Council Prayers

Many local councils include prayers as part of the formal meetings. We argue that it is wholly inappropriate for a group of publicly-elected members to appear corporately to subscribe to any religious beliefs, far less one in particular.

Furthermore, for local democracy to be representative we think it is imperative that the Council reflects the diversity of the community it serves and moves away from practices that deter full involvement from all sections of that community. We are aware of potential candidates who will not put their names forward for election because participation in prayers is against their personal values. This deprives local democracy of potential new members and diversity. For Councillors who do still come forward to represent their communities, Prayers can create a feeling of exclusion. A senior local cleric has also made it known that he believes that prayers are not appropriate in Council meetings.

Everyone should be free to practise their faith, just as they should be free not to have one. Our campaign does not deny anybody the right to pray, but we do question the appropriateness of a council meeting as a place for prayers. We regard acts of worship in council meetings as a key secular issue concerning the separation of religion from politics.

From the research we conducted, we estimate that just over half of all UK councils begin their proceedings with prayers. The vast majority of these conduct Christian prayers, others have built in a multi-faith element to their worship.

What have we done?

In 2011 the NSS launched a legal challenge to council prayers after being contacted by a local Councillor in Bideford who felt his rights as a non-religious member of the Council were being impeded by the inclusion of worship on the formal agenda of their meeting. Lawyers advised the NSS that the practice of a local authority conducting prayers during meetings was likely to be unlawful. The Court agreed the case was worthy of further examination and granted permission for a judicial review.

A judicial review is a mechanism for challenging the decision of a public body. judicial review can be applied for in relation to any public body, including government departments, local authorities and any organisation exercising a public function. The grounds for such cases will usually be that the body acted illegally or irrationally or that the decision was reached unfairly because of a defect in the procedure which led to the decision.

The judicial review was heard at the High Court on 2 December 2011 and we are currently awaiting a judgement. A full report of hearing can be read here.

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