The Australian War Memorial is continuing to wipe its hands of any responsibility for the imposition of Christianity in the annual Anzac Day Dawn Service, despite a Christian military chaplain criticising the religious elements of the commemoration as being exclusionary.

In a letter to the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) last month, the War Memorial repeated the line that it merely hosted the event on behalf of the ACT branch of the Returned & Services League (RSL) and was “not responsible for changing the format of the Anzac Day Dawn Service”. 

Held on the grounds of the War Memorial and televised live across the country and streamed online, the Anzac Day Dawn Service is typically dominated by Christian acts of worship – including prayers, hymns, and benedictions – and features exclusively Christian chaplains.

In September, the RSA had asked the director of the War Memorial, Matt Anderson, whether the institution would be making much-needed secular reform to the content in the lead-up to the 2027 commemoration.

In a letter to Mr Anderson, the RSA noted that the military chaplain who presided over this year’s Anzac Day Dawn Service had suggested that the Lord’s Prayer be omitted because the event was “a national ceremonial event not a Christian service”.

Documents obtained by the RSA under freedom of information (FoI) laws show that the chaplain had argued that the practice of observing the Lord’s Prayer “overtly excludes other faiths and none” and believed it would be “better medium term optics” for a Christian chaplain to remove the Lord’s Prayer now because it would not be appropriate for non-Christian chaplains to deliver in the future.

In response to the RSA’s letter, Sarah Ozolins, Assistant Director for Public Programs at the War Memorial, said the ACT RSL branch had modified the 2026 Dawn Service and “chose to adopt the advice of the presiding chaplain and remove the Lord’s Prayer”. 

“Any additional changes remain under the remit of the RSL,” she said.

“As has been discussed, and outlined in writing previously over recent years, the Australian War Memorial is not responsible for changing the format of the Anzac Day Dawn Service. The Memorial hosts the Dawn Service on behalf of the ACT RSL.”

For several years now, the RSA has been urging the War Memorial to take full responsibility for the annual Dawn Service instead of outsourcing control of content for the event to the ACT branch of the RSL.

The ACT RSL has shown no interest in making the event more welcoming for all Australians, instead saying in 2024 that “numerous alternative services” were available to Australians who felt excluded and discriminated against due to the religious nature of the Dawn Service.

FoI documents show that, in response to the military chaplain’s suggestion to remove the Lord’s Prayer, the ACT RSL told the War Memorial it had “received an enquiry … with concerns that prayers and hymns have been removed from the Dawn Service”.

The War Memorial’s own corporate plan identifies as a ‘strategic risk’ commemorations that “don’t meet community expectations or deliver social values in line with public expectations.”

Veterans have directly urged the War Memorial to make secular reform of the Anzac Day Dawn Service, sharing with officials how the religious nature of the event was alienating for them and many people, and emphasising the need for the commemoration to be more meaningful for all Australians.

More than 2,000 people have signed the RSA’s online petition calling for the War Memorial to stop imposing religion in Dawn Services.

In 2024, Mr Anderson told the RSA that the War Memorial hosted the Dawn Service “on behalf of the ACT Returned Services League” and, while adding he would consider complaints about the religious dominance of the event, he warned “traditions move slowly”.

The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively lobbying and advocating for secular reform of the Defence Force and military commemorations. See the latest updates here.

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Si Gladman is Executive Director of the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.