Councillors at a local council in New South Wales pleaded for their colleagues not to re-introduce Christian prayers as part of formal meetings, arguing that it was “unreasonable” and “exclusionary” to impose acts of worship.

Last month, the Shoalhaven City Council voted 7-6 in support of returning prayers to the opening of council meetings, with the meeting’s chair, former ABC journalist Peter Wilkins, providing the casting vote in favour.

As reported extensively by the Rationalist Society of Australia in 2020-22, Shoalhaven council previously engaged in a long-running debate on the issue before deciding to replace Christian prayers with a moment of silence for personal prayer or reflection.

In meetings in June and August, several councillors spoke in opposition to the proposal to reinstate the practice.

Councillor Debbie Killian identified as an atheist and said the practice of observing a moment of silent reflection had provided her with an opportunity to reflect on the people who would be affected by decisions taken in meetings.

“No higher power is going to give me that guidance. And no one is going to force me to take such guidance,” she said.

“And there are many people in our community who do not think that [prayers] is something that includes them. Even if we do a range of different prayers … the nearly [42 per cent] of people in the Shoalhaven who did not have a religious affiliation are excluded. Actively excluded.”

Councillor Gillian Boyd said that requiring her to participate in prayer would be asking her to be “hypocritical and dishonest”. 

“… it’s an unreasonable request of my fellow councillors to ask me to act inconsistently with my values and beliefs,” she said.

“I do not wish to deprive anyone of their religious convictions, especially the people around me. But, by insisting on a prayer, you are depriving me of my religious convictions or non-convictions.”

At a meeting in June, Cr Ben Krikstolaitis cited community feedback that it was “staggering” that council was wanting to reinstate prayers.

“Our focus has to be roads, rates and rubbish, and not turning our chamber into a place of worship, because it’s not. Secular society is real. And we represent more than the Christian faith, whatever version of that you choose.”

At the June meeting, the council voted to return prayer to the draft Code of Meeting practice, which went out for public consultation. Of 77 individual responses, 47 supported returning the prayer to the Order of Business, while 29 opposed.

Reflecting on these results last month, Councillor Brett Steele argued that this indicated a desire for council to “restore the traditional opening prayer” and acknowledge the “values of the majority of our residents”.

He also claimed that it was “obvious that a substantial majority of our community shares a spiritual foundation”.

“A traditional Christian prayer is not an attempt to impose beliefs on anyone,” he said.

“It’s a direct reflection of our region’s largest demographic footprint, and their foundational values shaped our civic institutions. A silent culture is a forgotten culture.”

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census data from 2021 put ‘Christianity’ at 52.1% of the council’s population and ‘no religion’ at 41.2%. 

However, the actual Christian population of the Shoalhaven would likely have been well below 50 per cent at the 2026 Census, held in August this year, given the rapid decline of Christianity in the Census trends. Also, other robust surveys show that the leading nature of the Census religion question – which presumes every respondent is religious – inflates the religion result, and undercounts the non-religious population, by about 10-11 percentage points.

A local Christian pastor, Peter Dover, made a presentation to the August council meeting, arguing that returning prayer would recognise that there was a “higher authority” and that “we are not God”.

Councillor Steele is now pushing for the introduction of a roster of local Christian leaders to perform the opening prayers.

In 2020, Councillor Kaye Gartner – a Buddhist – called for the council’s opening prayers to be replaced with more inclusive practices after she was sensationally blocked from reciting Buddhist prayers.

The peak body representing Buddhists in the state, the Buddhist Council of New South Wales, supported her call and criticised the Shoalhaven City Council for what it described as religious-based discrimination.

In early 2022, with a newly elected membership, the council voted in favour of removing the prayer and replacing it with a moment of silent reflection.

The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively advocating for prayer rituals to be replaced with more appropriate practices in councils and parliaments. See the latest updates here.

Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.

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