The Economist:

IN ALMOST every English-speaking (or partly English-speaking) democracy, the practice of holding prayers before the deliberations of elected assemblies is both long-established, and as of recently, controversial.

In the British Parliament (where sessions of both Houses have begun with prayers since at least the mid-16th century), a law has just been passed which re-authorises local councils to start their proceedings with supplications to God if they so choose. This follows a high court decision which upheld the objections of a secularist councillor to the Christian prayers that were said at the start of deliberations in the town of Bideford. The new law will presumably make life easier for (Islamically) pious councillors in the northern English town of Oldham, where municipal debates have often begun with Muslim prayers.

In America, a divided Supreme Court upheld the right of a local representatives in a town called Greece in the state of New York to begin their business with religious invocations. In Australia, a senator for the Green party tried unsuccessfully to end the use of the Lord’s Prayer in that country’s parliament.

Now Canada’s Supreme Court has unanimously struck down the use of prayers by a municipal council in historically Catholic Quebec, forcing office-holders all over the country to reconsider their practices.

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