from an official transcript
"I welcome the inclusivity that Canon ****** has brought to the prayers. I think it’s very, very easy to put people in boxes, both religious and political, although I have to say that the Labour Group who have constantly failed to come in here for prayers and have constantly ignored the Chairman when (he) comes in is something that this. …… Chairman needs to try and resolve. It shows great disrespect to the civic office and I believe personally that prayers are inclusive and we should all set an example and be inclusive in that." (Guess Who, 20.9.06)
"I make no judgement about people’s faith but I have no faith myself. That I choose not to come in to the beginning of this is no disrespect to you as just as it wasn’t to your predecessor in my short time in this chamber. However, I have no faith and I do worry that having that expression, particularly as a Christian faith, when many people on this Island are either of no religion or perhaps of other faiths has always concerned me and I am pleased to hear that Canon ******, a man for who I have an immense respect, has had a much more inclusive prayer session today. However to criticise my colleague Cllr Gardiner and I for not coming in to a religious event when neither of us have any faith whatsoever I think is absolutely reprehensible on behalf of the Leader. We have made no comment within here and I actually don’t want to be stood here now making this comment but I am having to respond to a comment that quite frankly has made me feel as excluded from this chamber as it is possible to be. I do not feel at this moment in time that I am welcome in this chamber because I am an atheist, something that I have come to after long thought over many years as a - since my teens and now nearly at the age of 50." (The Response, 20.9.06)
after we had left
"Would the Leader agree with me that I don’t really care what religions are or anybody else for that - whether they are Muslim … - Muslim or whatever, but what I do expect is for people as our Queen said, people won’t change our way of lives. We are a Christian state and people should understand that. If they don’t like it, go somewhere else, but I don’t care what they are, I will respect them as people. … walking out of the chamber, that’s showing disrespect for you Chairman and for this chamber." (senior Tory councillor, 20.9.06)
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2 comments:
I believe personally that prayers are inclusive. Does he ? Even when they are purely christian ? As they always are when i have been there
Semi-demented gibberish. Prayers are hardly inclusive of those who have no religious belief – underlines my conviction that this whole absurd flummery should be kicked out of the council chamber, and that those who want ritual and ceremonial should either go to church or join their colleagues down at the Masonic Lodge.
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