Prayers before Legislative Bodies

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Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Forty Two » Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:22 pm

Sittings in both Houses begin with prayers. These follow the Christian faith and there is currently no multi-faith element.....

House of Commons
The Speaker's Chaplain usually reads the prayers. The form of the main prayer is as follows:

"Lord, the God of righteousness and truth, grant to our Queen and her government, to Members of Parliament and all in positions of responsibility, the guidance of your Spirit. May they never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals but laying aside all private interests and prejudices keep in mind their responsibility to seek to improve the condition of all mankind; so may your kingdom come and your name be hallowed.

Amen."

House of Lords
A senior Bishop (Lord Spiritual) who sits in the Lords usually reads the prayers. Prayers are read at the beginning of each sitting. The text of the Prayers read in the House of Lords are printed in the Companion to the Standing Orders.

Read the Lords' Prayers for the Parliament
Custom and practice
The practice of prayers is believed to have started in about 1558, and was common practice by 1567. The present form of prayers probably dates from the reign of Charles II. Members of the public are not allowed into the public galleries during prayers.

MPs and Peers stand for prayers facing the wall behind them. It is thought this practice developed due to the difficulty Members would historically have faced of kneeling to pray while wearing a sword.

Find out more about customs and traditions in Parliament.
https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/prayers/

Fucking insanity! I mean, we have some of these fuckwits in the US too, but usually there is staunch opposition, and it's something vehemently resisted.

These nutbags even have a "national prayer breakfast!"

Fucking lunatics! Next their will be witch-doctors in Parliament -





The Poles are doing rain-dances in their Parliament!
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar

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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Svartalf » Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:23 pm

The state must not have an established religion, my freedom of religion includes freedom from my neighbor's religion
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Forty Two » Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:28 pm

I agree. Separation of church and state.

Although, I would add a caveat that being free from your neighbor's religion does not mean a limitation on his or her right to publicly practice religion or to speak publicly about his or her religion. One does not lose liberty or rights when one's activity or speech is religious. Other than that caveat, I am 100% with you.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar

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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by NineBerry » Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:51 pm

It doesn't seem to work.

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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Svartalf » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:00 pm

depends, if they pray for cushy jobs and more pork barrel, it seems to have a certain efficacy.
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Rum » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:11 pm

There’s a paradox. Here the Church of England is part of the State and has been for centuries - for good or ill. And yet religious ideas and influence play a relatively small part in irs proceedings and certainly policy. From this side of the pond however the country founded very specifically on the basis that religion and the State should be separate struggles and often fails to keep hard line religion out of everyday politics and legislation.

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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by JimC » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:33 pm

As I said in another posts, in Oz we have a historical remnant in the whole prayers in parliament thing. There is a push to remove them, as fewer and fewer people self-identify as christians (no religion is the fastest growing group...)
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Svartalf » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:38 pm

well, Oz still is a Crown Colony, of Course it's still part of the whole Church of England thing, you'll have to become a true Republic before you can get out of the religious tyranny.
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Brian Peacock » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:40 pm

Prayers in parliament are the original form of virtue signalling.



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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by NineBerry » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:43 pm

No prayers in German parliament. I suppose this is because of the historic conflict between Catholics and Protestants

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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Svartalf » Fri Mar 29, 2019 7:29 am

quite likely, the part whose faith was not catered for by the prayers would sulk, and organizing prayers for every denomination would simply take a far too much precious time to be considered
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Scot Dutchy » Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:33 am

No prayers anywhere here. When swearing an oath there are two versions. Secular and non secular.
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Alan B » Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:29 am

What use are prayers in Parliament, I mean, look at the comedic crap situation they've got themselves into. You would have thought that God might have sent down a thunderbolt or something to wake them up...
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power - Eric Hoffer.
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by Hermit » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:29 am

Alan B wrote:
Fri Mar 29, 2019 11:29 am
What use are prayers in Parliament, I mean, look at the comedic crap situation they've got themselves into. You would have thought that God might have sent down a thunderbolt or something to wake them up...
I had to laugh (bitterly) about Bronwyn Bishop's (Bishop!) recitation.

[/youtube]

The words of that prayer include the following:
Almighty God, we humbly beseech Thee to vouchsafe Thy special blessing upon this Parliament, and that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper the work of Thy servants to the advancement of Thy glory, and to the true welfare of the people of Australia.
Her concept regarding the true welfare of the people of Australia is peculiar. Apparently it includes her chartering a helicopter in order to get her to the Clifton Springs Golf Club to attend a state Liberal Party fundraiser 80 kilometres from home. The cost, $5,227.27 was charged to the tax payer.

In the surrounding six month period Bronny also charged the tax payer more than $88,000 for a 15-day visit to Europe while she was running for the presidency of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union. It included stops in Italy, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland. Also, a $42,805.51 for an 11-day trip to Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and South Korea. How these trips contributed to "the true welfare of the people of Australia" has never been publicly revealed. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-15/ ... ht/6622134

Eventually she was strongarmed into resigning her speakership and refunding around $14,000 of the tax payers' unwitting largesse.
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Re: Prayers before Legislative Bodies

Post by rainbow » Sat Mar 30, 2019 10:49 am

NineBerry wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:43 pm
No prayers in German parliament. I suppose this is because of the historic conflict between Catholics and Protestants
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