Tulsa City Council votes to end prayer before meetings

The Tulsa City Council will no longer have a prayer before its meetings.

The decision came after a pagan woman gave the opening invocation last fall, which drew significant criticism.

The council will have only a few more invocations—which can be a prayer—before ending the practice in May.

The council decided on Wednesday afternoon to change the format from having someone give an invocation to instead pause for a "moment of silent prayer or personal reflection."

The change was proposed by Councilor Laura Bellis, who said that, as a Jewish person, she sympathized with those who felt uncomfortable with some of the prayers offered at council meetings.

"My concern is that because this is someone who is opening our meetings, because they have signed up, people don't know they're not speaking for all of us," said Bellis. "We have people who come to one public meeting, maybe in their whole life, and they might think this represents our whole government body."

The vote to make the change passed 8-1, with Councilor Chris Bengal abstaining. He said he felt that councilors should be able to hear things they don't agree with without being offended.

The council had an invocation on the agenda for their 5 p.m. meeting on Wednesday, but the person who signed up did not show up to deliver it.