Some Fundy Albert residents in southeast New Brunswick have asked the congregation to reconsider a recent decision to include a prayer before each council meeting.
Mayor Bob Roshon said the ward council will consider the matter at the next members meeting on March 7.
Fundy Albert Ward 4 Councilor Jeff Jonah made a motion to include prayer at last week’s meeting.
He was involved in one of the communities that formed Fundy Albert, and they always said the serenity prayer, he said Information tomorrow Moncton.
“After the merger, leading up to the merger, I was asked by a lot of people, you know, if this would be a practice that would be brought to Fundy Albert,” Jonah said. “And yes, that’s what I really wanted to see in Fundy Albert.”
Roshon voted against the motion, bringing up a 2015 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that ruled that a prayer at the beginning of city council meetings in Saguenay, Que. violates charter rights to religious freedom, but the motion was nevertheless accepted.
Jane Chrysostom, a Fundy Albert resident, said she was grateful there were dissenting votes on the motion.
“I agree that there is no place for religion in council chambers and should be a place of neutrality,” Chrysostom said in an email. “I wrote a letter asking for the application to be withdrawn, which has been noted.”
Fundy Albert’s decision contrasts with some other New Brunswick congregations that have moved away from, or never had, prayer at council meetings.
Derek Pleadwell is Mayor of Arcadia, which includes the former villages of Gagetown and Cambridge Narrows. He said he has served on the Gagetown Parish Council for about 12 years.
In an email, Pleadwell said prayer has not been discussed at her current council meetings, nor was it a practice at the former Gagetown council.
Mireille LeBlanc is a staffer for the city of Beaurivage. She said Richibucto, one of the communities that formed Beaurivage, held a general prayer before council meetings about five years ago.
However, it was eliminated “because the general public has so many different views and religions”.
The city of Salisbury also doesn’t pray before council meetings, according to Chief Administrative Officer Austin Henderson, but the village of Salisbury used to do so.
Henderson said prayer was a rule of procedure at the former village but was not included in the city’s bylaws, which went into effect Jan. 1.
Jonah said he still advocates prayer before council meetings and knows of people planning to send out letters in support of the practice. He does not plan to change his vote at the next meeting in March.
The mayor said he doesn’t think his voice will change either.
“Well diversity is important and I think we need to be inclusive as a council,” Rochon said. “We also need to reflect the interests and needs of the wider community.”
