LAGUNA NIGUEL : Invocation Decision Delayed for Input

To Kay Lindahl, the most important actions a city council takes happen before the meeting ever begins.

That is why Lindahl and the Laguna Niguel-based organization she founded, the Alliance for a Spiritual Community, are urging the City Council to lead off each meeting with an invocation.

“I think we have a spiritual base in this community, but it is kind of a secret,” Lindahl said. “There is a perception out there that people are not religious. But when you look underneath, you find out that people are spiritual.”

On Tuesday, council members will decide whether to begin their meetings with an invocation. Last week, officials debated the matter before a sparse audience after council members Janet Godfrey and Mark Goodman had asked that the item be placed on the agenda.

“I think the purpose is to give inspiration to those making decisions,” Goodman said. He added that the invocation, if given by clergy or lay people from a variety of faiths, could be a tool for learning and understanding.

“There seems to be a rebirth of bigotry in our communities,” Goodman said. “And I bet there are some children in our community (who) maybe have never been exposed to a person of Jewish faith, for example.”

The three others on the council, Mayor Thomas W. Wilson, Mayor Pro Tem Patricia C. Bates and Councilman James F. Krembas, cautioned that some strongly worded invocations can be offensive and exclusionary to some residents of the city.

Council members decided last week to take up the issue Tuesday in the hopes of gathering opinions from residents.

According to a Laguna Niguel survey, two-thirds of the city councils in Orange County begin their meetings with an invocation.

In the neighboring city of Mission Viejo, invocations were discontinued last year when scheduled clergy frequently did not appear at meetings. The city also had trouble controlling what was said. On at least one occasion, Jesus Christ was invoked, offending those of another religious faith, officials said.

The Alliance for a Spiritual Community, a conglomeration of about a dozen clergy and lay people from Laguna Niguel, has told the city they can provide invocations that are inclusive of all faiths without being so watered down as to be meaningless.

“As I see it, there is some universality to all human beings, and an invocation can acknowledge that aspect,” Lindahl said. “People just have many ways to express that.”