Another Anzac Day celebrated. As usual I went to the local club service this afternoon. When I'm in Auckland I attend the Dawn Service. Richard generously and diligently attends at least two services playing the trumpet which adds weight and sentiment to the ceremony. My sister no doubt, as per usual attended the Auckland Dawn Service as a drummer in the pipe band.
I found it more difficult than usual this year in my responses in our ceremony.
Here's a list of the sung and spoken things:Hymn: O God Our Help In Ages Past.
Prayer: The Lord's Prayer.
Hymn: The Recessional - Lest We Forget.
The Ode: We Will Remember Them.
National Anthem: God Defend New Zealand.
In these the only things I contributed to was in the response to The Ode and singing the National Anthem (Maori and English versions) but not voicing any references to God.
There's too much Christian God and religion in these public ceremonies and I'm sick of it.
According to the 2018 Census, 48.2% of New Zealanders identified as having ‘no religion’ and 36.5% identified as Christian (including over 20 denominations). Other religious affiliations included Hinduism (2.6%), Islam (1.3%), Māori religious beliefs and philosophies (1.3%), Buddhism (1.1%), Spiritualism and New Age religions (0.4%) and Judaism (0.1%). Approximately nominated some other unidentified religion, belief or philosophy (1.9%), and 6.7% objected to providing a response.
3 comments:
I totally agree. Totally. I think it's time for me to resign as bugle player.
You forgot Tolkien's Eluvator. The maker of the Valar and ultimately the Elfs and man.
Don't you just love these newbies who come in late to discover old masterpieces and then adopt them as new discoveries forgetting that most people around them read them several decades ago, and then bang on endlessly about it ..... oh, that's right, he'a a Catholic and that's a Christian's default setting.
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