To have objected to ‘prayers’ at work

Can’t be forced, surely

Just checked, it's perfectly legal to put prayers on a U.K. work agenda but you can be forced to attend that part of the meeting

Probably a good time to hire/borrow/make a jedi cloak and keep it in your desk drawer

https://humanists.uk/action/parliamentary-prayers/

That gives an advantage to any MP in the House of Commons who attends the prayers, as they are able to put down a ‘prayer card’ on their seat, which reserves it for the whole day. This means that non-Christian MPs, who don’t want to attend prayers for a religion they do not believe in, are less likely to get a seat or be selected by the Speaker to take part in the day’s business.

Seeing as the meeting is only 12 people with half in US and half UK, is there a risk that you are going to look a bit intolerant because you could just sit quietly while this woman prays. As you say you all take turns to lead By taking it up with your boss are you making it into a BIG deal that everyone will be talking about whereas if you just ignored it then for the next 11 meetings there will be o prayers and when it is As turn again she might have worked out for herself that it didn't go down well and just drop it?

I was wondering if she would be thanking god for Trump's victory and to guide his hand in Making America Great Again, going forwards.
Religion and politics!

Depending on whether you actually have to pretend to like this colleague in order to work with them, it might be fun to take prayer time to its logical extreme, in order to get it banned.
Probably the best way to do this is joining the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The members call themselves Pastafarians, revere pirates, and often wear pirate hats as an outward sign of their faith. The officiants wear a colander on their heads for services.
So there's a lot for you to work with there when it's your turn to host, and you can choose the form of worship.

I’ve worked for employers that prayer at work: churches.

Sittings in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords begin with prayers.

for starters Democrats aren't known for trying to force their religious beliefs on others

I beg to differ. We have American Democrats to thank for the modern religions of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Critical Race Theory and Trans Ideology. I don't want to forced to worship at the alter of any of those thank you very much, or risk being ostracised by my colleagues or lose my job if I dare to speak out and say so.

I agree with you completely. It should be separate and totally optional.

I have a few friends that are pagan and they have some lovely prayers, they'd probably make her completely explode

Nah not being unreasonable, it will be interesting how she deals with the pushback, maybe you could stand up after an offer a pagan blessing afterwards :)

In NZ we start and end our meetings with a Karakia i.e. Māori blessing. The idea is its to set the tone of participation and focus us on the subject. There is no appeal to any deity in them but I have noticed alot of people say "ameni" which is Te Reo for "amen" at the end.

Religion should be kept off team meeting agenda’s. No way would I agree to this, massively inappropriate. Keep religion out of workplace meetings

It's completely, completely inappropriate in the workplace and frankly borderline offensive.

If a colleague if yours announced the meeting would be starting with a quick pagan ritual, would you consider that appropriate? Absolutely not. It's also very disrespectful to those of other faiths for whom this might be inappropriate, such as those communities in which men and women do not typically pray together.

Faith is a personal choice and there's simply no reason at all to include it in a work meeting. For one thing, if you want to pray, do it in your free time not the time the company are paying you for?! It's akin to asking to read a chapter of a self help book you like to the group at the start of a meeting!!

religion is between you and your Gods, or ancestors, or whoever it is you venerate.
this is deeply inappropriate. they can pray on their own time, not try and push their religion on others. I'm sure they'd soon object if someone of a different religion wanted to start the meeting with group prayer.

I am very familiar thanks, having lived in the US for 20 years - are you always so rude? The phrase is usually extrapolated to thinking about the limits of religious influence, with the view that religion should not impinge on daily life or how you are treated. Since this is a workplace, this is an impingement. The right not to have other beliefs imposed on us is vital, but being eroded. I worked for 10 years for an organization which was acquired by a charity set up and run by a religious group. Even they did not insist on prayers in meetings.

Same for me. And I live in the Deep South where I assume most of my colleagues are probably churchgoers. It would be considered highly inappropriate in my workplace.

I do not think prayers at the start of meetings is THAT unusual. I'm sure I read that our local council only abolished them recently due to objections. Not sure if a compromise was offered of allowing those who wanted to pray to go into the meeting room 5 minutes earlier, and those who objected could wait outside. If the house of commons can have prayers then I can't see how it can be illegal to have them. Making it illegal to make people participate is more likely the truth of the matter.

I see the point you're trying to make, but for starters Democrats aren't known for trying to force their religious beliefs on others, so it's unlikely they would do something like this. They might invite the team to join them for prayer prior to the meeting if that was normal for them, but it wouldn't be on the agenda.

Trump literally has the support and involvement of fundamentalist christian groups who want to see America governed according to their religious beliefs and in many evangelical churches support for Trump is preached as though it's integral to their religion. They vote according to their religious beliefs and pray according to their political beliefs, so it really is relevant because there is a strong possibility she will want to pray for/about Trump.

Any time I worry about having given up my US citizenship I'm reminded why it was the right decision..! Good luck OP! Would love to know what HR says.