June 28, 2016 – Minister Philip Baber, Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville
June 14, 2016 – Rev. Noel Roberts, Bethel Temple Assembly of God
May 24, 2016 Rabbi Jonathan Lubliner, Jacksonville Jewish Center
May 10, 2016 Rev. Arul Yagappan, Pastor St. Paul’s Catholic Church
April 26, 2016- Rev. Morgan Browning, 1st Baptist Church
April 12, 2016 – Rev. David Williams, JSO Chaplain
March 22, 2016 —Earl Coggins, Humanist Celebrant–First Coast Freethought Society
March 8, 2016– Rev. Arlinda Burks, Arlington United Methodist Church
Feb 23, 2016— Father Boddie, Christ the King Church
Feb 18, 2016– Council Member Jim Love (Why a repeat?)
February 9, 2016 -Rev. Kevin Pound, Mandarin Presbyterian
January 26, 2016- Rev. A.C. Richardson, New Life Evangelistic Center
January 12, 2016–Pastor Sal Di Fazio – St. Paul’s Catholic Church
December 8, 2015- Reverend Tom Messer (Pastor) – Trinity Baptist Church
November 24- Bishop Estevez, Diocese of St. Augustine
November 10–Rabbi Yaakov Fisch, ETZ Chaim Synagogue
October 27- Bishop Rudolph McKissick, Jr.- Bethel Baptist Inst. Church
October 13-Dr. Albert Simpson Jr., Philemon Missionary Baptist Church
September 21–Pastor Mark Griffin, Wayman Ministries
September 8– Rev. Sam Pascoe, Jax Anglican Fellowship
August 25–Rev. Jason Cullum from Christ’s Church
August 11— Brett Foster of the Riverside Baptist Church
July 28, 2015—Greg Anderson (for his first council meeting as Council President) asked Council Member Jim Love to give the invocation.You can also find who has given the invocation and other things about the city council meetings at this link: http://www.coj.net/city-council.aspx
In the recent Supreme Court decision, Town of Greece v. Galloway, the Court emphasized that a government’s prayer practice must be “nondiscriminatory” and it must make reasonable efforts to include invocations from all members of the community, regardless of their faith. In fact, the completely open selection process was crucial to the prayers being upheld: “The town at no point excluded or denied an opportunity to a would-be prayer giver. Its leaders maintained that a minister or layperson of any persuasion, including an atheist, could give the invocation.” (Town of Greece, N.Y. v. Galloway, 12-696, 2014 WL 1757828 (U.S. May 5, 2014)) Therefore, excluding a particular faith group from consideration is unconstitutional. (Pelphrey v. Cobb County, 547 F.3d 1263, 1276 (11th Cir. 2008)).
The phrase “rotation scheme” was mentioned in the oral arguments on page 43 at this link:
supremecourt.gov oral arguments of the Greece v. Galloway case
Here is the quote:
JUSTICE BREYER: All right. ….. [snipped out a portion] ….Then the fourth approach, …. let’s try to be inclusive. …. in other words, so you didn’t get the right prayer today, but you — and even with the nonreligious, ….you know many believe in the better angels of our nature and the spiritual side of humankind; it’s not impossible to appeal to them. So you say, you’ll have your chance. And that’s the thing I would like you to explore. Is there a way of doing that or is that preferable to the other ways or do we get into trouble?MR. LAYCOCK: ….. rotation scheme ….
end quote
Unite Us Do Not Divide Us 