Shelby.Sebens@StarNewsOnline.com
Copyright © 2012 StarNewsOnline.com
Reprinted with permission

The American Humanist Association is accusing the Wilmington City Council of violating the constitution by holding sectarian prayers before meetings.

The association sent a letter to the council Wednesday (July 11) asking that the prayers be stopped. Council holds an invocation and pledge of allegiance before the start of each meeting. The association argues that because several recent prayers have included specific religious terms, that the council is violating the separation of church and state.

It's obvious the council has a preference for Christian prayers, William Burgess, director of AHA's legal center, said. The group wants council to stop holding prayers but is willing to work with the city to ensure the invocations are non-sectarian.

And it's not likely the city will change its meeting procedure.

"We're not going to stop the invocation," City Attorney Bill Wolak said. "We don't' have to."

The city council has a rule that the invocation must be non-sectarian and volunteers who sign up to pray are made aware of that stipulation.

"We tell them to keep them nonsectarian," Wolak said. But many of the prayers include direct references to the Christian faith with phrases such as "in the name of Jesus," according to video tapes of recent council meetings. Wolak said the council cannot control what people say when they are mid-prayer.

"I guess from a practical standpoint, what do we do?" he said.

According to a district court ruling, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was violated by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners' policy of opening public meetings with clergy-led prayers that discussed specific tenets of Christianity and referenced Jesus Christ. The court ruling stated that the policy advanced and endorsed Christianity to the exclusion of other faiths.

In February, New Hanover County Chairman Ted Davis told other commissioners and staff that meeting invocations would now have to be nonsectarian. Before, a prayer said at the beginning of a county meeting could represent the faith of the person saying it.

Wilmington City Clerk Penny Spicer-Sidbury said the city has a list of volunteers who have been notified and reminded that the prayers are to be non-sectarian. She said annually she sends a notice to local ministry and others who might interested in signing up to give the invocation. The city, by policy, would allow anyone who volunteers to give the invocation regardless of their religion.

"It's open," Sidbury said.

But for several months the prayers have been Christian in nature.

If no one volunteers to give the invocation, then council members do it.

Burgess wants them to stop the praying all together. He said a local member of the organization complained after attending a meeting and feeling ostracized for being a non-believer.

"There's really no need for prayers before the meeting," he said.

Wolak said the city's policy is non-sectarian and meets federal standards.

"Beyond that I don't know what to tell them," he said.

Shelby Sebens: 343-2076

On Twitter: @ShelbySebens