City of Sydney councillor Matthew Thompson pushes for council to scrap prayers from monthly meetings

A Greens councillor is pushing for the City of Sydney to consider dropping the opening prayer from monthly council meetings – claiming the current state of affairs is ‘inappropriate’ for a modern multicultural society.

A Greens councillor is pushing for the City of Sydney to consider dropping the opening prayer from monthly council meetings – claiming the current state of affairs is “inappropriate” for a modern multicultural society.

Newly elected councillor Matthew Thompson is leading the proposal to overhaul the council’s long-held practice of having a short prayer read out at the start of council meetings.

The prayer, which follows the welcome to country address, is read out by the Lord Mayor and thanks God for the “remarkable” city of Sydney – as well as recognising the aspirations of its people.

Mr Thompson – a self-declared agnostic – said the prayer fails to reflect the demographics of the City of Sydney which, according to the latest census, showed 52 per cent of residents reported non-secular beliefs.

Mr Thompson said he wanted the council to consider amendments which could see the prayer dropped entirely or replaced with “something non-secular in nature”.

City of Sydney Greens councillor Matthew Thompson.

“For instance, the Inner West Council has a moment of quiet contemplation for councillors to reflect on their duty and the obligations of holding office,” he said.

“We’re a council, not a church (and) the current prayer doesn’t reflect our community and the broad diversity of views that are held.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore has signalled her intention to retain the prayer, which she said had been part and parcel of council meetings for at least two decades.

The prayer is read at the commencement of monthly City of Sydney meetings.

“It’s something I inherited from the previous council and it’s something I like,” she said.

Despite resistance from Ms Moore, Mr Thompson doubled down on his proposal, saying “inherited doesn’t mean it’s good or appropriate in a modern multicultural city”.

“It could be that we just remove the prayer entirely and just open with the acknowledgement of country but I think the current prayer is inappropriate for our meetings.”

The prayer has been a long-held practice at City of Sydney Council meetings.

If supported by a majority of councillors at tonight’s council meeting, proposed changes to retain, alter or abolish the prayer would be subject to community consultation.

Several other councils across Australia have dropped prayers from meetings including multiple councils in Victoria.

But other proposals to remove prayers have failed including attempts to scrap the reading of prayers from the Randwick and Sutherland council meetings.