Public prayer prompts protest

Does prayer belong in government councils?

Special to CW
— Halifax —

A Nova Scotia MLA says prayers do not belong in provincial legislatures. “If people want to pray, let them pray either in private or in their houses of worship,” says NDP MLA Howard Epstein.

In Nova Scotia, the Lord’s Prayer has been recited by members of the legislature every day the house is in session since at least June 7, 1791. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Ontario are the only provinces that still adhere to the practice.

Epstein, who is Jewish, says he feels excluded by the Christian prayer and boycotts the daily ritual. But he said his main objection is to the concept of politicians praying. “The public may feel anything that would help politicians would be worthwhile,” he says. “[But] it’s inappropriate. I do tend to believe in a separation of church and state.”

Mark Parent, a Tory government backbencher, who is also Baptist minister, disagrees. He says there is still a place in the legislature’s proceedings to ask for guidance from above. Parent says parliamentarians, through prayer, are acknowledging there is “something deeper, greater and more powerful.” He says the tradition should continue to remind politicians there is a greater justice at work.

Terry Donahoe, a former Tory cabinet minister and a member of the Roman Catholic Church, agrees with Parent. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with starting affairs of state with a prayer,” he says. “God knows that in my day in the legislature, and in the present day, we could certainly use some divine intervention.”

Ontario protestor

A court case has begun in Ontario where a Holocaust survivor is trying to get the provincial legislature to drop the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Henry Freitag argues the ritual is a form of religious indoctrination that violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 1999, he won a legal victory that effectively ended the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at municipal council meetings in Ontario. Many councils now substitute a minute of silence. Halifax regional council adopted an ecumenical prayer five years ago. The federal House of Commons hasn’t used the Lord’s Prayer since 1994.

Use of the prayer dates back to the beginning of Parliament, says Leonard Preyra, a political science professor at Saint Mary’s University. “It’s a tradition that really developed in countries where the Christian majority was large and overwhelming, and the other groups just weren’t represented at all,” he says.

But that is changing. “We have members of the legislature now who are different races, different religions.”

While Parent is opposed to doing away with prayers altogether in the legislature, he says it’s time to review the ritual. “We should have more inclusive prayers, or prayers from different traditions,” he says.

Fred Hiltz, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI, defends the use of the Lord’s Prayer because of its lack of specifically Christian references. “I recognize that when you get into naming Jesus Christ [who is not mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer] or the significant leaders from other faiths, it can seem insensitive, but words like God and spirit are generally acceptable to most traditions,” he says.

“I think there should be a middle ground where prayer can be retained, but in a fashion that is mindful of a variety of faiths.”

William Close, head of the Atlantic School of Theology, suggests the legislature could rotate prayers from different religions. But Epstein says it doesn’t matter how ecumenical the prayer is—Province House is not the proper place for it.