JUNEAU — Since the Dodge County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in March that calls for a rotating cast of religious leaders to deliver invocations before board meetings, only moments of silence have followed.

And when it comes Dodge County Clerk Karen Gibson's efforts to compile a list of local parishioners who are willing to deliver those invocations; more silence.

Gibson told the executive committee Monday morning that compiling a list of willing pastors to deliver prayers has been tough going. Of 126 letters that were mailed May 18 to solicit invocation volunteers, Gibson has received only four responses from pastors who are willing to donate their services.  

"So far I have to say I'm surprised by the lack of responses," Gibson said.

Gibson has received responses from Praise Assembly of God, First Evangelical Lutheran and New Life Pentecostal, all of Beaver Dam, and Holy Zion Orthodox Heritage of Watertown.

The Rev. Randy Carey of Praise Assembly of God will be slated to deliver an invocation before the June meeting of the county board, Gibson said, because he was the first to reply to the letter.

The resolution passed by supervisors in March calls for a first-come-first-serve list of pastors to volunteer to deliver an invocation, which will not be pre-approved, before county board meetings are called to order.

However, the resolution also states that any given religious leader cannot deliver more than three invocations in one year; nor may they deliver an invocation before two consecutive meetings.

The resolution was passed following allegations from the Freedom From Religion Foundation that a number of board meetings had been opened with unconstitutional prayers that evoked Jesus Christ.

Supervisor Eugene Wurtz sponsored a separate resolution, which was not passed by supervisors, that called for six pastors from Mayville to deliver invocations.

"In my resolution, the pastors in Mayville were going to encourage other pastors to join their ranks, but they already had six. If they would have went only twice a year, they could have covered the whole year," Wurtz said. "(The county board) slapped them in the face when they went in another direction, so apparently they didn't like our offer. That's my opinion, I know pastors are more kind than that."

Wurtz said that he will re-approach the pastors to see if their offers still stand, and, "I'm about willing to go back to the county board and ask for a suspension of rules to reintroduce my resolution."

amartin@capitalnewspapers.com