attending the Remembrance Sunday church service even though they had attended the Remembrance Parade and the two minutes silence at the War Memorial. This only served to re-ignite the row about prayers
In December the National Secular Society decided to put its full weight behind the campaign to end prayers and the society's solicitors sent a letter to Bideford Town Council advising them that prayers during council meetings are in conflict with human rights provisions.
We are currently awaiting the response from the council but 2010 should see a return to full scale campaigning and the prospect of legal action in the courts. The new provisions in the Equality Act that will come into force early in 2010 may prove to be decisive at last.
In October 2008 a complaint was made to the Standards Board of England about the prayers at Bideford Town Council. This followed the defeat of a motion proposed to the council on 11th September to substitute a period of reflective silence for the prayers. The motion was defeated by 8 to 5.
The complaint was brushed aside by the Standards Board. Their Director of Casework Hazel Salisbury wrote that 'we have decided to take no further action. This is because we do not take the view that the complaints, if proven, would amount to a breach of the Code of Conduct. I do not think that for a council to have prayers is a breach of any of the relevant equality legislation'.
In the Summer and Autumn of 2008 after complaints by Devon Humanists, Devon County Council and North Devon District Council both considered the matter of prayers and consulted with their legal advisors and the elected body of councillors. In both case the councils decided to continue with prayers. Some councillors were outraged that this 'tradition' should be called into question.
Geoffrey Cox (MP for Torridge ie Bideford) put down two Commons questions in 2008 about council prayers - but did not obtain any substantive guidance from ministers.
Many councils throughout the UK begin their meetings with prayers, mostly Christian in nature. This surprises many people and has disturbed Devon Humanists for some time. Having prayers at meetings is genuinely off-putting for many people, from the outside it looks as if you need to be part of a special clique to participate in local government either as a member of the public or as a prospective councillor for election. The standing of local councils is diminished by this gulf of understanding between the tax payers and their governing councils. You would expect there to be quite a few atheist and agnostic councillors if they genuinely represent the people of Britain, so why do they just go along with the prayers? That means that the first thing they do in a council meeting is to pay lip service to something they don't believe in ... a fine example of civic responsibility and a fine opportunity for cynics to say that having prayers sets the tone for the whole council meeting to pay lip service to a whole load of things they don't believe in!
In 2007 Totnes Town Council voted to replace prayers before council meetings with a period for quiet reflection. The Chairman of Devon Humanists then wrote to Devon County Council and to the ten district councils in Devon to alert them to the Totnes decision and to ask them to give consideration to making a similar decision. Of those councils who responded only East Devon Council do not hold prayers - they still don't and East Devon has not fallen into the sea (well OK some of it has ... but that's just coastal erosion). Devon County Council continue to hold prayers but said that the council would only consider such a request from a member of the council.
In 2008 it became clear that councils that have prayers at meetings may well be in breach of a number of the new equality and anti-discrimination laws. The situation was highlighted by a local councillor who is a Humanist and Devon Humanists began a campaign to end prayers at council meetings. The campaign has been taken up by the BHA and the NSS.
Advice from the National Association of Local Councils legal department states that 'Council should consider removing the saying of prayers to ensure compliance with general statutory duty set out in s. 71 (1) of the 1976 (Race Discrimination) Act and to eliminate any risk of challenge under the Human Rights Act 1998'. Many councils now expressly state an Equality & Discrimination policy that is directly at odds with continuing to have prayers at council meetings. In some parts of the country councils have taken note of their own policy statements and have ceased prayers but a surprising number - even the new unitary authorities - have retained prayers as 'being traditional'.
Council prayer watch - does your council start its meetings with prayers?
| Council | Has prayers? | Last checked on | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Devon County Council | |||||
| East Devon District Council | ||||||
| Exeter City Council | ||||||
| Mid Devon District Council | ||||||
| North Devon District Council | ||||||
| Plymouth City Council | ||||||
| South Hams District Council | ||||||
| Teignbridge District Council | ||||||
| Torbay Council | ||||||
| Torridge District Council | ||||||
| West Devon Borough Council | ||||||
| Ashburton Town Council | ||||||
| Bideford Town Council | ||||||
| Dartmouth Town Council | ||||||
| Newton Abbot Town Council | ||||||
| Ottery St Mary Town Council | Totnes Town Council | |||||
| Tavistock Town Council | ||||||
That's all the information that we have gathered so far, derived mostly from looking at the meeting agendas published on the web, but we will continue to update the table - if you know something that we don't then please contact us.
The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Richard Francis Burton