“We all come here out of love for this city. Lord, help us make the right decisions. Lord, help us come to where each citizen would be served.”
These words aren’t unusual coming from the mouth of Cambridge Pastor Wayne Stone. What’s different is that they weren’t delivered at the minister’s 3C USA church, but at the Cambridge Board of City Commissioners’ November 24 meeting.
Pastor Stone was the first invitee under a vote by the Commissioners earlier in the month to open each meeting with a non-denominational invocation as part of the official program.
The meeting proceeded normally through the evening’s business. But during the public comment period, several residents testified that the new policy makes some in the community feel excluded and urged the commissioners to reconsider.
Reading a prepared statement, Race Dowling, of Stone Boundary Road, told the commissioners he reviewed the Nov. 2 debate and believes the public should hear from people who were not present the night of the initial debate.
He referred to Mayor Lajan Cephas-Bey’s questioning of where opponents of the new measure were, and her suggestion that if they did not speak up, they were irrelevant. Dowling said many nonreligious residents remain quiet for reasons that do not reflect a lack of interest in public prayer.
Self-identifying as an atheist, Dowling said he respects the faith of others but believes official prayer can make residents feel unwelcome at public meetings. He noted that many residents cannot attend meetings regularly due to work or other obligations, but still expect commissioners to represent them.
“My intellect and my internal moral compass guides my actions,” he said. “Unity can be achieved through mutual respect and understanding without requiring religious observance.” Dowling urged commissioners to adopt a neutral moment of silence or move any prayer to the period before the meeting is officially called to order, “a fair and inclusive solution.”
Other residents offered similar concerns. One woman said the invocation at the start of the meeting makes her less comfortable attending. Another said she was troubled by the tone of the earlier debate, noting that the call for unity did not match the tenor of the commissioners’ debate.
At the November 2 meeting, Ward 3 Commissioner Frank Stout proposed moving the invocation outside the formal agenda, but the Mayor insisted that prayer should be part of the official proceedings, stating, “If you cannot stand for faith, if you cannot stand for unity, what are you standing for?”
Commissioner Brian Roche supported Stout’s position and cast the lone vote against the final resolution, while Stout ultimately voted in favor of the measure, which put a five-minute limit on the invocation, which is open to any faith.
Commissioners did not respond to the public comments on Monday or revisit the policy.
This is exactly why the world is going to hell now because atheists want to take God out of everything because they don’t believe.
Prayer should be a regular part of the meetings because the city of Cambridge and the country definitely needs prayer.
I think prayer should be reinstated at meetings. Some people said that they were uncomfortable with prayer and want it removed. That means that since they don’t want it, no one else is allowed to have it either. Since the removed prayer in schools, they have more problems. This country was founded on separation of church and state, not obliteration of church. Most people do believe in God and their feelings should count.
There is no such thing as a nondenominational prayer. I do not believe prayer belongs at a municipal meeting