Mallard won’t change prayer despite protest

Speaker Trevor Mallard has no plans to add Jesus Christ back into the Parliamentary Prayer, despite “thousands of people” planning to protest outside Parliament today.

Among the protesters would be “dozens of motorcyclists” representing “Riders for the King”, according to Pastor Ross Smith, one of the organisers of today’s protest.

Last year, the official Parliamentary prayer was changed to remove a reference to Jesus but God remains in the prayer.

“Bill English, the then Leader of the Opposition, described it as striking the right balance,” said a spokeswoman for Speaker Trevor Mallard.

But Pastor Smith said Mallard had

If you take Jesus Christ out of the prayer then nobody knows which God you’re talking about.

“marginalised all faiths and religions” by taking Jesus’ name out of the prayer — “it is a blatant misuse of his powers”. It was not just an issue for Christians, it was about all faiths.

“If you take Jesus Christ out of the prayer then nobody knows which God you’re talking about. So the Christians have been excluded and all other faiths have been marginalised.”

He said the protest wouldn’t just be Christians. A group of Muslims planned to attend as well, according to Smith, because by removing the reference to Jesus, Mallard had “reduced God to nothing” and made the prayer too religiously ambiguous.

“It’s clear there is an agenda for the ultimate removal of God and religion from our parliamentary proceedings and this must not happen.”

But Mallard’s spokeswoman said the prayer was now “more inclusive to all religions“.

Pastor Ross Smith