Bishop defends Town Council prayers
From Inspire Magazine
The Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury has strongly defended the right of a Shropshire town council to say prayers before its meetings as an independent councillor seeks to get the practice stopped.
Pre-empting a debate due to take place at Wellington Town Council this week, on a motion calling for the traditional start-of-meeting prayers to be deleted from the agenda, the Rt Revd Mark Rylands said: “I fully support Council members in continuing to offer prayers before their meetings begin. Prayers are said at each day in business in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Attendance at these prayers is completely voluntary and no one is forced to actively participate. The saying of prayers before meetings is an integral part of the British system of government.
“Prayers remind councillors that they are answerable not only to themselves but also to those beyond the Chamber. Those who pray remind themselves they are answerable to God.
“Those who do not wish to pray can easily absent themselves from the prayers or merely remain silent while those around them pray. However, if prayers are not allowed then those who wish to exercise their freedom to have corporate prayers will have their freedom denied. I hope therefore that the tradition of offering prayers will continue.”
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
