Rada rejects a bill on reading “Our Father” before sessions start

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada removed draft law No. 6722 on reading the Lord's prayer in Parliament immediately after the opening of plenary sessions. This is reported by 112.ua.

The Parliament approved the agenda for the ninth session, however, the bill on reading the prayer "Our Father" was on the list of documents that have lost relevance or are proposed for rejection for other reasons.

As the newspaper reports, the Main Scientific and Expert Administration drew attention to signs of unconstitutionality of this bill because Ukraine is a secular state whereas the reading of the Lord's prayer is often an element of the Christian religious rite. The Constitution guarantees that citizens have equal rights and freedoms and are equal before the law, therefore there can be no privileges or restrictions on the grounds of religious beliefs.

The bill with the proposal to read "Our Father" immediately after the opening of the plenary sessions was registered in July 2017. Its authors were Oksana Bilozir, Pavel Ungurian, Oleg Bereziuk and six other MPs.

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