Rock Hall Mayor Bob Willis and the Town Council agreed to language on a resolution that will hopefully settle the issue of prayer at council meetings and other local government functions in Rock Hall, according to Willis. The resolution will continue to allow prayer at the onset of every meeting, inviting clergy from different faiths to lead the prayer.

Willis said the resolution will not ask clergy members to change the way they deliver their prayers. “We are not going to censor prayers from any clergy’s faith,” Willis said. “But we are going to ask them to be mindful of other faiths when they deliver the prayer.”

Willis said there was an outburst from an audience member on the financial cost of deciding the issue, which caused him to take the matter into closed session. Willis said if no clergy is present at the meeting, Council Member Susan Francis or Olin “Butch” Price have volunteered to lead the prayer.

Gren Whitman, who raised the issue in June on Constitutional grounds, said the resolution is a “big step in the right direction” but would not elaborate until the resolution had passed.