Council defeats attempt to end prayers

A BID to abandon prayers at the start of a Yorkshire council’s meetings has been thwarted.

A motion was submitted to Ryedale District Council for the long-running practice to be discontinued, but members voted against the plans during a meeting on Monday evening.

The motion, put forward by Liberal councillor Tommy Woodward, had not called for prayers to be halted entirely but recommended they be held before meetings in a separate room.

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Coun John Clark, the Liberal group’s leader and an agnostic, had suggested the focus on Christianity was inappropriate for a modern society that included many other religions.

Canon John Manchester of Malton had claimed the plans were “a retrograde step”.

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