A local government council in England voted to ban Christian prayers from being held before meetings in a bid to promote “inclusivity”.
While a Christian prayer was traditionally said at the opening of city and district council meetings in St Albans, England, a vote last week passed by a margin of 25 to 20 that will ban the practice going forward.
St Albans, a cathedral city in Hertfordshire named after the first recorded British Christian martyr, remains a predominantly Christian city despite the rise of atheism throughout much of England.
Yet, Liberal Democrat councillor Sinéad Howland, the author of the motion to ban Christian prayers before meetings, argued that they “may inadvertently exclude or alienate individuals of different faiths or those without religious beliefs.”
She argued that Christian prayers go against the “equality and inclusivity” goals of the Hertfordshire city council and that it “disrupts the start of the meeting”.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, the local mayor will still have the ability to hold a moment of silence before meetings, however, any personal reflection must be done in a non-Christian manner.
National Secular Society (NSS) hailed the decision, with head of campaigns Megan Manson saying: “It’s great news that St Albans Council recognises the importance of an inclusive and secular approach to local government.
“We congratulate the council on its decision to remove prayers from the beginning of meetings, to ensure no one in attendance feels alienated or excluded. We urge all local councils across the country which still hold prayers to take heed and follow this example.”
Christianity has increasingly been on the back foot in the UK, with wokeness running rampant within the established Church of England and anti-Christian legislation being enacted throughout the country.
Perhaps the largest threat, however, is the surging levels of atheism in the country. According to the latest census in 2022, just 46.3 per cent of people in England identified as Christian, down from 71 per cent just two decades prior and the first time since the 7th century that a majority of the country was non-Christian.
Conversely, those identified as having “no religion” surged to over 37 per cent, up from around a quarter of the population in 2011. Islam has also seen significant growth, largely due to mass migration. Accounting for around 6.5 per cent of the population, the number of Muslims surged by 44 per cent since the previous census.
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