POLICY Invocations - 2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Supreme Court has repeatedly clarified that "there is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect." Bd. of Educ. of Westside Community Schools v. Mer ens, 496 U.S. 226, 250 (1990), The City intends, and has intended in past practice, to adopt a policy that does not proselytize or advance any faith, or show any purposeful preference of one religious view to the exclusion of others. This policy set forth below has been approved by two federal courts in the cases of Pellphrey v. Cobb Count (11th Cir. 2008) 547 F3d 1263 and Rubin v. Citof Lancaster (2011) 80 F,Supp.2d 1107. The City recognizes its constitutional duty to interpret, construe, and amend its policies to comply with constitutional requirements as they are announced. 1, in order to solemnize proceedings of the City Council, it is the policy of the City to allow for an invocation or prayer to be offered at its meetings for the benefit of the City Council and the community. 2. The prayer shall not be listed or recognized as an agenda item for the meeting so that it may be clear the prayer is not considered a part of the public business. 3. No member of the City Council or City employee or any other person in attendance at the meeting shall be required to participate in any prayer that is offered, 4. The prayer shall be voluntarily delivered by an eligible member of the clergy or a religious leader in the City of Santa Ana, To ensure that such person (the "invocational speaker") is selected from among a wide pool of the City's clergy/religious leaders, on a rotating basis, the invocational speaker shall be selected according to the following procedure: a. The Police Department shall compile and maintain a database (the "Congregations List") of the religious congregations with an established presence in the City of Santa Ana. b. The Congregations List shall be compiled by referencing the listing for "churches," "congregations," or other religious assemblies in the annual Yellow Pages telephone directory or directories published for the City of Santa Ana, research from the Internet, and consultation with local chambers of commerce. All churches, congregations or other religious, assemblies with an established presence in the City of Santa Ana are -3..