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Man asks to say pagan prayer at board meetingBy BARBARA BEHRENDT
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- Community activist Charles Schrader, who was ejected from a School Board meeting last week for praying a pagan prayer over Chairwoman Patience Nave's invocation, asked Tuesday whether he can lead the prayer at the next regular board meeting June 12. "In the spirit of diverse religion in our community, would you allow myself and other citizens an opportunity to invoke a prayer to our gods without having us arrested?" he asked in a fax to Nave. Nave said she had not formally responded to Schrader but that her feeling was that it was the board's meeting. So they should be the ones conducting the prayers. "Our position has been to continue this as a board meeting for our business in the public, not a public meeting," she said. "I plan to continue to do this until I have instructions to do otherwise." Nave said no one else has ever asked for the chance to open the meeting with prayer. She did, however, ask a minister from a Christian church to lead the invocation at a meeting in February that was called specifically to deal with the prayer issue. "I'm a pagan minister, so why can't I lead the prayer?" Schrader responded when he learned of Nave's answer. The prayer issue has raged since November when board member Carol Snyder suggested that the board discontinue its policy of opening nearly every meeting with Christian prayer. Since then, she has tried unsuccessfully twice to get the board to establish a moment of silent reflection in place of a prayer. Schrader has regularly attended the meetings, prompting the board to request deputies for its meetings and to create a new policy against insults and profanity. Schrader has made comments to the board that have shocked Nave and bothered other members of the board for their crude nature. The debate reached a peak last week when Schrader began to pray a Wiccan invocation aloud at the same time Nave began to pray at the start of a board meeting. Nave asked for him to be removed and, after arguing with Deputy Joe Faherty, Schrader left. He said the incident won't stop him from doing what he needs to do. "When Patience Nave stands to pray, I will sit or stand and pray, too," he said. "If it means I will be arrested for praying, then so be it. I will pray." PREVIOUS COVERAGE:Distrust kills one School Board goal School Board ejects pagan over prayer at meeting's start Board: Speak your mind, but no more insults Board, fed up with rudeness, sets rules Prayer issue stirs antics at meeting Sheriff repudiates pagan's complaints
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