Prayers formally reintroduced to County Council’s constitution, despite opposition

Reform councillor Richard Smith. Image from Derbyshire County Council.

Prayers have been formally reintroduced to Derbyshire County Council’s constitution by Reform UK, despite opposition over the need to separate religion and government.

At a Derbyshire County Council meeting on Wednesday, October 7th, prayer was reintroduced to the authority’s constitution.

It is now mandated that these will take place at the start of all “ordinary” full council meetings, but not at emergency meetings, committees or annual meetings.

Reform UK reintroduced prayer at their meetings from their first full council session last May but now this has been formalised until such a time as another administration should seek to remove it.

This follows individual election pledges from Reform, which did not have a Derbyshire manifesto, to overturn the “undermining and mocking of British and Christian culture” and stressing “we are a Christian nation”, with one saying it was one of his key priorities to build a church in his division.

Councillor Ed Fordham, former Liberal Democrat group leader, asked the meeting which religion and which language prayers would relate to and be read out in, but did not receive a response.

He said that an analysis of councillors’ declarations of interests found just 12 out of 64 elected members listed a connection to a church, chapel or a faith.

Cllr Fordham said he had been unable to trace back how long it had been since the council held prayers at meetings, and had worked his way back to 1962 without a trace.

He said: “This has been a secular council for quite some time. To bring together religion and politics seems to me to be a dangerous thing.

“We are here to judge on how to improve services and how to improve the lives of all our residents.

“I do not believe, as a worship leader myself, that having a period of time at the beginning of a meeting for an individual councillor to bring forward their prayer and for the rest of us to be expected to sit through that I do not believe that improves the lives of our residents. I do not believe it improves services.

“The right to not sit through an act of worship is one long fought for and indeed died for in this country.

“Bringing that into this chamber is not wise, nor helpful, nor right, nor fair.

“The truth is, religion has been used to exclude, to hurt, to guide, judge, decide and assume things against people. It is not a set of values that I am willing to subscribe. 

“The very objective is not declared or stated. I think I know the objective, I think we all know the objective.

“This is a secular chamber and it is a matter of choice and opting in, yet within this chamber, within the heart of the council, you have forced those for whom that is difficult to either exclude themselves or to sit in a tortured mute state. That is not fair or honest.”

Meanwhile, Reform councillor Richard Smith said: “As someone who goes to church regularly, who has faith in the Lord, I think prayer is very important at the start of our meetings.

“I very much am for the prayer. I have had people in my own church come to me and say it is really good what we, as Reform, implemented, having prayer at the start of a meeting, and we need to be carrying on with the prayer.

“I know people here, who I fully respect, don’t have a faith, and I fully appreciate that, and it is very nice to see them guys coming up to us and saying actually what we are doing is really good.”

Fellow Reform councillor Lewis Whitbread said: “I am not religious, but I grew up every morning going into school and singing songs from the hymn book and that has given me a connection to all 300 of the children that I went to school with.

“I may not be spiritually or religiously Christian, but it is such a part of my culture that I have seen thrown to the wayside. Where is that shared bond?

“We talk about communities and building communities, but everybody is secular, everybody is independent and on their own. Where is the community there?

“I appreciate your concerns and I know they are heartfelt, and I disagree, but I am happy to have the prayers.”

The 2021 Derbyshire Census – excluding Derby – detailed that 47.8 per cent of the population identify as Christian, followed by 44.6 per cent saying they were not religious.

New research published by thinktank Theos found Christian nationalism is being driven largely by people who rarely attend church and people who “want to defend the nation’s Christian heritage from what they see as invasive and threatening influences”, with this group making up just 11 per cent of Christians.