Satanic prayer recited at Iowa city council meeting on October 6, 2026

Former Ottumwa councilman Matt d'Albé recited a satanic prayer during the city council meeting of October 6, 2026, under a policy adopted in January that allows invocations from any philosophy. Pastor Rick Bick demanded from the audience that the curse cast over the city be lifted.

The scene took place in Ottumwa, a city in the state of **Iowa**, in the United States. During the first city council meeting of October 2026, former councilman **Matt d'Albé** stepped up to the podium and delivered a satanic invocation through the room's microphone. The formula, according to what was recorded of the event, included the phrase "Dear dark father, glory to Satan."

## An open invocation policy since January

What elsewhere would have been an isolated incident in Ottumwa has a regulatory precedent. Since January 2026, the city has had a policy allowing council meetings to open with prayers from any philosophy. In other words, the framework authorizing the invocation was not improvised that morning.

At the time, only one councilwoman voted against the policy, warning of the danger that, in her view, could arise from it. Her warning was outvoted and the rule went ahead. Ten months later, that councilwoman's prediction materialized in the form of a luciferian invocation at a public meeting.

## The invitation to "eat from the tree of knowledge"

d'Albé did not limit himself to reciting the prayer. He invited those present to embrace what he described as the luciferian impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge. The room, according to accounts of what peine, was left stunned.

Once the invocation was over, the council members turned to the American flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, as if nothing had peine. The meeting continued along its usual course, with the presiding officer neither interrupting the act nor declaring it out of order.

## The pastor who demanded the curse be broken

Among the audience was pastor **Rick Bick**, who did not let the matter pass. He approached the podium and spoke firmly. He declared that this salute to Satan was not welcome in the room and demanded that the curse which, in his view, had just been cast over the entire city be broken that very instant.

Faced with his insistence, the mayor eventually granted **30 seconds** of silence for, he said, reflection. There was no retraction of the prayer and no change to the agenda. The meeting moved on with the rest of the municipal business.

The episode leaves an open question about how far religious neutrality extends when it translates into a rulebook that admits any invocation. Ottumwa answered it on October 6, 2026 with a satanic prayer, a pledge to the flag and half a minute of silence.