We don't think religious worship should play any part in the formal business of the state.
We want to see parliamentary and local government meetings conducted in a manner equally welcoming to all attendees, whatever their personal beliefs.
Parliamentary prayers
Sittings in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords begin with Anglican prayers. MPs and peers stand for prayers facing the wall behind them – a practice thought to have developed due to the difficulty members would historically have faced of kneeling to pray while wearing a sword.
When the chamber is at its busiest, parliamentary prayers act as a bizarre and antiquated seat reservation system. Even MPs and peers who are slated to speak have no option but to attend prayers in order to reserve a seat.
Whilst they may be viewed by some as an important tradition, parliamentary prayers serve to assert the superiority of Christianity (and the Church of England in particular) at Westminster. This 'tradition' is inimical to a modern, pluralistic, secular democracy.
In the Scottish Parliament, Tuesday afternoon sessions begin with 'Time for Reflection', with faith and belief representatives invited to addresses members for up to four minutes. The Northern Ireland Assembly begins formal business with a period of two minutes of silent prayer or contemplation. The Welsh Assembly has adopted no such rituals.
Parliamentarians who wish to pray are free to do so. But prayers should not form part of the official business of Parliament.
Council prayers
Many local authorities in Britain also begin their meetings with prayer.
Local democracy should be equally welcoming to all sections of society, regardless of their religion or belief. Council meetings should be conducted without anyone feeling excluded, or compelled to either participate in prayers or absent themselves from part of the meeting.
Council prayers open the door to wholly unnecessary conflict and sectarian squabbles within local authorities. There is a history of local councillors being bullied and marginalised for challenging council prayers.
The absence of prayers from the formal business of meetings in no way impedes religious freedoms or denies anybody the right to pray. Conversely, organised worship in secular settings imposes worship on those who do not share the faith. A genuine commitment to freedom of religion or belief is incompatible with including acts of worship in the formal business of council meetings.
If local authorities wish to hold a moment of silent reflection at the beginning of a meeting, or if councillors wish to meet for prayers prior to the meeting, they are at liberty to do so.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Please enter your postcode and urge your MP to support an alternative to parliamentary prayers, to make parliament more welcoming to people of all faiths and none.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue - for example, if you would like to challenge prayers at your own council.
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Town Council divided over prayers in meetings
Posted: Sat, 31 Jan 2015 09:16
The controversial topic of prayers in council meetings has divided local councillors in Hampshire after a recent vote on the matter saw a 3-3 split on Whitchurch Town Council.
Councillor Steven Neilson drew attention to the practice after attending his first meeting, saying that prayers made him feel uncomfortable and that the saying of prayers could be unwelcoming for non- Christians. According to Cllr Nelson only "about half of councillors take part" whilst "others fiddle about quietly" waiting for the prayers to end.
Cllr Neilson said: "I'd like to see our meetings conducted in a manner equally welcoming to all councillors, regardless of their individual religious beliefs or lack of belief. I'm pleased for those who benefit from prayer but for non-Christians it can be intimidating having to sit in silence whilst people pray during a meeting."
He added that the council is "friendly and co-operative" and that causing unrest was the "last thing" he wanted to do.
The issue came to a head in a vote which saw six councillors deadlocked, with another five abstaining. With three councillors in favour of keeping the prayers on the official business of council meetings and three councillors against, chairman Mike Kean took the unusual decision of declining to cast a deciding vote. The Council's Register of Members' Interests indicates that two of the councillors in favour of including prayers in meetings have connections to local churches.
Councillor Kean, who supported the continuation of council prayers before declining to cast a deciding vote, said: "It would be wise for everyone to reflect on this issue and bring it back to full council at a later date."
Currently, prayers appear above the agenda for full council meetings, listed as "opening prayers." Neilson noted that "suggesting people leave the room to avoid attending prayers would not make a meeting welcoming to non-Christians."
According to the Andover Advertiser "all councillors agreed that they were acting within the law" in holding prayers as part of their meetings. However, a 2012 High Court ruling cast some doubt on whether Whitchurch Council has behaved lawfully.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "The High Court ruled that it was not within a council's powers to hold worship or to summon councillors to prayer. Periods of quiet reflection are fine, but formal prayers should be entirely voluntary and held informally before Council business proper gets under way. If prayers are being held after the meeting has been called to order, the council may well in breach of the Court order.
