I write concerning the removal of Christian prayers at the beginning of Gloucestershire Coun­ty Council meetings at the instruction of Cllr Brian Thornton, leader of the county council.

It seems highly unusual and irregular to make unilaterally such a decision, certainly without consultation with other councillors; and even more unusual and irregular not to consult those whom those councillors represent – namely: us, the voting public.

Mr Thornton says the practice of praying "excludes some" of the councillors and that: "this (the council) is not a religious setting, it is a council one. As such, I have decided I do not wish to cause exclusion in any way, so we will do without the prayers."

What he should have said of course is: "So I have decided we will do without the prayers."

Who is the leader of the county council to make such decisions? This is another example of the majority bending to the wishes of the unidentified minority, who have not expressed any view and still less expressed any offence. In fact, this is exclusion of the majority by the minority, something which Christians are at last starting to resist as the excellent organisation Christian Concern is demonstrating with its campaign against the National Secular Society, currently demanding Devon County Council to remove prayers from its meetings despite two council votes resisting such a move already.

I hope our county councillors are not going to accept this – at the next council elections I will ask them if they did resist it or not and vote accordingly.

The leader of the Christian People's Alliance, Alan Craig, has written: "As we rip up Christian values and now Christian prayers we see the result on our streets in the form of rioting, binge drinking and drug culture. The most important thing is to get Christian values and Christian prayers back into our society and not take them away. Having Christian prayers is saying Christian values are good values for public life and a council meeting is a part of public life."

Unfortunately this ripping up of Christian values is becoming common­place as intolerant minorities try to suppress any influence that the Christian faith might have on public life. Census after census show that the vast majority of people in this country believe in God. Whatever the secular and atheist lobbies think, our modern systems of democratic representation and justice have evolved from a Judeo- and Romano-Christian foundation and therefore the act of prayer before a meeting of such gatherings is entirely normal and natural.

The freedom to pray in this fashion is a hard-won and vital privilege certainly denied by some adherents of other religions in other parts of the world, as individuals like Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad, whose congregants are frequently blown up or murdered, will testify. Meanwhile, members of other religions whom I meet are left completely baffled at decisions like these to axe prayers before meetings. Just like Christmas trees, they have no problem with it.

Some would seek to separate the secular (county council) and the religious (prayer). The whole message of the Christian faith is that there is no such divide. One leading theologian said that ministers should preach with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Thank goodness we have the freedom to preach like this as much as we like, despite the tyrannical shouts and intimidation by the secularists and atheists who seek to bully everyone else into behaving and believing as they do.

– Rev Nick Bromfield, Rector of Drybrook, Lydbrook and Ruardean Benefice.