ANZAC Day

When ANZAC Day occurs on a Sunday, the church’s regular day of worship, we are confronted with a conflict: will we shift our services so that members may attend the ANZAC ceremonies? Will ministers of religion put ANZAC addresses ahead of regular Sunday worship? Will we choose to attend a Christian service of worship or a civic ceremony?

ANZAC Day is a national and civic celebration. On this day, we remember those who have fought and particularly those who died in the cause of national goals, values, ideals, society. Their sacrifice is not meaningless. It is through their sacrifice that we enjoy the society we live in today. However, we need to be careful—ANZAC Day is not necessarily a Christian celebration, although Christian people participate in it. There is a sense in which Christians will always approach ANZAC ceremonies with ambivalence.

Some of that ambivalence will arise when ANZAC ceremonies appear to glorify war and/or military solutions to global conflicts; and indeed many veterans will join us in our ambivalence when that occurs. Probably most of us know or have known veterans who choose not to participate in the ANZAC Day activities because their experiences were so traumatic.

Some of our ambivalence will arise because our regular, formative practice of worship is presumed to be secondary to such civic occasions. At such times, we must think very carefully about what our priorities are and what any of our actions may communicate to our community—does giving up our worship time signal that this is a disposable part of the Christian Life? Does choosing to worship rather than attend ANZAC ceremonies indicate that we do not care for the world around us?

A lot of our ambivalence must also arise around the imagery of sacrifice used in ANZAC ceremonies. For Christian people, the ultimate sacrifice is not the deaths of war and armed conflict as terrible as they are. For us, the ultimate sacrifice is the entry of God into our world as Jesus and Jesus’ participation in our humanity to the fullest extent, i.e. death. In the sacrifice that God makes through Christ, we are shown that no other life sacrifice is necessary. Therefore, on ANZAC day, while we remember the losses of war, and reflect on the apparent gains won through those losses, we must also mourn the fact that any loss occurred at all. For us, the life, death and resurrection of Christ means that the only sacrifice required is a life of honouring God in worship, witness and service—a “sacrifice of thanksgiving” to God.