Will anybody listen?

I have been having a fair bit of difficulty trying to post on my blog this week.

My secretary has been busy with other things so I visited my friend Inky Rabbit to ask for her assistance in typing up my spiel on Kiwi Saver.

She was unimpressed when I politely jumped into her hutch for a talk about it. She refused to speak to me and hid in her bedroom.

Then I tried the youngest child but all he did was meow back at me!

Who does he think he is?

A cat?

I then asked eldest child. She decided to be particularly dense and pretended not to understand me so I decided to do it myself. Despite the fact that keyboards are not well designed for cat paws.

The Man Of The House overheard my conversation with eldest and obligingly set up his lap top on the table even positioning it so that I could easily sit and type. I thanked him nicely and was attempting to access this page when he started yelling and put me on the floor! No amount of cajoling on my part could convince him to allow me to use his computer.

I even tried to talk a passing bird into typing for me and was carrying it into the house discussing what I wanted to say when it flew out of my mouth!

No amount of pleading on my part could get it to come back.

I knew I should have just stuck to the topic of lunch.

My lunch that is.

I guess my diatribe on Kiwi Saver will have to wait for another time. A more irrelevant topic has come up.

Prayer.

Or rather the parliamentary prayer that is said at the start of every session for 154 years.

The speaker, Margaret Wilson, has sent a letter to all MP's asking whether they want to keep the pray and if the wording of the prayer should be changed. link

This has all become tied up in whether New Zealand has a state religion or not, as in;

• If we don't have a state religion why to we have a Christan prayer at the start of every session of parliament?



• Why do we have a national anthem with the first line "God of nations at thy feet"?



• Why are Christmas and Easter public holidays?
  

Could it be Clayton's choice? The state religion you have when you don't have a state religion?

A quick look at the census data from 2006 shows that 55.6% of the population still identify themselves as Christan. Even if that is a drop of 5% from 2001 that is still the majority.

The prayer in question is this:

"Almighty God, humbly acknowledging our need for Thy guidance in all things, and laying aside all private and personal interests, we beseech Thee to grant that we may conduct the affairs this House and of our country to the glory of Thy holy name, the maintenance of true religion and justice, the honour of the Queen, and the public welfare, peace and tranquillity of New Zealand, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

Is having MP's pause for a few seconds to ask for guidance and to lay aside all private and personal interests such a bad thing given how given some of the behaviour in the House?

Let us pray that someone is listening.