Many prayer groups today find that their rights to peaceably assemble on public sidewalks and right-of-ways are being dangerously threatened. Not too long ago I too was a prayer leader. Our group exercised our rights to pray on a public sidewalk in a very busy part of town and quite often we were met with confrontations and hostile individuals.

In order to curb these volatile situations I consulted a dear friend, who also happens to be an attorney at the Rutherford Institute. He gave me some excellent pointers:

• Have an emergency contact plan. My group created business cards for all our members with my phone number, our church phone number and a lawyer’s number. The church and lawyer were instructed to call me 24/7 in the event of an emergency.
• Always have a phone, camera or video recorder with you in case of emergency.
• If you are harassed, assaulted or in some other danger, do not be afraid to call the police. On one occasion a man I knew was run off the sidewalk with a Hummer while praying the Rosary. However, we had the emergency plan in place and I was able to take care of the situation immediately.
• Be Prepared! Know your local laws and ordinances about where you can stand and how and what types of literature you can pass out.
• Be kind, but firm with your local police. Know that you have rights and do not be afraid to ask for a badge number or a chance to call your lawyer. However, do be nice to the police. Hostility will not get you on good terms with the officers. There is no need to be a martyr!

Having an emergency plan in place before you go out to pray can save a lot of heartache later on. Once our group learned these simple but effective planning techniques, the confrontations towards us were drastically cut down because we were prepared to handle them.