[T]he Caledonia Central Supervisory Union’s decision to hold a public meeting in a church is at the center of a controversy over the separation of church and state.
Michael Colby of Walden has filed a complaint with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, alleging that the supervisory union improperly held a meeting about the state’s new education reform law, Act 46, in a Peacham church.
Colby says the August meeting to discuss school consolidation, held at Peacham Congregational Church, should have been convened in a nonreligious setting, and he said the venue showed a “tyranny of the majority.”
“Just because we are in a majority Christian, white area, we have to be careful about turning that into a tyranny,” Colby said. “We need to think about the impact on the minority, whether Muslim, Jewish or atheist. We are forcing that minority to come into a house of worship and talk about a public issue.”
Rebecca Markert, an attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, agreed in a letter sent to the supervisory union.
“It is inappropriate for CCSU to hold an official meeting in a religious place of worship. This practice forces employees, who may be of varying religions or not at all, to enter a Christian house of worship,” Markert wrote.
The Caledonia Central Supervisory Union meeting, which was open to all the member towns, was held at the church because the school building was closed for maintenance and large crowds were expected to attend. It was one in a series of community forums that CCSU held to discuss how the new education law that requires consolidation of school districts into 900-student units could affect the communities of Peacham, Danville, Barnet and Walden. More than 50 residents attended the Peacham meeting, according to news reports.
“We started in Danville, then Barnet and then we had one in Peacham,” said Mathew Forest, the superintendent for CCSU. Forest said the meetings in the other towns meant the district had offered an alternative venue to discuss the same issue.
“If an individual did not want to attend the Peacham forum because it was in a church, there were two other options offered on the same topic,” Forest said
Colby found this offer “outrageous.”
“The point is that the state held a meeting in the sanctuary of a church, a clear violation of the separation of church and state,” Colby said. “Substitute ‘church’ for ‘mosque’ and imagine how this story would have played out.”
There is a history of using the Peacham Congregational Church as a public meeting place. When the town outgrew the small gym in the town hall, they started holding town meeting there.
Nonprofits not affiliated with the church also hold fundraisers in the sanctuary, musical concerts are attended there and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held a health care town meeting in the church in 2009.
Peacham is a small town with 732 residents, according to Annette Lorraine, a Peacham Selectboard member.
“We don’t have a lot of infrastructure so we don’t have a building large enough and with enough capacity to hold everyone who wants to come to town meeting. What it boils down to is a safety issue, as far as capacity and our need to follow the fire code.” She said the church is the only place that can accommodate larger groups and has a sound system.
Lorraine described the church as simple and plain.
“We are very conscientious about removing the few religious items,” she said.
Lorraine said she isn’t religious and when she first moved to town it seemed odd to have public meetings in a church but once she became involved in the community it made sense to her.
“I apologize to anyone who is uncomfortable with the fact that it is a church but most of us who have lived here for awhile think of it as a meeting place,” she said.
After the meeting was held in the Peacham church, Colby attended a Walden School Board meeting and lodged a complaint. Forest, the superintendent, said that if officials had known of his objection before the Peacham meeting they would have tried to accommodate him.
“If we knew of his concerns we would have made efforts to find another location. It is very difficult to address a concern after the fact. Had the school been available we would have used the school,” Forest said.
Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont American Civil Liberties Union, said that in this case the courts would likely side with the schools because there was no intent to proselytize. The courts likely wouldn’t find that the school board acted improperly.
“I think that most people would recognize the intent was to try and accommodate as many people as possible on an important public policy issue. The people in Peacham really care about their public school and they feel threatened by Act 46. I think the school board felt they were doing the right thing,” Gilbert said.
A public meeting in a church is not historically unprecedented, Lorraine said.
“As you might know, ‘meeting houses’ were often the first public buildings constructed in New England towns, the intention being to economically serve both secular government and religious functions,” Lorraine said. “Some meeting houses were shared by more than one religious denomination. It continues to be the primary venue in Peacham for all types of nonreligious events, meetings, concerts and other entertainment.”
