The Christian military chaplain who was appointed to preside over large sections of the Australian War Memorial’s Anzac Day Dawn Service this year suggested to organisers that they omit the Lord’s Prayer because the event is “not a Christian service”, documents show.

Through a freedom of information (FOI) request, the Rationalist Society of Australia has obtained documents that reveal email correspondence between the War Memorial and an Air Force chaplain in preparation for Anzac Day.

Email correspondence from February reveals that the chaplain asked the War Memorial “can the Lord’s prayer be omitted?”

The chaplain then lists a number of reasons for removing the Lord’s Prayer, including that it “overtly excludes other faiths and none” and “it’s a national ceremonial event not a Christian service”.

In the email exchange, the chaplain also noted that there were two versions of the Lord’s Prayer – modern and traditional – and, as such, Christian faith groups were themselves “divided”.

The chaplain also argued that 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.

The Air Force chaplain’s name was redacted from the FOI documents.

Given there were a number of weeks until Anzac Day, changes could have been made to the line-up of those speaking at the event.

At last month’s Dawn Service at the War Memorial, Air Force chaplain Group Captain Christine Senini delivered reflections, other prayers and a blessing “in the name of peace”. She did not, however, observe the Lord’s Prayer.

The FOI documents show that, at a meeting with the War Memorial in late February, the ACT branch of the Returned & Services League (RSL) said it had “received an enquiry … with concerns that prayers and hymns have been removed from the Dawn Service”.

Another internal War Memorial document detailing ‘updates’ ahead of Anzac Day noted that the chaplain had “requested consideration for the Lord’s Prayer to be omitted” because the chaplain wanted to “deliver a modern version that doesn’t exclude other faiths”.

For several years now, the Rationalist Society of Australia 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 War Memorial event more welcoming for all Australians, arguing in 2024 that “numerous alternative services” were available to Australians who feel excluded and discriminated against due to the religious nature of the Dawn Service.

In 2024, the head of the War Memorial, Matt Anderson, said the institution merely hosted the event “on behalf of the ACT Returned Services League” and added that “traditions move slowly”.

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

Earlier this month, the Rationalist Society of Australia wrote to veterans affairs minister Matt Keogh with questions about whether it remained his view that the Dawn Service was “welcoming for all” and about whether the War Memorial was meeting its obligation to ensure events and commemorations on its grounds aligned with public expectations.

The Rationalist Society of Australia is actively lobbying and advocating for secular reform of the Defence Force. 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.

Photo by Hannah on Flickr (CC)