Civic invocation
A prayer opening a public or governmental occasion, addressed to a mixed audience.
A short opening prayer at a council meeting, legislature, or public ceremony. In the United States the Supreme Court upheld the practice in Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014), provided the body does not discriminate among prayer-givers or coerce participation; that town's roster included Jewish, Baha'i, and Wiccan voices alongside Christian ministers.
A civic invocation opens a council meeting, an inauguration or a public ceremony. Whoever gives it is speaking to an audience that includes every faith and none, in a setting where attendance is not voluntary.
That constraint shapes the language. Invocations tend towards address that a wide audience can hear without objecting, and the more specific they become the more clearly they exclude somebody in the room.
The practice is legally contested in some jurisdictions, and the arguments turn on exactly this: whether a captive civic audience can be asked to sit through prayer at all.
Does it have a text?
Written for the occasion by whoever is giving it, so there is no standing text. Collections of specimen invocations exist and are mostly modern and in copyright.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Interfaith
- The sequential interfaith service — Each tradition prays in turn, in its own words, rather than everyone praying one blended prayer.
- Shared silence — A held silence that everyone present can fill in their own way.
- Prayer in a multi-faith room — A single space used by several traditions, usually in a hospital, airport or university.
- Community vigil — A gathering after a death or disaster, usually mixed and usually outdoors.
- Being present at another tradition's prayer — Attending prayer that is not your own, at a funeral, a wedding or a bedside.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.