Lesa Scholl
19 June 2025
Victorian faith leaders say the ideals of the Lord’s Prayer are inclusive in response to renewed calls from parliamentarians to remove it from parliament because it privileges one faith tradition.
Faith Communities Council of Victoria members, including Hindu, Islam and Christian representatives, believe the values expressed in the Lord’s Prayer are inclusive of most faiths, but are open to other forms of prayer in parliament.
Greens leader Ellen Sandell has renewed a notice of motion in the Legislative Assembly to remove the Lord’s Prayer from the start of each sitting day.
This follows Animal Justice Party member Georgie Purcell asking for an update on developing a new practice to better reflect the Victorian community in late May.
Daniel Andrews made an election promise to workshop a replacement for the Lord’s Prayer after the 2021 census highlighted Australia was becoming more religiously diverse.
Read more: Be ‘an instrument for peace’, leaders urged
The FCCV began working on the Recitation of Prayers in the Victorian Parliament report to address diversity in 2022.
FCCV multifaith officer Sandy Kouroupidis said members agreed overwhelmingly on the existence of a higher power.
He said the right question was whether they wanted some form of prayer or acknowledgement of a higher power in parliament.
Mr Kouroupidis said the report was completed in 2024 but was not released because all parties did not reach a consensus.
The report developed a summary of recommendations for strengthening inclusivity, concluding there should be an acknowledgement of country, followed by a time of guided reflection, and then the Lord’s Prayer.
The current parliamentary proceedings have the Lord’s Prayer before the acknowledgement of country.
Mr Kouroupidis said including the guided reflection aimed to balance the growing religious diversity while respectfully acknowledging the continuing majority who identified as Christian.
Interfaith association Religions for Peace committee member Philip Huggins said the Lord’s Prayer spoke to universal yearnings.
He said characterising the prayer as something pertaining just to Christians missed its genesis and universality.
Bishop Philip said the origin of the prayer was Jesus being asked how to pray well by those who saw His depth of prayer.
Read more: Reconciliation event highlights the responsibility of faith communities
Ms Sandell said the Greens were open to a range of solutions, but they had been calling to replace the prayer with something more inclusive for many years.
She understood the prayer had an emotional connection with a lot of people.
Ms Sandell recognised there was a diversity of views on the issue and had spoken to a lot of different faith leaders.
She said she understood prayer at the start of the day was very important for some people, but her party was asking for it to be as inclusive as possible.
Ms Sandell suggested models in other parliaments as possible solutions, such as silent reflection or rotating prayers between different faiths.
Shadow minister for multicultural affairs Evan Mulholland tabled a petition to retain the Lord’s Prayer in the Legislative Council in June 2024.
Mr Mulholland said this petition with almost 11,000 signatures resulted in the Labor government abandoning their election commitment to remove it.
As a part of the same campaign, Catholic, Anglican, Hindu, Islamic and Jewish leaders wrote a joint statement in support of keeping the prayer in parliament.
The statement said the Lord’s Prayer was a simple prayer underpinning crucial notions of forgiveness, gratitude, reconciliation, unity and the common good.
It said the majority of Victorians believed in a higher power and urged the elected representatives to recognise the valuable role of prayer.
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