They can’t ask the audience to participate. Council Member Morgan asked people to bow their heads when she said a prayer at the August 23rd meeting. So I emailed her this note.
forward:
Honorable Council Member Morgan,
Honorable Council Member Morgan,
The invocation is supposed to be for the council members and not the audience. You are not supposed to ask the audience to bow their heads.
You asked the audience to bow their heads in this session:
Here is the link to Jason R. Gabriel, General Counsel’s memo:
http://www.coj.net/city-council/docs/misc/ogc-invocationopinion-2014-09-20.aspx
it is advisable …. to enlist best practices to seek to obtain a diverse panel of guest chaplains and to insure that no one attending a Council meeting feels coerced. Some suggestions include:
- No person attending a city council meeting should be required to participate in any prayer.
- Neither the council nor the clerk should ask about or review the content of any prayer.
- No City official should ask the audience to take any overt act either (bow head, stand up, etc.).
- The clerk should not remove a congregation from the list of invitees or refuse to include one.
- No speaker should offer a prayer at consecutive meetings or at more than three meetings in a year.
- Hold invocations at the beginning of meetings.
- Have a written statement acknowledging that the invocation policy is open to all and that the prayers are not intended to advance, proselytize, or disparage any one faith over others.
- Publicize that the invocation is open to anyone by posting on the City website and/or announcing at Council meetings.
- Actively reach out to non-traditional faith groups to increase the diversity of invocation speakers.
Unite Us Do Not Divide Us 