All rise? Cork City Councillor to remain seated during prayer at monthly council meeting
Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran will sit out the short prayer that precedes the monthly meeting in council chambers in Cork City Hall tonight.
Oliver Moran, a Green Party Councillor for Cork North East, has informed the Lord Mayor that he will not stand to join fellow councillors during the opening prayer at tonight’s monthly meeting of councillors and Cork City Council executive staff.
Typically, the Lord Mayor opens the hours-long meeting with a brief prayer, during which councillors stand.
In an email to the Lord Mayor, Cllr Moran stated that he will “remain seated during the prayer—not in protest but to reflect the civil, legal, and practical realities of religious practices in the workplaces of a diverse city in 2023.”
The Lord Mayor leads the short prayer, which in full is: “Direct, we beseech thee, O Lord, our actions by thy holy inspirations and carry them on by thy gracious assistance; that every word and work of ours may always begin from thee, and by thee be happily ended; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
In his email to the Lord Mayor, Cllr Moran outlined that while there is no prohibition in law on prayer in the workplace, “however, it is illegal to require someone to participate in prayer in the workplace.”
“I would be grateful if, instead of instructing those present to rise for the prayer, you would invite those present to join you in prayer, should they wish, without a sense of obligation—and to recognise the civil and legal rights of those who are of diverse faiths, religious practices, and none not to do so.”
His email finished: “I respect the faith of those who wish to participate in religious practices in the workplace. I expect the same respect will be forthcoming from those who do not wish to force a religious practice on others through a requirement to participate in prayer in the workplace.”
“Irrelevant dinosaur in the 21st Century”
Cllr Lorna Bogue, An Rabharta Glas-Green Left, a vocal critic of the prayer before council meeting, told T+D she hasn’t decided what she will do when the prayer is read out tonight.
While she said she supports Cllr Moran’s intervention, she welcomed the full review of the standing orders which dictate how council meetings are run with a view to removing the prayer entirely, calling it “an irrelevant dinosaur in the 21st Century.”
Cllr Bogue said she typically stands for the prayer, in compliance with the standing order, but doesn’t say the prayer - which she admitted she doesn’t know. As to whether she’ll sit or stand tonight, she is still unsure.
Currently, there is a review of standing orders underway in Cork City Council, which will include a review of the requirement for prayer in the Order of Business of Ordinary meetings.
Dublin, Limerick and Galway city councils do not begin meetings with a prayer.
By the numbers
66,222 residents of Cork city identified as being non-Christian or having no religion in the 2022 census, which is 30% of all residents of the city.
This breaks down as:
Roman Catholic: 145,698
Other Christian: 10,606
Other religion: 8,110
No religion, atheist, agnostic or unstated: 58,112
The last Ordinary meeting of Cork City Council for 2023 takes place in Cork City Hall from 5:30pm, December 11. You can watch online on the City Council’s YouTube channel.
What a strange anachronism - although from the perspective of finding focus its not a bad idea to take a moment and commit to doing your best.