The latest attack on the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning of the Senate and House of Representatives each morning comes from the Greens.
Deputy Leader of the Greens, Senator Mehreen Faruqi believes in a ‘secular parliament’ with a ‘separation of church and state’, claiming that the Lord’s Prayer should no longer be read to start each sitting day.
This is one of the many times the Greens have attacked the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Parliament.
The preamble of our Constitution says that us, the people, …have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God.
I feel obliged to reiterate what I asked of the late Bishop John Wilson in 2011:
This is what I said…
I want to recognise what he did when I asked him to write a preamble for a petition with regard to the Lord's Prayer, which we say every morning here in this parliament. His preamble draws the attention of the House to its practice. This is what he wrote about saying the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of each sitting of our parliamentary houses:
We therefore ask the House to take consideration of the following:
We the undersigned as citizens of Australia ask that the use of the LORD’S PRAYER BE RETAINED by Parliament as integral to good government and Australia’s national heritage.
The prayer acknowledges our shared and common humanity under a caring God, in a context of humility and respect;
It asks God to fulfil his just purposes for the earth;
It seeks from God the provision of our daily needs and requires by implication generosity on our part;
It confesses our need to be forgiven and to forgive;
It recognises the lure of corruption and our entanglement with evil, from which we need to be delivered;
Finally, it places our lives and actions in an eternal perspective.
Even for those who do not pray to God, the recitation of these words at the beginning of the Parliamentary day allows a few moments for quiet reflection on our shared humanity, our daily dependence on the good things of the earth, our need to forgive and be forgiven, the temptations of office, and the broader perspective against which our efforts must be judged.
Such a time is not wasted.
This was very important at the time because I believed that there was a threat in this parliament, and I believe there could be a threat today, to the recognition and moment of the Lord's Prayer. There are those who would like it removed from this House or both houses. That is not something we agree with and it is why many thousands of people signed this petition during the last parliament to cement this act of faith and quietness and, as John Wilson said, for those who do not pray, this time of reflection. It is something we can give back to the nation and ourselves, and I hope and pray that this parliament, the House and the Senate, will continue with the practice of using the Lord's Prayer every day that we come together to meet.
