Prayer services ended at Jacksonville airport

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — To avoid church-state entanglement, the Jacksonville, Fla., Airport Authority has ended daily prayer services that began at the airport after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Under new guidelines created in late November on the advice of the authority’s attorney, the authority closed the chaplain’s office and has forbidden clergy volunteers at the airport to identify themselves as chaplains.

Authority officials said individual prayer at the facility can happen as much as people desire, but the authority cannot promote religious activity at the publicly owned terminal, The Florida Times-Union reported.