Every year, the mayor of South Portland gets to choose who will give the invocation at the inauguration of newly elected city officials. Typically, mayors select members of the clergy, who offer a prayer before the ceremony.

South Portland’s new mayor, Tom Coward, and Andrew Lovley at the inauguration at City Hall on Dec. 7. At the event, Coward chose Lovley, an atheist, to give the invocation, an honor typically reserved for clergy.

In fact, Lovley - a University of Southern Maine senior who founded the Southern Maine Association of Secular Humanists on campus last year - told city officials, "In the face of adversity, we need not look above for answers."

Instead, he said, we should "recognize the proven potential within ourselves and in each other to overcome any challenges that may arrive."

Coward was voted in as the city's mayor by the City Council at the Dec. 7 ceremony. He said he chose Lovley - who believes people can be "good without God" - to give the invocation because he wanted "to diversify that part of the ceremony."

Mixed reviews

The new mayor's unconventional choice of speaker has generated a mixed reaction - winning praise from some but also raising questions from others as to whether one can give an invocation without invoking God.

Councilor Tom Blake supported Coward's choice.

Blake, who stepped down from his one-year term as mayor when the council elected Coward, said, "We live in a very changing world, and I thought Coward's selection was wonderful."

Blake said he was impressed with what the 22-year-old Lovley had to say. "He talked about being positive and compassionate and working together," Blake said. "I thought his message was right on. He was great."

However, Blake admitted, "I was very surprised because I don't think I've ever seen an invocation where there was not a prayer."

It's the absence of prayer that has the Rev. Birger Johnson questioning whether Lovley's invocation really fit the definition.

Johnson, a retired United Church of Christ minister and former South Portland city councilor, has given the invocation at the city's inaugural ceremony three times in the past decade.

"Invoking means calling on other, something besides myself," Johnson said.

He said that he "would endorse a lot of what that young man said from the point of view of political philosophy." But he doesn't consider it an invocation.

Johnson believes city councilors need prayer to help them do their jobs. Councilors do their best, he said, "but sometimes our best is not enough. Let's call on something greater than ourselves."

Lovley, in phone and e-mail interviews after the event, acknowledged that most invocations are religious. But, he said, he believes a secular humanist version to be "the most inclusive and realistic."

"My speech did not speak to only one denomination or sect, but to humankind in general," Lovley said. "Since nearly all social problems are human in origin, I think it is important we accept the responsibility to develop our own solutions and not try to solicit help from up above."

More than atheism

Lovley said he started the Southern Maine Association of Secular Humanists in 2008 to "create an open, engaging and supportive environment for non-religious students at USM." It now has about a dozen active members.

It is an affiliate of a national organization called the Secular Student Alliance. That group's Web site says its goal is "to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human based ethics."

USM's Southern Maine Secular Humanist Association is listed as the only affiliate in Maine. However, Bates College in Lewiston also lists a Secular Student Alliance among its campus organizations.

Lovley, a psychology major from Winslow who described his religious upbringing as "relaxed Protestant," doesn't believe in God. However, he said, being an atheist is not a requirement to be a secular humanist. The USM group, he said, also includes agnostics, people who in general believe that it is impossible to know for certain whether there is a higher power or deity.

Lovley stressed that "atheism and secular humanism are not interchangeable, because not all atheists are necessarily humanists."

Atheism is about a lack of a belief in God, not about ethics, Lovley said. By contrast, he said, secular humanism is all about ethical values.

"Secular humanism is more than atheism because it includes that ethical component, affirming that we believe in compassion and the inherent dignity and rights of all human beings, regardless of race, creed or gender," Lovley said. "Humanists believe in justice, tolerance, individual freedom and democracy - atheism by itself does not include such values."

Whenever he tells someone he is an atheist, he stresses that he is a humanist, too, Lovley said.

Breaking tradition

He said he didn't know the mayor before Coward contacted the secular humanist association to seek an invocation speaker.

Lovley had never given an invocation before, so he said Coward urged him to research other secular invocations online to get ideas for his address. "There aren't many, " Lovley said.

Some he found were anti-religious, and he said he and Coward agreed that was not a message they wanted to include in the invocation. "If we were to speak out against religion that wouldn't really be humanist because that's divisive," Lovley said.

Lovley said he welcomed the opportunity to give the short address.

"I hope that after hearing the invocation, people will recognize that inspiration and meaning can come from natural sources and that those who are non-religious are just as capable of tapping into them," he said.

Coward said he had "several comments afterward that he did a really good job."

City councilors gave a range of responses. "I think it is fair to say this wasn't the typical traditional speaker. But it was Tom's choice," said Councilor Linda Boudreau. "I didn't even know what a secular humanist was!"

Councilor Maxine Beecher also said she was unaware of the term and had to research it on the Internet.

However, she noted that in last year's ceremony, Blake also departed from convention. He invited Frank Morong, a former city councilor, to give the invocation, even though Morong wasn't a member of the clergy.

Blake said he chose Morong because he's also a former mayor and a respected member of the community. Morong's invocation included a prayer, Blake said.

Beecher said that because Blake broke with tradition last year, "it did not seem odd (this year) to have on-coming Mayor Coward bring a different voice to the process."

She added that: "The text of (Lovley's) speech was different and not my belief, but obviously the choice of Mayor Coward."

Councilor James Hughes praised Lovley's speech and said Coward "made an excellent choice."

He said that Lovley's message was, "we come together to serve the greater good, we need to respect the inherent dignity of the people we work for and with, we are united by our common humanity and we need to rely on each other to do the work required."

Hughes said he agrees with those ideas, and said they "outline a path I hope the council and city staff are good enough to follow."

When Hughes was chosen as mayor in December 2004, there was no invocation given at the inauguration that year. Hughes said he didn't have anyone in mind when he was chosen mayor, so he omitted that part of the ceremony.

Secular campaign

Lovley's invocation speech comes at a time when secular groups in cities around the nation and the world have launched a holiday campaign to send out the message that atheists live moral lives, too, according to a recent story in The New York Times.

The campaign features advertisements on the sides of buses and trains, the story says. One depicts smiling people wearing Santa Claus hats and says: "No God? ... No problem! Be good for goodness' sake."

The newspaper article cited a study that said 15 percent of Americans in 2008 identified themselves as having "no religion." That's almost double the 8 percent who identified themselves that way in 1990, the study found.

As of last week, Lovley said the USM group hadn't yet discussed whether to participate in the holiday campaign.

But, he said, the group is planning to celebrate Humanlight, "a winter solstice holiday celebrating the humanist's vision of a good future." He said the celebration would include a candlelighting ceremony at which group members will take turns sharing how they intend to "incorporate humanist ideals into our lives."