Standing firm on the Lord's Prayer

This week I’m going to look at something a little different. I know that many of you who receive this newsletter are not Christians and may have little interest in the fact that we open every day of parliament with the Lord’s Prayer. Some of you may actually oppose the practice. 

There is more to the Lord’s Prayer than stuffy tradition or an outdated quasi-religious practice. 

To put things in context, this subject comes on the back of a recent review of the Legislative Assembly’s standing orders where it was noted that the Lord’s Prayer “reflects a long-standing parliamentary tradition and has historically provided a sense of solemnity at the commencement of proceedings.” Something that is true itself but as some of the submissions to the review demonstrated, clearly means much more than that. 

In part, the review stated that some contend “that the exclusive use of a Christian prayer no longer reflects the diversity of Western Australian society or the contemporary composition of the Assembly.” That may be the case and I understand that, for those who do not identify with the Christian faith, it might feel out of place to observe the tradition. And, in fact, the review mentioned that “concerns were raised” that some members were avoiding the chamber at the start of proceedings to “avoid participation in a religious observance.” 

On the back of this review, the Member for Bassendean, Dave Kelly MLA publicly called for the scrapping of the Lord’s prayer and replacing it, instead with a moment of silence. His stated reason was that "WA is now a proud multicultural community welcoming citizens from all around the world, with many religions and no religion," and that "now more than ever we should strive to make everyone feel welcome and included."

While for some, and perhaps yourself, it might sound reasonable, I am very much of view that it isn’t and instead is a view that either misunderstands the purpose of the prayer or has an agenda that goes far deeper than simply trying to make it, as is the fashion, more “inclusive” by tearing down and replacing anything resembling our founding traditions and values.    

As a member of the Legislative Council, this is a matter that does not affect my chamber as we have our own rules, but it is a matter that affects my conscience and offends my sense of who we are as a Parliament and the importance of the traditions behind so many of the things we do. 

As Australians, we have come from and we welcome people from every corner of the earth. They leave their own nations and come to this country in pursuit of the opportunities, the freedoms and a way of life of which so many others can only dream. It is too easy to forget that these blessings did not emerge from a vacuum and cannot be taken for granted. They were the deliberate fruit of a system of government built intentionally from a centuries old foundation of biblical Christianity.

As the author Os Guinness puts it, our system isn't founded on raw power like Rome, or on academic logic and rhetoric like ancient Greece. It is covenantal, which means it rests on neither elite rule nor mob rule, but on sacred agreements forged over time, guided by the books of the Old and New Testament. Those in power are there only through the consent of the governed, none are above the law, and all, including the King and Parliament itself, under God.

The Lord's Prayer in parliament is not merely a “long standing tradition” nor an empty  symbolic gesture from time gone by, but a real and essential reminder of where we came from. Established in the English House of Commons as a regular practice by 1567, the Lord’s Prayer provides the words of Christ which guide us in a time of solemn reflection on who we are as imperfect human beings, and is a daily acknowledgement that we are not our own gods. It reminds us that the foundations entrusted to us by the people are not ours to do with as we please.

For those of us entrusted with the laws of this state, it is a reminder that we are just as reliant, just as prone to temptation, and just as vulnerable to failure as every other Western Australian. Our separation of powers, our traditions and our institutions all recognise this truth, and we ignore it at our peril.

The nations that acknowledge their foundations in Christian values are, consistently, the most desired places on earth to live because they are the freest, and the most genuinely inclusive. 

We are a nation built on immigration, and we are proud of it. But we are also a nation with a heart and a soul of our own. The traditions that bind us in our institutions and as a people are ones we have built upon and not ours, nor anyone else’s, to flippantly throw away. Dave Kelly, like so many of his Labor colleagues, seems to think that to make people feel included we must embrace a failing project called multiculturalism and strive to change who we are as Australians to accommodate almost anyone other than ourselves..

I contend that is not just wrong but wrongheaded. 

As I mentioned above, and we all know, the people who come to this country come because they love it. They love the culture we as Australians all share, and we are able to welcome them so freely because we are a welcoming people, not because we have rearranged our values, our lives and our identity to accommodate the discomfort of a few. 

As enriched as we have been by so many of those who have come to call this nation home, it is the heart and soul of our nation that we are reminded of in the Lord’s Prayer.

I'll be making the case to keep this tradition where it belongs: front and centre in the life of our Parliament.