Greens councillor Charlotte McCabe raised the prayer at the April meeting during a discussion on exhibiting the code of meeting practice, saying she felt the wording should be adapted to "better reflect all Novocastrians".

The prayer is: "Almighty God. We humbly ask you to bless this meeting, direct and prosper our deliberations, the advancement of your glory and the true welfare of the people of Newcastle."

Cr McCabe initially proposed an amendment at the April meeting to create a new introduction but withdrew this after other councillors said they needed more time to consider it.

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However the Greens councillor asked for a commitment to reconsider the matter at a later time.

That time came on Tuesday, when the code of meeting practice came back to council for adoption.

Despite changes to the current meeting preamble and prayer not being exhibited as part of code, 17 submissions were made to council about amending or removing the prayer.

This included a submission from the 'Christian communities of Newcastle' saying: "Christian leaders recognise that many of the remaining citizens are ambivalent about prayer and some find it offends their view of the world. In this regard, the Christian leaders affirm the need for great sensitivity in choosing the words that may be used.

"The current prayer is ... not specifically Christian as no direct reference is made to Jesus Christ or to any Christian formularies. There is an opportunity for revision of the prayer to make it more inclusive. We are open to working with you on this."

Census results from 2021 released this week showed almost 42 per cent of Hunter people said they had no religion, up sharply from 27.8 per cent in 2016 and above the national godless rate of 38.4 per cent.

Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes moved an amendment on Tuesday asking Cr McCabe to lead engagement and consultation regarding proposed changes to the preamble and prayer.

The motion also asked council to invite church leaders and the community to contribute on a way forward to make the prayer "more inclusive".

Cr McCabe said she was happy to accept the responsibility to lead discussions to amend the preamble so it "reflects the diversity of the community".

"I was really grateful to see there were 17 submissions on this topic and that all of them in some way thought that there was an opportunity to make the time of reflection have a more inclusive wording," she said.

Fellow Greens councillor John Mackenzie attempted to move another amendment to allow members of the public to address council meetings about an item on that night's agenda.

He said there was only a small number of councils that didn't allow this and believed it was "undemocratic".

"We have instead the public voice and briefing policy, which serve another purpose," Cr Mackenzie said.

"It can't hurt us to receive more information."

However the Labor majority and Liberal councillor Callum Pull opposed the idea, with some councillors saying there were other ways for the public to engage with councillors and the current engagement system was "comprehensive".

Independent councillor John Church also brought up that he believed councillors should be able to abstain from votes "where they believe there is no jurisdiction or that might be a matter of conscience".

It came after Cr Church attempted to abstain on Cr Nelmes' motion about abortion rights, but the code of meeting practice states this meant his vote would be listed as against.

However the Office of Local Government's model code of meeting practice does not include this provision and council's legal manager said the model could would "override" the clause and make it irrelevant.

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