On Tuesday, the Memphis, Tennessee City Council adopted a lengthy resolution (full text) creating a new policy on opening invocations before city council meetings. As reported by WREG News, the policy was adopted in order to attempt to avoid a lawsuit threatened by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Previously invocations were offered, but no written policy was in existence.
After beginning with nearly 3 pages of "Whereas" clauses, the newly adopted resolution goes on to provide for the Council Administrator to draw up a broad list of religious and benevolent non-profit organizations-- both religious and secular-- with an established local presence. Representatives of these organizations, as well as any fire, police or military chaplain, are eligible to offer "an invocation, which may include a prayer, a reflective moment of silence, or a short solemnizing message... for the benefit of the Council." In somewhat contradictory directions, the policy calls for the Clerk to "make every reasonable effort to ensure that a variety of eligible invocation speakers are scheduled for the Council meetings." However it also provides that an invitation shall be published each year inviting eligible organizations to volunteer to offer the invocation, and that "the respondents to the invitation shall be scheduled on a first-come, first-serve basis to deliver the invocation."
