30 years ago: Unitarian minister's prayer shocks Edmonton City Council

Until fairly recently, council meetings in Edmonton and other Canadian cities opened with prayer. However, the out-of-control atheistic mentally and morally retarded body known as the Supreme Court of Canada has seen fit to outlaw the practice in recent years, which will be the subject of another post, if I ever get around to it. The Unitarian Church, as the name indicates, isn't Christian, and this minister's requests make that obvious. As reported by the Edmonton Journal, December 10, 1986:

City council heard proposals Tuesday for a local abortion clinic, a nuclear-free Edmonton, and a worker-owned co-operative at the strikebound Gainers plant.

And that was just in the morning prayer.

Several aldermen raised bowed heads and stared in open shock as the minister, invited to deliver council's traditional opening prayer, ran down his Christmas wish list.

Rev. John Marsh of the Unitarian Church of Edmonton asked first that Edmonton be declared a nuclear-weapons-free zone. He asked next for a therapeutic abortion clinic.

"...Third, if (Peter) Pocklington does not want to own a meat-packing plant in our city, let the city make the financial arrangements for it to become a worker-owned co-operative."

Marsh acknowledged afterwards council members seemed "mildly disturbed" by his prayer.

Clergymen are picked at random to deliver a prayer to open council's regular meetings.