It didn’t take long for the members of the 74th Baltimore City Council — who took their oaths of office five hours before Thursday night’s meeting — to have a first big debate.

As the council considered a new set of rules for the next four years, Mark Parker, the Lutheran minister representing Southeast Baltimore’s 1st District, proposed one of his own: doing away with invocations, or prayer, before council meetings.

A pastor? Wanting to get rid of prayer? Cue the floor speeches!

“It is because I appreciate the role and power of prayer so well that I urge us to end the practice of invocations at City Council meetings,” the 15-year clergy member said. “I am convicted of the fact that freedom of religious expression best flourishes when not entangled with government.”

Invocations are a part of legislative proceedings everywhere in the U.S. They pray before sessions of the General Assembly in Mississippi and the Board of Aldermen in West Jefferson, North Carolina. Even the Continental Congress, in its first session in 1774, had a prayer.

Parker knows this. He did research, he said, and found that, over the last two years of City Council meetings, there had been 34 invocations out of a possible 48 opportunities. The invocation isn’t a requirement, but it’s common.

But that’s not Parker’s point. His point is this: Of the 34 invocations delivered to the previous City Council, the vast majority were Christian. Parker is concerned about the idea that Baltimore, as diverse as it is, could seem as if the government was pushing a particular religion.

Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, who is Jewish, didn’t see it that way. One time during his first term, Schleifer said, he invited an imam to give the invocation. The imam had been repeatedly critical of Schleifer online. “I figured I’d get at least one prayer out of you,” Schleifer said he told the imam, jokingly. Then he turned serious.

“I think this is a diverse body that needs to be respected. I think that it doesn’t hurt to get a little extra prayer. I think we could all use it, regardless of who’s giving it,” Schleifer said.

A noble sentiment from the gentleman from Northwest Baltimore.

He voted against Parker’s rule.

Ryan Dorsey, from Northeast Baltimore, said he too is spiritual. Deeply. Personally. It may not be grounded in any formal religion — Dorsey took the oath of office with his left hand on a copy of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” that he checked out from the library — but that doesn’t mean he is in favor of religion crossing over into government.

“I’ve often sat here and thought it’s really strange that I’m in a government building and being prayed over,” Dorsey said. He voted for Parker’s rule.

The debate, which lasted for about half of the meeting, reached its natural end when Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton stood to speak. Middleton has been on the council since 2007 and its vice president since 2016. She didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

“Through my tenure, there has never really been any controversy on this subject,” she said. Now that there was, in the nascent moments of this 74th session of City Council, Middleton gave a quick reminder that, for many in the Black community, church and government are linked.

“[Faith-based communities] were always partners with government in helping the needs of our people. Whether it’s homelessness, or you’ll see a lot of our churches are connected to schools. We have food distribution, a lot of things,” Middleton said. She voted against Parker’s measure.

Ultimately, Parker’s measure failed by a vote of 5-10. He, Dorsey and councilmembers James Torrence, Mark Conway and Odette Ramos voted for it.

New Council President Zeke Cohen seemed pleased by the robust discussion. This was rich discourse. Thoughtful debate. Government at work.

Cohen thanked his council for the willingness to “take on a tough topic in public.”

“I hope this sets a tone for how we as council will proceed,” he said.