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HEADLINE: Somerset faithful want icons removed from secular displays

BYLINE: By Tom Mashberg

BODY:
   SOMERSET - In an odd twist to the annual tangle over placing Christmas displays on taxpayers' property, a coalition of religious leaders is urging town officials to remove a nativity scene and a menorah from the grounds of the Town Office Building.

The group, representing Catholics, Jews and Protestants, says the religious icons are dwarfed and degraded by the proximity of a "hodgepodge" of secular symbols - including an 18-foot-tall red-suited Santa Claus, a pair of glow-in-the-dark reindeer and a flashing "Seasons Greetings" sign - all of which were added to the display this year to help it conform with constitutional law.

"It is a mishmash that offers nothing of substance to any one faith, and instead trivializes highly meaningful religious displays," said the Rev. Paula Durrant, pastor of the Congregational Christian United Church of Christ.

Despite the protest, which was included in a letter mailed to the city fathers in October but made public only last week, Somerset's three selectmen have indicated that they will not vote to remove the creche and menorah from the lawn scene, according to the town administrator, John McAuliffe.

"This is a tradition that we do not want to abandon," said McAuliffe. "But to conform with federal law and with our town's tradition, we are forced to create something that appears to be a mishmash."

In years past, McAuliffe said, only the two religious symbols were present on town property - the creche at the central building and the menorah several blocks away, in front of the firehouse.

The menorah was lighted during Hanukkah, he said, and every Christmas Eve for more than 60 years, at midnight, a town worker would place a statuette of the Baby Jesus in the creche's bed.

But last year, a legal challenge to the  nativity display was initiated by Gil Lawrence Amancio, 48, the New England director of American Atheists Inc.

Joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amancio persuaded a U.S. District Court judge in Boston to rule that the creche - sited as it was at the "very seat" of town government - violated the "establishment clause" of the Constitution, which forbids government from endorsing any one religion.

Similar rulings around the state and across the nation in recent years have led to an admixture of rules and court orders governing the installation of indisputably Christian icons in public spaces, particularly at Christmas time.

In Pittsfield, for instance, commissioners determined in October that they were required to allow a local man, Jon A. Papa, to display a nativity scene on the town's central common - but only from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Christmas Day.

The ruling came because the Pittsfield Common has been used historically as a site for public protest, and Papa's 3--by-5-foot creche could be construed as a duly permitted demonstration.

But some confusion still surrounds the legitimacy of nativity scenes on public property due to the so-called Pawtucket (R.I.) Decision, from 1984, in which the high court stated that religious displays were permissible so long as they were surrounded by secular symbols - items such as snowmen, tree ornaments and elves.

Some Massachusetts municipalities, including Cambridge and Boston, have managed to skirt the minefield in recent years by making some public space available to any and all private groups that might seek to install a religious or secular scene in the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.

The key for them, they say, is that the taxpayers are not funding the displays.

But the resulting jambalaya of devotional and lay symbols is exactly what horrifies Paula Durrant and the five ministers who co-signed the Somerset protest letter.

Somerset's peculiar melange of figurines "opens the door for other religious or quasireligious groups to request that their symbols be included," the clergy said.

"In our region there are a variety of groups, witches, devil worshippers, and the representatives of many other religious beliefs," the ministers wrote. "We fear that the creche and the menorah would be compromised all the more should other groups be allowed to have their own symbols included."

McAuliffe, the town administrator, acknowledged that just such a possibility existed in this case.

"There are many concerns being voiced here, and we have been forced to strike a balance between preserving our traditions and conforming to federal law," he said. "We wanted a win-win situation, but we can't have it both ways. So we intend to put up a sign that says, 'This display is not meant to endorse any single religion.' "

McAuliffe said the letter from the clergy members - whose six congregations comprise perhaps two-thirds of Somerset's observant community - "came as a bit of a surprise to the selectmen."

Just as surprising was that Amancio, the atheist, issued a press release Friday "applauding the action of the local clergy."

His release also said "atheists, wiccans and others  going to put their displays right next to the creche if it is not removed."

The town's three selectmen - will conduct a hearing on the matter Wednesday.

Photo Caption: SEASONAL SYMBOLS: The Somerset Town Office Building is decorated with a menorah, above, and nativity scene, below, as well as a Santa Claus. Religious leaders want the 'mishmash' display removed, saying it trivializes the religious icons. Staff photo by Renee DeKona



LOAD-DATE: December 05, 1999



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