"Hopefully this situation can be resolved amicably, either by prayers being replaced by a period of quiet reflection, or by councillors who wish to simply praying before the meeting begins."
A decision on prayers was due to be taken at the full council meeting on 2 February, but the matter was again deferred. No prayers were held at the meeting.
The NSS has raised concerns about prayers causing divisions in local communities, and is currently opposing the Local Government and Religious Observances (Etc.) Bill, which would empower a wide range of local authority bodies to conduct prayers as part of their official meetings.
Bill to allow prayers in council meetings clears Commons
Posted: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 17:09
A private members' bill to allow local authorities to summon councillors to prayer has successfully completed its passage through the House of Commons and will now go to the Lords for further scrutiny.
Jake Berry's Local Government (Religious etc. Observances) Bill seeks to make provision for the inclusion of prayers or "other religious observance" or "observance connected with a religious or philosophical belief" at local authority meetings.
In an almost empty chamber, the Bill was opposed solely by Conservative MP James Arbuthnot, who acknowledged that the Bill would not force people to pray, but said it would allow a majority of local councillors to include a practice in the formal business of meetings that might be "embarrassing and possibly even anathema to other councillors".
Thanking the National Secular Society for bringing the issue to his attention, Mr Arbuthnot said the NSS has a point when it argued that an absence of prayers from the formal business of local authority meetings doesn't, as some argue, impede the religious freedoms of believers or deny anybody the right to pray.
Mr Arbuthnot said: "If local authorities want to hold a moment of reflection at the beginning of a meeting, they can do so. If councillors wish to meet for prayers before the meeting, they can do so, and no change in the law is needed to achieve it. So it is the principle of the Bill that is of concern to me".
Making reference to prayers in Parliament, he said the practice seemed "out of touch with the majority of the people we represent, because only a tiny proportion of our constituents go to church."
Mr Arbuthnot used the debate to come out publicly as an atheist, saying it had taken him 28 years "and the knowledge that I will not be standing at the next election" to make the announcement.
Mr Arbuthnot said he was "not in the least religious" and was "perfectly comfortable with that".
However, he said for Conservative politicians in particular, the pressure to keep quiet about not being religious was very similar to the pressure that there has been to keep quiet about being gay.
The National Secular Society praised Mr Arbuthnot for "standing up for secular principles and challenging religious privilege".
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "It's a sad reflection of British politics that Mr Arbuthnot felt unable to publicly declare his atheism for so long. The 'Christian Country' narrative being peddled by the prime minister and secretary of state for communities only serves to marginalise non-Christians, when what we should be doing is promoting a secular, pluralistic society in which people of all faiths and none are given equal respect and standing".
An amendment tabled by Conservative MP Philip Davies that would have made prayers compulsory at the start of local authority meetings received no support from fellow MPs.
Mr Davies insisted he was not "some sort of fundamental Christian", but argued that people serving the public should start their meetings with prayers as reminder of their duty to the people they are elected to serve.
Moving an amendment to require councils to keep in mind the "pre-eminence of the Judaeo-Christian tradition", Sir Edward Leigh said he wished to "reaffirm our connection to the past through the actions of the present."
He warned of a "grave danger" of people in Britain "lacking an understanding of our history and becoming severed from our roots" which would make people "much easier to manipulate, whether by a Hitler, a Stalin, or some other modern-day tyrant whose dominion we fear."
Labour's shadow communities minister and passionate supporter of the Bill, Lyn Brown, said the Bill "seeks to protect a freedom of choice, and indeed a freedom of local choice". She said whether to include prayers or not was a matter for the local authority alone.
Describing the legislation as "gentle", communities and local government minister, Penny Mordaunt, insisted the Bill was about "freedom rather than compulsion: the freedom to pray or not to pray; the freedom for a local authority collectively to make a decision to hold prayers as part of official business, or not; and the freedom of individual councillors to attend the meeting during that item of business, or not".
With just a handful of MPs present, if any of the tabled amendments had been put to a vote, the Bill would have been unlikely to proceed, as a minimum of 40 MPs must be present to make Parliamentary decisions valid.
NSS campaigns manager, Stephen Evans, said: "It very concerning that legislation which allows local authorities to impose acts of religious worship on public servants should get such an easy passage through the House of Commons. We trust the Lords will give it more serious scrutiny.
"This Bill really needs to be exposed for what it is, an attempt by a small number of enthusiastic Christians to push their religion further into the public sphere."
