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Critics want 'Jesus' out of prayer 
Supporters cite nation's Christian heritage in opposing 'pluralism'

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – If Christians here don't get busy and participate in the system, they'll lose a battle to keep "Jesus Christ" in the prayer used to open Parliament, even though the nation's heritage is Christian, a government official says.

David Major, a Salvation Army officer who also serves as an advisor to New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, said when his nation's Parliament first began in 1854, the leaders' first decision focused on religion.

But if Christians don’t act, he said, the Parliamentary opening soon will go the way of the traditional prayer before state dinners, a practice which has been discontinued.

The report of the developing move to excise "Jesus" from New Zealand's governmental ceremonies comes from John McNeil of Challenge Weekly, a national Christian newspaper in New Zealand, who provided it to ASSIST News Service.

The thinking in Parliament, Major said, is that if "Jesus" is out of the prayer, "then a Hindu, a Muslim or someone else could in their mind address it to whomever they like." In fact, to make it a more "pluralistic" prayer, he said.

That, however, doesn't fit the nation's distinctly Christian heritage and the practice for the last century and a half, he said.

At that first Parliament, he said, lawmakers made their first decision an important one: "That New Zealand will not have a state church, and anyone of any faith or no faith at all will be welcome to be part of Parliament, and that we should open our proceedings with prayer."

That decision resulted in the second, Major said, in that a member of the clergy suddenly was needed.

"They then sent the clerk of the House out to find a clergyman who could come and pray the prayer, and it happened to be an Anglican," Major said.

The opening prayer reads: “Almighty God, humbly acknowledging our need for thy guidance in all things, and laying aside all private and personal interests, we beseech thee to grant that we may conduct the affairs of this House and of our country to the glory of thy holy name, the maintenance of true religion and justice, the honour of the Queen and the public welfare, peace and tranquillity of New Zealand, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Major said there's also the simple matter of practicality.

"If you pray a prayer, you have to actually address it to somebody. The heritage of New Zealand is Christian, and a move now to change it into something other than a Christian prayer is a very great move in our cultural heritage, and I don't think we're ready to make that," he told the newspaper.

Major was chief executive of the National Party under Prime Ministers Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley during the 1990s, when grace was a regular feature of dinner parties at Premier House.

Now, grace isn't even present at a state banquet, and he said Christians should have protested then.

"All that's come to a halt, and we've let it happen," he told the Weekly Challenge.

A member of the Progressive party, Matt Robson, recently launched an unsuccessful effort to have prayer removed completely, but to continue to beat back that sentiment, Major said Christians need to become vocal.

"If 20,000 Christians wrote letters, I tell you that it would be off the agenda," he said.

For Christians to succeed, he said, letters and telephone calls are needed, but so is some preparation.

"We have to win by the force of our arguments, by the way we can assemble the discussion," he said. "Getting involved is the first thing; become intelligent about it; find out how the system works; and get alongside people who are involved and support them."