A discussion on prayer dominated the Jan. 4 Monroeville Council citizen’s night meeting.
About a dozen residents spoke out on the subject during the public comment portion that evening.
The discussion stems from a complaint filed by resident Josh Allenberg last fall with the American Civil Liberties Union asking elected officials to refrain from reciting a specific prayer. Monroeville council has, for nearly five decades, opened its meetings with the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.
Pastor Bruce Shafer of Grace Life Church in Monroeville, said the goal of prayer at meetings should be “to pray for our community and the leaders of our community.” He added that residents should be free to pray openly at meetings.
Resident Marilyn Devlin said she was in favor of the municipality beginning the meetings with a moment of silence.
“This is a government building and this is a government meeting,” she said. “I question why, in a government building, we are talking about prayer,” and added that a moment of silence would not exclude anyone.
The Monroeville Interfaith Ministerium, a multi-faith organization, is in favor of a moment of silence prior to council meetings.
“We know this is a difficult issue,” said Rabbi Barbara Symmons, president of the ministerium. “More people would be able to pray if given a moment of silence.”
Mayor Greg Erosenko said council has three options as to what to do regarding prayer at its council meetings: adopt an ordinance that would allow for a rotation of religious leaders of various faith to provide an invocation; adopt an ordinance that would allow for a moment of silence prior to meetings; or to not have any prayer or moment of silence.
The draft of Monroeville’s invocation ordinance states that “council intends to adopt a policy that will not show purposeful preference of one religious view over another by not permitting the faith of the person offering the invocation to be considered when extending an invitation” to participate in a meeting.
Former councilman Jim Brown said he opposes any ordinance stating that it is not necessary to have a prayer and that it could open the municipality up for lawsuits.
“You’re giving the other guy a case,” he said.
Mr. Brown added that residents and council members could say a prayer at the meetings without an ordinance.
“Monroeville is one of the few communities that offers a citizen’s night,” Mr. Brown said. “Residents can offer a prayer then,” he said.
He added that council members set the agenda and could even offer a prayer during their reports.
Mr. Allenberg said prior to the meeting that there are two issues he hopes to address council about sometime soon which are: Inclusion of non-adherents and those who have houses of worship outside of the municipality and allowing anyone from the community to request to deliver an invocation.
“My overall goal was to stop elected officials from leading a single sectarian prayer,” Mr. Allenberg said.
“Chaplains delivering prayer before legislative sessions is older than the Constitution itself. And personally, I think it lends a bit of a warranted gravity to the occasion. I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s implemented,” he added.
The ACLU sent a letter dated Dec. 7 letter asking Monroeville to cease stating the Lord’s Prayer at council meetings. The ACLU stated that if council did not comply by Jan. 4, it would file a lawsuit against the municipality.
The evening’s meeting did begin with an invocation by the Rev. Robert Marrow of Cross Roads Presbyterian Church of Monroeville, who invited residents to join him in a moment of silence and then a prayer.
Monroeville Manager Tim Little said the municipality has not received any further communication from the ACLU.
“It’s one of the hardest things that has come in front of us,” Councilman Ron Harvey said at the meeting. “It’s just going to take a lot of thought,” he said.
“A lot of good points were made by the community this evening,” Councilman Nick Gresock said. “We’re going to look through everything between now and Tuesday,” he said.
Council is expected to discuss the matter at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
Mr. Erosenko urged residents to contact him via email at eroseg@monroeville.pa.us with their opinion regarding the invocation ordinance.
Deana Carpenter, freelance writer: suburbanliving@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 8, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
