Town council bullied into no longer reciting the Lord's Prayer by ACLU

Point Beach council will no longer recite the Lord's Prayer at public meetings

ERIK LARSEN • STAFF WRITER • October 22, 2010

TOMS RIVER — The Point Pleasant Beach Borough Council has agreed to end the custom of saying the Lord's Prayer at the start of public meetings, thus resolving a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

However, the agreement does not put to rest the overall dispute between the parties over the constitutional interpretation of the separation of church and state.

With the formal recitation of the Lord's Prayer ended, a hearing on Friday in Superior Court also took up the issue of a resolution the council approved Tuesday under which individual governing body members are empowered — on a rotating basis — to begin meetings with a non-sectarian prayer.