Don't look for major change in the cities of Lodi, Tehachapi, Tracy and Turlock following their decisions to continue religious invocations at public meetings.

The public prayers will go on - even under the legal threat that what they are doing is unconstitutional.

But do look for more diversity in who's delivering the message. Some still may offer blessings. But they may call on deities other than Jesus Christ. Others may forgo religion and offer "civic thought."

Here's a look at how the prayer policies will play out:

• The Lodi City Council on Wednesday night, before more than 700 onlookers, decided to support a more inclusive policy that opens the invocations to nonbelievers and a wide range of believers.

The core requirement, Mayor Larry Hansen said, is that people who participate do not promote their religious beliefs.

"We don't want people preaching from the pulpit," Hansen said Thursday. But any prayer, he said, can follow the dictates of the deliverer's conscience.

Those who appear before the council sans religion, for example, can offer a "civic thought," Hansen said.

Public outreach will ensure that a wide range of faiths are represented. Undecided is who will coordinate who delivers the invocations: members of the community or the Lodi city clerk.

The council will review staff recommendations Oct. 21.

"I think we protected the people's freedom of religion and freedom of speech," Hansen said. "And that was my goal."

Lodi and the other three cities each received a letter from a national group, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, warning that the city's prayer practices violated the U.S. Constitution.

Even with the policy shift, the Lodi council's actions might not have erased that threat, Hansen said.

"I don't know if this is the last chapter or not," the mayor said. "I can't imagine it going away."

An official for the foundation agreed with him, saying the group isn't done with the issue.

"I think one of them (the four cities) is going to end up being litigated," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president. The foundation, she said, is waiting to see what happens next.

• The Turlock City Council on Sept. 8 adopted an invocation policy suggested by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group that has sought to counter the foundation's warnings.

The new policy differs little from past city practices, Turlock City Manager Roy Wasden said.

Details still are being worked out, but the city's approach to scheduling religious individuals to conduct the prayers will be more methodical. Prayers will be scheduled for up to a year in advance. No one group will be allowed to lead the event twice in a row.

The Turlock debate prompted little of the tumult that occurred in Lodi. There was little or no discussion about whether nonreligious groups might want to participate, Wasden said, so that issue hasn't been addressed.

• Tracy City Council members modified their prayer policy Sept. 15. There was no uproar about the policy, said city spokesman Matt Robinson.

Rather, there was a June 30 letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation warning that the prayers at council meetings "impermissibly advance Christianity" and "alienate non-Christians and non-believers."

In response, the city sent 63 letters to local clergy inviting them to sign up. And they opened the process to nonreligious community members, too.

"The invocation is open to anyone," Robinson said. "They just need to come and sign up."

• The Tehachapi City Council also voted to make its invocations more inclusive.

"What does that mean?" City Manager Greg Garrett asked. "We'll expand our list of churches, temples, work with the local community.

"We're reaching out to everyone and saying, 'If you want to come to the podium and give some sort of invocation, you're more than welcome to do that.'"

Garrett said the public prayers have always been open, but there was no formal process - until now.

Opposition to the public prayer was minimal, he said.

"Tehachapi is a very conservative town," he said. "We have churches on every corner. We don't have bars on every corner."

Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.