Council won’t drop Lord’s Prayer
Published: January 18, 2007
After three hours of impassioned pleas from Durham residents to continue the tradition of reciting the Lord’s Prayer at regional council meetings, the finance committee decided yesterday to do just that.
“God is the Supreme Being. Period. Full stop,” declared Oshawa Mayor John Gray, who said he’d received “countless e-mails and letters” urging council to keep the prayer.
The issue arose after an Ottawa-based group called Secular Ontario sent a letter to municipal councils warning them that public recitation of the prayer was illegal.
The group cited a 1999 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling against the town of Penetanguishene, which said reciting the prayer violates the Charter of Rights of non-Christians attending council meetings.
Secular Ontario president Henry Beissel urged councils to end the “offending practice” immediately.
Durham’s finance and administration committee will recommend to the regional council that meeting procedures be “tweaked” so the prayer can be said before the meeting is called to order.
Anyone who feels uncomfortable “doesn’t have to stay in the room,” said region chair Roger Anderson, who drafted the recommendation.
Beissel called the committee’s solution “disingenuous.”
“It is equally illegal and immoral,” he said
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