I was thinking of having a prayer at the opening of our officers meeting. Simply saying to the other officers that I would like to have a pray at the beginning of the meeting out in the hall, if anyone would care to join me. I also know that many, if not all, of the officers are christians and even if they are not I really don't think they would be offended. After all, they don't have to join me if they choose not to.

I was thinking of having a prayer at the opening of our officers meeting. Simply saying to the other officers that I would like to have a pray at the beginning of the meeting out in the hall, if anyone would care to join me. I also know that many, if not all, of the officers are christians and even if they are not I really don't think they would be offended. After all, they don't have to join me if they choose not to.

WHOA here is my .02

If you are independnet, not for profit, SEPARATE from the school distirct, 100%, then most likely you can pray all night long if you want, in theory (doesnt mean some parents wont protest).

IF however, you are DEPENDENT, an arm of the school/district, if I were you , I would give invite Dr Lawyer of district counsel to my next PTO meeting and pick her brain on this one.

But no matter what you do, prayer wise, you are bound to offend someone in your parent body, so why risk alienating even one person with such a provocative stance, bringing prayer to a PTO meeting??????

As you know there are people trying to omit the word god from the morning pledge, surely you will have people all over your back quick like, if you bring in a full prayer to a PTO meeting, regardless of your tax filing status, indep or dependent ie, driven to be free or driven by separation of church and state, respectively.

And at the end of the day, dont yur bylaws stipulate something about being Apolitical? ANd not pushing your own agenda etc? I should think religion is tantamount to politics, in this day and age. IMHO.

A non profit PTA/PTO is not a school function therefore separation of church and state doesnt apply (ie. No students- ala Fellowship of Christian Athletes which has restrictions 'cuz it involves students and is in a school building)
I'd check with the school also, I agree with the above posts (about not pushing my christian/religious beliefs on non christians/beleivers)but I also am offended by not being able to show I'm religious (the minority somehow has trumped the minority)

Supreme Court needs 2 revist separation of church and state (Declaration/Constitution- guarantees Freedom of Religion NOT Freedom from Religion they seem 2 have forgotten that- separation of church and state means the US cannot adopt a National religion or mandate laws against religion (which also is not being enforced- because it has discriminated agianst the moral majority)

[ 07-13-2006, 03:39 PM: Message edited by: Shawn ]

Not the time or the place for this at all! Not all have the same beliefs and I would be one that would be highly offended if someone tried to push their religion on me. Also have you asked your principal if this is even okay? I find that strange!

Personally, I wouldn't feel comfortable with prayer at our meetings. People have all different kinds of beliefs and express those beliefs in many different ways. If we were going to do anything like this at all, I would prefer to have a "moment of silence" kind if thing so people could communicate with their higher power in whatever way they felt comfortable, be it prayer, meditation, whatever.