City Council drops Lord's Prayer before meetings

AKRON, Ohio — For decades, the Akron City Council opened its weekly meetings with "Our father, who art in heaven ... ."

Council president Marco Sommerville said the practice "goes way, way back." Reciting the Lord's Prayer was most likely meant to show citizens that council members looked for outside guidance, he said.

But after a Washington, D.C., group threatened litigation, council members decided Oct. 15 to instead pray privately before meetings. They're also working on finding a nonsectarian prayer to replace the Christian prayer.

"I'm delighted that the Akron City Council did the right thing and that no one attending those meetings now feels like a second-class citizen because they don't believe in the Lord's Prayer," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The people who wanted to pray are going to do so before they go into council chambers, and that's fine."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio also applauded the move.

"Government is there for people of all faiths and people of no faith," spokesman Gary Daniels said.

Many municipalities still include prayers at meetings, said John K. Mahoney, deputy director of the Ohio Municipal League.

City Councils can pray, but the prayers can't be specifically suited to one religion. Such a safeguard is inherent in the U.S. Constitution, said William Rich, a University of Akron professor consulted by the Akron City Council.

"The Constitution requires this degree of separation in part to protect religion from being influenced or co-opted by the government," he said.

All 13 Akron council members agreed to cease saying the Lord's Prayer, not wanting to fight — and lose — a threatened court battle from Lynn.

"I don't see anything wrong with people who have been elected, who have to make decisions for the majority of people in the community, to start the meeting off with a word of prayer," Sommerville said. "Unfortunately, we just can't say the Lord's Prayer."

— RNS