The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed concern over calls for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer to be removed from the daily opening of Parliament in the state of Victoria, urging that the century old tradition to be retained.
The idea of dropping the prayer from the formal proceedings opening which precede each day’s parliamentary session in both the Upper and Lower Houses has been referred by the State Government to the procedures committee after a renewed push from the leader of the Reason Party, Fiona Patten.
State Premier Daniel Andrews has reportedly said he was open to change and that State Parliament might consider using a prayer from a different faith each day in acknowledgement of the state’s diverse population.
But the ACL’s Dan Flynn said the Lord’s Prayer – which has been recited at the start of the day’s proceedings in the State Parliament since 1918 – has a “legitimate place” as one of the “important parts of parliamentary procedure”.
“The Lord’s Prayer is symbolic of the Christian ethos underpinning western civilisation that has fostered free and prosperous societies, including our liberal democracy,” Flynn, Victoria’s state director of the ACL said in a statement.
He described it as a “unifying Judeo-Christian prayer”.
“It invites reflection and humility before taking major decisions are taken that affect all Victorians,” he said.
