Fight over prayer just beginning

Lancaster voters' overwhelming support for opening meetings with prayers will not end the fight over the role of religion in government, opponents of the successful ballot initiative said Wednesday.Kevin Modesti in the Daily News.

More than 75 percent of voters in the Antelope Valley city gave their OK Tuesday to Measure I, which sought public approval for officials to select clergy of different faiths to open meetings with invocations "without restricting the content based on their beliefs, including references to Jesus Christ."

Mayor R. Rex Parris, also elected Tuesday to a second two-year term, said the measure's triumph shows Lancaster residents are "looking at ways to say `yes' instead of `no' to people of faith's involvement in the community."