The National Secular Society has expressed disappointment that a Kent council has voted to introduce prayers at meetings.
Today, Kent County Council voted 46-15 in favour of changing the council’s constitution to specify meetings will start with a recital of the ‘lord’s prayer’, despite opposition from multiple parties. There were six abstentions.
Amendments to have a moment of silent reflection, or for the prayers to be said prior to the official agenda beginning, were defeated.
Prayers have not been said at Kent County Council meetings since 1987.
The NSS, which urged all councillors prior to the meeting to oppose the plans, called the proposal “a regressive and divisive move which sends entirely the wrong message to the people of Kent”.
Councillors call plans “ridiculous farce”, “performative virtue-signalling”
The plans were put forward by Reform UK councillor Christopher Hespe. Kent County Council came under Reform control year. Reform UK councillors also imposed prayers on Derbyshire County Council last year after the party took control of the council.
Opposing the amendment to have a silent moment of reflection, Council Leader Linden Kemkaran said she wanted the lord’s prayer to “take up the space” of that silence.
She said the lord’s prayer is a “profound unifier”.
Reform councillor Spencer Dixon called the opposition to the plans “fake outrage”.
Fellow Reform councillor Terry Mole said that while he does not know if he’s a Christian and he doesn’t go to church, he does pray to win the lottery and said that councillors who do not want to listen to the lord’s prayer should just ‘bow their head’.
Cllr Mole also said most councillors would be buried in a churchyard. In fact, 78% of people in Britain are cremated.
Paul Webb, another Reform councillor, appeared to suggest that Islamic prayers said in Birmingham City Council were a reason to bring Christian prayers into Kent County Council.
Several Reform councillors said the UK is a “Christian country”.
But Liberal Democrat councillors and opposition leader Antony Hood pointed to census data which shows Christians are a minority in the UK.
He added it was “appalling” to suggest that there was fake outrage about the plans, and that this change in constitution was taking place without consultation because local people would find it “horrifying”.
Mike Sole (pictured), another Lib Dem councillor, said he had spoken to local religious leaders who had said they “don’t think the lord’s prayer is appropriate”.
Green Party councillor Stuart Heaver called the debate “a lot of nonsense”, saying he was “embarrassed” to be discussing prayers amid other “really pressing” issues in Kent.
Fellow Green Cllr Rob Yates said it was a “ridiculous farce” to be paid by taxpayers to pray. Cllr Paul Stepto, another Green, called it “performative virtue-signalling”, and said meetings and other business “should be secular”.
Conservative councillor Bill Barret said he “wasn’t elected to say prayers in this chamber” and that the plan represents “a slight creep on the agenda we were elected on”. He added that as an atheist, introducing prayers made him feel “slightly uncomfortable”.
Some Restore Britain councillors expressed scepticism about the plans although several voted for them. Oliver Bradshaw said as a practising Anglican, the lord’s prayer is “deeply important” and he did not want it to become “political theatre” or turned into a Reform “plot”. Restore’s Maxine Fothergill said the plans do not reflect residents’ priorities.
But in response to the NSS’s letter, Restore councillor Brian Black said “for someone to state this is not a Christian Country is devices [sic], insulting and suppressive”.
Robert Ford, another Restore councillor, told the NSS regarding the plans: “I do not believe this is discriminate [sic] against other religion, and if you were to say this in other countrys [sic] around the world you would be put on charges of blasphemy.”
Before the vote, Cllr Hespe said it was “astonishing” to see “hostility” towards the lord’s prayer, claiming it was “about heritage” and “our roots”.
Many councils have stopped holding prayers before meetings to make them inclusive of people of all religions and beliefs. This includes St Albans City and District Council, which voted last year to end prayers because they may “exclude or alienate individuals of different faiths or those without religious beliefs”.
Kent County Council also voted to end meetings by singing the national anthem.
The prayers will be introduced at the next council meeting on July 16th.
NSS: Vote “places Christianity on a pedestal above all religions and beliefs”
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: “This is a regressive and divisive move which sends entirely the wrong message to the people of Kent.
“It places Christianity on a pedestal above all religions and beliefs, contradicting values like tolerance, inclusion and equality.
“It also serves a Christian nationalist agenda which seeks to equate Christian identity with Britishness, and further break down separation of religion and state. This is not the way to foster community cohesion or equal citizenship.”