Prayer and Invocations at HOA Meetings

A very sensitive subject matter.

A proposition was recently introduced on the floor of our recent HOA meeting to have the standard practice of having a prayer or invocation at the beginning of each homeowners meeting. No provisions in any of our governing documents address the issue of allowing or prohibiting prayer or invocations at or during Community Association meetings. Since this organization was founded in 1989, the subject is not known to have been discussed publicly nor introduced for community action. It appears that even with the constant change in community of our faith-based membership, no one has desired to bring up such a proposition. The decision has been delayed to allow the issues to be researched in depth for ensuing opinions and views that would either support or reject such a proposition.

For those who would question what we are,---"we are a non-for-profit incorporated institution organized and governed by rules of the State of Florida", which can be compared to other state governed organizations such as State and Municpal Governments who hold public meetings, for instance. We should be instinctively wary about allowing public invocations in and during the politics of a governmental controlled community such as ours because it would be open to public scrutiny. We find that those decisions are made by the city commission's board members themselves, comprising of different beliefs, and not by appealing to the people of the city.
We believe we should adopt a similar authoritative stance by allowing the board of directors to review the issue and declare its final decision on the scope of agenda meetings. It is recognized that it is not in the power of the board of directors to suggest the constitutionality of its decision, but that it is whatever the motive that would lead to the enactment of its decision. The membership should recognize that such a decision will promote equal justice and equity among the community.

I am persuaded to believe that since we are a governing body, we must not be placed in a position of guaranteeing religious expressions during board and/or homeowners meetings. Our governing rules may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise, or otherwise act in a way which establishes a religious profile during the exercise of public business.

I am requesting those homeowners associations who are reviewing this to notify me if you have prayer or invocations at your meetings and how you arrived at the decision to have them.

Thanks

Many state and federal legislatures have prayers or invocations. Here is an interesting study to read about this subject: http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=13220 Harold

...a religious neutral prayer. Isn't that an oxymoron?

...keeping religion and politics out of the prayer.

Very interesting read. Still think it is just inviting more problems though.

Here in Canada the recent storm has been allowing veiled women to not show their faces when voting. Much to the dismay of the gov't they screwed up some recent legislation that was supposed to force unveiling if you wanted to vote, so as to identify the voter. Problem is that they allow 80,000 votes to vote by mail so facial identification is clearly not necessary to protect the integrity of the system.

Good luck with the prayer.

As the author of the above query, I still haven't received from any association saying that they have or have not prayer or invocations at their homeowner or board meetings. The need not state names, titles or locations of their associations if they feel privacy is essential.

Thanks again in advance.

JosephD8,

Why not a minute of silence and ask members to stand.

Hard to find fault in that.

We are a HOA in Florida. We have approved a flag pole and a American fLAG TO FLY FROM IT. Our problem was we could not agree on where to put the flag. We found a company that manufactured collapseable poles but then we started construction on our new clubhouse ( It took us 5 years of debate on that ,then another 2 years of fighting with the city to get it allowed) Finally this 20 year old hoa has a clubhouse. That being said I see no reason why the meetings should not start with the Pledge of Allegance, then 1 minute of silent prayer for our killed military members as well as a simple prayer like" Dear God look over this community tonight and keep it safe from harm. Please god have the BOD make good descisions tonight for everyones welfare.".

I like that and I will make a motion under new business to make that part of the opening of the meeting. I will let you all know what happens.

Jack
Miramar Fl

We have an American flag flying at our entrance but have never had a flag, prayer, or moment of silence at a meeting. We don't own a place for meetings anyway so they tend to move around.