A new invocation that serves all Manitobans

Opinion

Manitoba’s legislative chamber is the space in which the province’s most serious and impactful public business is conducted. Those elected to serve within its walls should need no reminder of the gravity of their work, but it has long been tradition that the start of each day’s sitting begins with the recitation of a prayer seeking divine guidance and wisdom to shape the endeavours of members on both sides of the house.

With his government fully settled in to its role after being elected to power last fall, Premier Wab Kinew has declared this might be the right time to update that daily invocation to better reflect a province that has become more populous and decidedly more diverse since the prayer’s installation, in 1937, as part of the legislature’s daily formalities.

“It’s a very nice prayer,” Kinew said during a recent address to the Manitoba Multifaith Council. “I ask myself whether that prayer is representative and inclusive for all of us today.”

It’s a fair question.

The legislative prayer, which solemnly acknowledges God — presumably, given the province’s colonial history, that of the Christian variety — as “Eternal and Almighty,” and “from whom all power and wisdom come,” and asks that the business conducted in the chamber be “only in accordance with Thy will” and “for the glory and honour of Thy name and for the welfare of all our people.”

Given the changing demographics of this, Canada’s fifth most populous province, a reconsideration of the ceremonial start of daily legislative proceedings is both appropriate and, arguably, overdue.

In the 2021 Canadian census, 54.2 per cent of Manitobans identified as adhering to a Christian faith, while 44.5 per cent said they belonged to a non-Christian faith or had no religious affiliation (Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Indigenous spirituality accounted for a combined 7.8 per cent, and 36.7 per cent cited no affiliation).

Kinew, who starts his days with prayers from his Anishinaabe tradition, expressed deep reverence for Christianity but suggested the legislature’s daily acknowledgment should also respect other faiths and those whose inclinations are toward atheism or secularism.

The premier is correct when he predicts any effort to amend the daily prayer will be viewed by some as a divisive assault on tradition — one need only recall the now-annual outrage over how seasonal efforts at inclusivity are “taking Christ out of Christmas” to understand how sensitive this subject can be.

But there’s no disputing the prayer in its current form does not reflect the beliefs of nearly half the province’s population.

The process for reconsidering and eventually reframing the legislature’s start-of-day tradition must, as the premier has declared, be an inclusive one.

A roundtable discussion involving members from all provincial parties and representatives of various faith groups, as well as participants who cite no religious affiliation, will meet in the months ahead to consider the question.

What they might discover, if all in attendance remain open to the process, is that there exists a very real possibility to create a daily legislative rumination that respects the diverse beliefs of the many while embracing aspirations that are common to all.

“It makes so much sense,” said multifaith council president Payam Towfigh, a member of the province’s Baha’i community. “There is so much in common in the core beliefs of every religion … We have more in common than what makes us different.”

Ours is a representative democracy; those elected to carry out its legislative business must, in both intentions and actions, represent the full spectrum of Manitobans.

A reminder of that would be a good way to begin any legislative day.

» Winnipeg Free Press