Mayor Annise Parker on Friday followed through on her pledge to narrow the scope of subpoenas sent to local pastors who led opposition to the city's equal rights ordinance earlier this year.

Though the subpoena's new wording removes any mention of "sermons" — a reference that created a firestorm among Christian conservative groups and politicians, including Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who accused Parker of trying "to silence the church" — the mayor acknowledged the new subpoenas do not explicitly preclude sermons from being produced.

"We don't need to intrude on matters of faith to have equal rights in Houston, and it was never the intention of the city of Houston to intrude on any matters of faith or to get between a pastor and their parishioners," Parker said. "We don't want their sermons, we want the instructions on the petition process. That's always what we wanted and, again, they knew that's what we wanted because that's the subject of the lawsuit."

Opponents took advantage of the broad original language, Parker said, to deliberately misinterpret the city's intent and spur what City Attorney David Feldman called a "media circus."

The lawsuit, set for trial in January, was filed by opponents of a nondiscrimination measure City Council passed in May. Known as HERO, for Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, the law bans discrimination among businesses that serve the public, private employers, in housing and in city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions are exempt. The city has suspended enforcement of the ordinance until the case is resolved.

Opponents had mounted a petition drive to force a vote to repeal the ordinance, but city officials ruled thousands of signatures ineligible and did not place the item on the ballot, triggering the suit.

The subpoenas now seek "all speeches or presentations related to HERO or the Petition" the pastors delivered, revised, approved or have on hand. Previously, the wording, also had mentioned "sermons" as well as "homosexuality, or gender identity," protected classes that were covered in the city ordinance but are not listed in state or federal laws.

Though the subpoenas still cover speeches or presentations related to HERO, Parker stressed the filing was "not about HERO, it's about the petitions."

"If during the course of the sermon — and I doubt this very much — a pastor took 15 or 20 minutes to go into detail about how the petition process goes, then that's part of the discovery," she said. "But that's not about preaching a sermon on anybody's religious beliefs, it's not conveying a religious message, that's part of the petition process, and all we're interested in is the petition process."