|
Thu, December 21, 2006
They won't be reciting the Lord's Prayer anymore at Middlesex County council. The prayer has been removed from the county's official rules of procedure after an Ottawa-based group said councils that recite the prayer are breaking the law.County council also rejected a suggestion by Southwest Middlesex Mayor Doug Reycraft to replace spoken prayer with a moment of silence to give councillors and visitors a chance for private meditation. Chief administrator Bill Rayburn said the move reflects a rule of law in the province, since a provincial court ruled it illegal in a decision in Penetanguishine. Reycraft acknowledged there are people of other faiths, along with agnostics and atheists, "who are made to feel uncomfortable with the recitation of a prayer of faith." He said it would be more appropriate to use a period of silence, during which people could say silent prayers or any other silent meditation. Strathroy-Caradoc Deputy-Mayor Joanne Vanderheyden opposed that idea and opposed doing away with the Lord's Prayer. She noted the term "Dominion" of Canada is based on biblical terminology and, "It is important that we don't lose track of what our country is built on." But North Middlesex Deputy-Mayor Ian Brebner disagreed. "It might have been appropriate in 1867, but times change," he said. An Ottawa group calling itself Secular Ontario has sent letters to 18 municipalities that recite the prayer at meetings. Several -- including West Perth, St. Thomas and Ingersoll -- said they have no intention of dropping the prayer. Rayburn said the new bylaw does not prevent a warden from introducing a prayer at the start of a meeting, but council could rule it out of order.
|