Carroll Co. Board Not Yet Resuming Christian Prayer

WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) -- The Carroll County Commissioners aren't yet resuming Christian prayer at their public meetings despite court action that apparently allows it.

Board President Dave Roush opened Tuesday's meeting in Westminster with a prayer to the "God of us all," a generic deity. Roush said the five commissioners will discuss the matter during their public meeting Thursday.

The board voted in April to suspend its practice of rotating opening prayers among the five commissioners, some of whom preferred prayers invoking Jesus Christ. The board's decision conformed with a court order in a lawsuit that is pending in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

The judge lifted the preliminary injunction Monday, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court approved of Christian prayers said by clergy at public meetings in the town of Greece, N.Y.

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