‘Just making mischief, causing division... it’s eyewash,’ they say

THE 194 people who signed a petition requesting that The Lord’s Prayer be reinstated at the start of Bass Coast Shire Council meetings “as soon as possible” got short shrift from the council last Wednesday.

However, not only was the proposition rejected on a vote of 8:1, with only Cr Meg Edwards in favour, but the lead petitioner, Karen Thorp, the Assistant Pastor at Grace Chapel Archies Creek and a representative of the Wonthaggi and Inverloch Inter Church Council, was accused of trying to incite community division and mischief by raising the matter in the first place.

Never mind that the Lord’s Prayer remains a part of the Standing Orders in the Australian Parliament and is read out at the start of each sitting day, in the Senate and the House, after due recognition is paid to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area, also paying respect to the elders, past and present, of all Australia’s Indigenous peoples.

Ms Thorp, who first raised the issue at a council meeting, with a community question in June 2024, became one of the very few people asked to address a council meeting on Wednesday, October 8.

As well as taking the opportunity to preface her remarks by reading the prayer herself, Ms Thorp said it wasn’t only church people who had signed the petition but also people in shops and business houses in Wonthaggi, only too pleased to pass the petition around for signing.

“I had to stop collecting signatures so I could get it in, but I have spoken to many other people who would have signed it,” said Ms Thorp.

She said the Bass Coast Shire Mayor and Councillors of the day had made an error in removing the Lord’s Prayer from the order of business at council meetings in 2014 with the “unfortunate move to secularise Council proceedings sending a clear message that faith has no place in the community”.

Cr Ron Bauer gave his views on the request for The Lord’s Prayer to be reinstated.

“I refer to point two of the resolution, to resolve to continue its current practice of opening council meetings with a Councillor's statement. I acknowledge Miss Thorpe's words in support of the petition, but I cannot state strongly enough how against the petition I am,” said Cr Bauer.

“This is a multi-cultural country. There are 1500 religions and belief systems on the planet. Each one is as relevant as the next, including atheism. I do not see why we should privilege one above the other.

“The most ecumenical solution is not to introduce any non-secular prayers, chants and invocations. In the 1650s philosopher John Locke introduced the concept of separation of church and state. Let's leave the prayers and praying in the church and concentrate of the business of council, in Council, thank you.”

Cr Tim O’Brien took it a step further, claiming that what drove the petition was “just making mischief”.

“I too am very opposed to this. Australia is a secular country, and we only need to look at the last census where only 43% of Australians identified themselves as Christian. We've got multiple religions being practiced, all in touch with the ‘Choir invisible’.

“I grew up a Catholic. I can do the full Latin Mass enchilada, if you like, but now, like many, many, many Australians, the majority of Australians, I've got as much religion as a cat,” said Cr O’Brien.

“And I take issue with a lot of the things in this petition. I've got no doubt that the petitioners were sincere, but using the Lord’s Prayer for “publicly acknowledging the responsibility one has to the people they are serving” is eye wash.

“Look, I could go through this line by line and pull it apart, and I actually think that what drives this petition, and I'm sorry to say this, Karen, but you know, it feels to me like it's just making mischief, because this thing creates division outside of the chamber.

“And look, I'm just really opposed to and I feel it's just a waste of time we're even considering it.”

At present, the opening statements at Bass Coast Shire Council meetings include the following:

Statement of Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the Bunurong as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waters, and pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Councillor Statement: All members of this Council pledge to the Bass Coast Shire community to consider every item listed on this agenda:

• Based on the individual merits of each item
• Without bias or prejudice by maintaining an open mind; and
• Disregarding Councillors’ personal interests so as to avoid any conflict with our public duty.

Any Councillor having a conflict of interest in an item will make a proper, prior disclosure to the meeting and will not participate in the debate or vote on the issue.

At the 2021Census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded the most common religions as:

• Christianity (43.9%)
• No religion (38.9%)
• Islam (3.2%)
• Hinduism (2.7%)
• Buddhism (2.4%)