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Commissioner urges broader invocations; chair points to Resolution 2020-37 and work session review
Summary
Commissioner Gillespie asked the City Commission to consider alternatives to exclusively Christian pastor-led invocations, citing a humanist invocation previously read by Charlene Bennett; the chair cited Resolution 2020-37 and said the matter could be discussed in a work session.
Commissioner Gillespie asked the commission to consider alternatives to recurring Christian pastor invocations and to be open to invocations from other faiths or humanist readings. "We should not we should not be confined to Christian pastor invocations in this body," Gillespie said, pointing to a humanist invocation previously read by Charlene Bennett.
Gillespie said the poem Bennett proposed was "beautiful poetry" that reflected community values and urged the commission to discuss alternatives rather than continuing with a single-faith format. Gillespie said the city is not a single-faith community and suggested opening invocation opportunities to residents of differing faiths or nonreligious residents.
The chair responded that the commission had given the topic thorough attention in 2020 and pointed commissioners to Resolution 2020-37 as the governing procedure. "We do have a resolution 2020-37. I would encourage you to read that. That's certainly something we can discuss, in work session. We have a procedure that we follow," the chair said.
No formal motion or vote was taken on changing invocation practice during the meeting; the chair directed that the resolution and procedure be reviewed in a future work session.
