Faith leaders unite to oppose calls to ban Sydney Council prayer

Faith leaders have united to oppose a controversial call to axe prayers at Sydney’s oldest council.

Faith leaders have banded together in defence of official prayers at Sydney’s oldest council after a Greens councillor sought to have them removed.

Greens Councillor Matthew Thompson was pushing to stop the practice of council meetings beginning with a simple Christian prayer because he says it may offend people.

Mr Thompson wanted the prayer to be removed or replaced with a non-secular oath to reflect the varied religious views of the council area.

“Council’s practice of starting meetings with a prayer does not reflect the religiously diverse and secular communities we represent; and many councils across the country are moving towards secular affirmations to formally open their meetings to ensure no one is excluded from proceedings,” he said in his proposal that was later withdrawn.

City of Sydney Greens Councillor Matthew Thompson. Picture: Facebook

Under the current practice, council meetings were opened with a Welcome to Country before a short prayer thanking God for the “gift of this remarkable city” and calls for guidance to “deal with the needs and aspirations of all its people with compassion and fairness and to plan its future with wisdom and far-sightedness”.

Faith leaders told The Saturday Telegraph they were not offended by the Christian prayer — instead calling it commendable.

Hindu Council of Australia national vice president Surinder Jain. Picture: Jane Dempster

Hindu Council National Vice President Surinder Jain said his community would not be offended by the prayer.

Mr Jain said people of other faiths should be able, if they wished, to request an additional prayer but there was no need to remove the existing one.

He said the Christian prayer was appropriate because it reflected the heritage of Australia.

“We support all prayers. If someone is of a different faith than Christianity then their prayer should also be included rather than remove the prayer they don’t like,” Mr Jain said.

“There was a case six or seven years ago, a prayer in state parliament was removed because it was a religious prayer and my stand then was that it is the heritage of Australia and it’s why parliament had that.

“It should not be removed. If you’re of a different faith you can ask for a second prayer or a third prayer, but not attack others who are not from your religion.”

Spokesman for the ANIC Bilal Rauf. Photographer: Adam Yip

Australian National Imams Council senior adviser Bilal Rauf called the prayer “commendable” as a way of adding spirituality to the council, and said the Muslim peak body had no objection to the practice.

“I find it surprising that something like that would be an issue,” he said.

“We — the Australian National Imams council — we don’t see any difficulty in invoking such a prayer and it’s quite commendable as it seeks to include a level of spirituality.”

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies was also not opposed to the prayers.

At the last census, 51.7 per cent of the people in the council area said they had no religion while 39.1 per cent said they were religious.

Catholicism was the most common faith.

Mr Thompson’s push was opposed by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who said the prayer was something she “inherited” and “something I like”.

“The Code of Meeting Practice provides for a prayer at the beginning of council meetings, however reading it is at the discretion of the Chair,” she said.

“The language currently used is a generic monotheistic prayer.”

Mr Thompson and the City of Sydney Council were contacted for a comment.

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