Wanganui District Council's controversial prayer may be going to court, after councillors yesterday voted seven to six in favour of retaining it as part of their six-weekly meetings.
Councillor Clive Solomon, who has fought doggedly against the council's 170-year tradition of having a prayer as the first item on its agenda, has indicated that he will be taking the issue to the Human Rights Tribunal.
"Even if I didn't proceed, someone else will," Mr Solomon said.
He described some of his fellow councillors as "silly, backward, bigoted people" and vowed to challenge the reciting of the prayer "at every meeting before it gets to court".
At the start of yesterday's full council meeting, Mr Solomon remained silent - but at the table - as Deputy Mayor Rangi Wills read the prayer, before councillors got down to the business of discussing the prayer.
The council heard that the resolution passed in May 2011 - that the council retain the prayer at the start of its six-weekly meetings - was invalid.
The two recommendations before the council were that councillors decide to say the prayer before the start of the meeting, or they continue to say the prayer at the start of the meeting.
Mayor Annette Main moved the first motion, which was seconded by Councillor Jack Bullock.
Ms Main said she believed the prayer was important.
"I believe the prayer is more important than where it is placed in the council agenda," she said. Councillor Allan Anderson, who is a staunch supporter of the prayer and co-wrote the current prayer with his wife Rosemary, said he was "less than impressed" to see the prayer on the agenda again.
"This council has become the laughing stock of many people."
Mr Anderson noted that the prayer calls for councillors to act with qualities such as courage, compassion and wisdom.
"These are sentiments that most people would consider appropriate."
Mr Wills said if the prayer was moved outside the agenda it would be the first step towards doing away with the prayer completely.
Councillor Ray Stevens provided one of the few lighter moments during the hour-long discussion.
"The prayer is said once every six weeks. I timed it today, it took 22 seconds for Councillor Rangi to say. Over the course of a year, that's 176 seconds, or 2.93 minutes. Really, I'm disturbed by the amount of time spent on this."
Mr Bullock said the prayer issue put the city in "a bad light".
"We have to get on with things like the issues of our rural roads and our debt."
But Councillor Michael Laws said the debate about the prayer was important, as it represented wider issues of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
"We need to have these debates. We need to ask ourselves - are we a Christian country, a Christian community, a Christian council? If we're not, and we get rid of the prayer, there are so many interwoven structures, such as the council motto and our practice of saying karakia, that we'd also have to get rid of.
"I don't have a problem with that. I believe implicitly in the separation of church and state."
Mr Laws noted that the prayer was Christian and, although he himself was Christian, it could not be assumed that all councillors also were.
Mr Solomon said the council needed to address just one issue.
"Is a religious prayer the business of council? I can understand that 100 years ago everyone was Christian around this table, and a prayer bound everyone together in unity.
Mr Solomon warned councillors before the vote was put that they "needed to vote with your eyes wide open".
"You cannot use the democratic process to vote for something which is discriminatory," he said.
The motion was put: That the opportunity to say a prayer (or to individually reflect in silence) be given immediately prior to the commencement of a Council meeting.
Those who voted for were: Mayor Annette Main, councillors Jack Bullock, Nickie Higgie, Michael Laws, Clive Solomon, Rob Vinsen.
Against: Allan Anderson, Philippa Baker-Hogan, Randhir Dahya, Hamish McDouall, Ray Stevens, Sue Westwood, Rangi Wills.
The motion was lost.