More than three years after prayer was removed from Berlin town council meetings, officials have revisited the subject, and came to a consensus that the current format is preferred.
Berlin Mayor and Council on dais
File photo
Consensus reached that moment of silence preferred
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
More than three years after prayer was removed from Berlin town council meetings, officials have revisited the subject, and came to a consensus that the current format is preferred.
Officials said that while they might have objected when Mayor Zack Tyndall removed the citing of the Lord’s Prayer from the beginnings of meeting, they now prefer beginning with the moment of silence that’s become customary since late 2020.
“I would be in favor of proceeding as we have been,” Councilman Dean Burrell said. “Religion and nonreligion is a personal and private thing. Who I pray to and pray with is entirely personal and private. If we could keep that personal and private I think we would be in a better place because when you start talking about beliefs, which are all individual beliefs, we could get as many beliefs in this room as there are people. I think we’re in a good place.”
Shortly after he was elected in October 2020, Tyndall eliminated the recital of the Lord’s Prayer from the start of council meetings. At the time, Tyndall said he wanted to be more inclusive and would instead start meetings with a moment of silence.
Councilman Jay Knerr last week asked during last week’s council meeting if his peers wanted to reconsider that concept and perhaps begin the meetings with a blessing. He suggested one option would be having elected officials take turns saying a nondenominational blessing instead of the moment of silence.
“The safest route is the way we do it,” said Dave Gaskill, the town’s attorney.
Tyndall said he’d removed the prayer because he felt it opened the town up for liabilities. He added that he continued to say the prayer in his head during the moment of silence.
Councilman Steve Green said he liked the way the Worcester County Commissioners started their meetings, with blessings from pastors from different churches throughout the county. He added that Berlin was a town with 14 churches.
“I think we have to be open that if the 15th one comes and it’s one that’s maybe a different believe we have to open it to those entities as well,” Tyndall said.
Green said part of being a community was recognizing differences everyone had. He added that his church’s pastor would be happy to participate.
“How would that be nondenominational?” said Sara Gorfinkel, executive assistant to the mayor.
Tyndall said he wasn’t sure but felt it would be better to have guests come in than have councilmembers lead the blessing.
Resident Gabe Purnell said he preferred the moment of silence.
“My opinion is, and I’m a solid Christian, my opinion is in this diverse society that we live in, when you said let’s have a period of silence, to me that’s fine,” he said. “If I’m Christian, if I’m a Buddhist or whatever I am, I can do it in silence. God hears our prayers whether they’re silent or whether they’re verbal. It would be great, now my wife don’t agree with me on this, but that’s my personal opinion. I think it would keep us out of trouble. Now the county’s getting away with it but one day it might come back to bite them.”
His wife, Commissioner Diana Purnell, said that while the commissioners had pastors lead the blessing, it was typically rather general.
“They do not normally pray as we would in church,” she said. “They come in and ask for prayer for the commissioners, they pray we have wisdom and that type of thing. We don’t get into a lot of biblical scriptures. We thus far haven’t had any problems.”
Councilman Jack Orris said if a blessing was added to town meetings, all of the town’s churches should be included. He said he didn’t think any of the elected officials should lead the blessing.
Burrell said he’d been appalled when Tyndall removed the Lord’s Prayer from meetings but now felt it had been the right thing to do.
“I really don’t think we should go back,” he said. “Like Dave said, we open ourselves for a lot of governmental impacts.”
Tyndall said the conversation had been good to have even if the council wasn’t interested in pursuing any changes.