Last Sunday I was part of the Council for Christians and Jews AGM, chaired by our moderator Denise Liersh. She spoke about the discussion on prayer that she was part of as a multifaith advisor to the Victorian Parliament.
Members of the advisory group really valued having the Lord’s Prayer to begin each parliamentary session. They considered it was a reminder of the possibility of greater depth in living and upheld the values of justice and
peace. However, offering the Lord’s Prayer has been controversial because while it is part of the Judeo Christian tradition, much of our society today is from different traditions, and many state they have no religion.
We will see how the ‘no religion’ percentage of people has grown when we get the results of our current census.
At the AGM the discussion centered around the profound Jewishness of the Lord’s Prayer and how it could be a valued universal prayer.
Yet there are amongst Christians many who would like to see more contemporary language used in the prayer and especially a more inclusive version of the prayer’s symbolism.
It is in the interests of being more representative of our diverse cultures and traditions that a moment’s silence to gather thoughts, or to pray, is being suggested to begin parliament.
This may be the best way of honoring the various faith or non-faith perspectives in our community. (For information Council of Christians and Jews, https://ccjvic.org.au)
Coralie
