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Invocation Policy

The City of North Charleston extends our kindest invitation for a representative from your religious or assembly affiliation to deliver the invocation at one of our City Council meetings, which are held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers located at 2500 City Hall Lane, North Charleston, South Carolina 29406.

It is the City of North Charleston’s policy that a religious leader is free to offer an invocation according to the dictates of their own conscience, but, in order to comply with applicable constitutional law, the City of North Charleston requests that the public invocation opportunity not be exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other faith or belief. Each respondent who accepts the invitation to deliver an invocation at an upcoming meeting of the deliberative public body shall be scheduled to deliver an invocation on a first-come, first-served basis.

To ensure objectivity in the selection of the speaker of the invocation, the North Charleston City Council, through staff support, will on an annual basis compile a list of all known established religious congregations and assemblies by reference to local telephone books or similar sources, or both, and mail an invitation addressed to the “religious leader” of each congregation and assembly inviting them to speak.

To choose a date and time in which you wish to be the speaker of the invocation, please either call or email the Clerk of Council at 843-740-2509, [email protected].