Government banning prayer at Remembrance Day Ceremonies?

There is a new directive to Canadian Armed Forces chaplains regarding prayer. The term, “public prayer at military ceremonies.”, will be replaced by “spiritual reflection in public settings”. The Forces’ chaplain general, Brig.-Gen. Guy Bélisle says prayer “does not play a role” in the lives of some CAF members and therefore chaplains “must ensure that all members feel respected and...

Transcript

[Music] hey everybody it's Chris bber the director of the national House of Prayer coming to you today from Ottawa I want to talk to you today about about Remembrance Day um you know having been in on the government side of things on an Eda and a staffer in a constituency um Remembrance Day has been a big part of my life for many many years and it's really important i i f always found a great opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus on the ground I would be praying there so there's a a lot of concern that we're going to be losing prayer on Remembrance Day that's not the case um uh the there have been changes to the in the chapy from the the ministry of Defense uh

saying that we have to modify be inclusive they just changes weird changes but nevertheless changes you know be inclusive uh you know don't say Father which is crazy for us because we we pray we have we have the Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost how'd you get around that anyway so these these kinds of just um just goofiness to tell you the truth so it's coming out of the ministry so yeah it's important that we pray but I want to talk about specifically about um about Remembrance Day Remembrance Day is pretty much governed by the legions and that's why you'll see them uh they're the ones who arrange the the uh wreaths and they arrang the whole ceremony in itself and they're the ones

that get to pick uh pastors and things like that priests rabbis to to speak Pray when I was in oshaa um had a grand a really glorious Remembrance Day service there and um you know full of full of the word full of hymns full of of um uh songs Psalms uh prayer it was all happening numerous uh pastors engaged was really good but that one point in there there was uh somebody on my board actually said that I don't think we should be doing all this God stuff and I was able to speak into that because I was there on the ground in a place of of influence and Leadership you know he was connected to the legion he thought well maybe we shouldn't do all this God stuff and I

kind of reminded him that you know with many of the veterans they can attest to this that there are not very many atheist s in foxholes and that they really appreciated the role of the chaplain or the Padre that was with them on on the ground and in re remembrance days many times we don't see chaplain from from the Min from the ministry of Defense there most of it is taken on by local church people right whether it's United Church Anglican usually it's pretty traditional places uh but they are there and so you can have influence and speak into it now on one on so asua was just full chock full of all this all these things of of of Godly Heritage on the other hand when we moved here to

Ottawa on the first year because it was coid we weren't able to attend the national the national ceremony it wasn't running and uh so we went to a local one in Mantic and there it was completely different the the uh that particular Legion was pretty woke and and there was no mention of God anywhere it was so bizarre and no hymns and none nothing like that very humanistic and that was because of the influence in that area in that Legion that somebody was able to get into things so I what I'm what I'm trying to say here it's important that we be engaged in all aspects of life so if you're on an Eda uh some of you I know I have some members here on an Eda if you're on an

Eda uh I would encourage you you to to uh you know support talk to the legion talk to the people you know have influence speak to that if you have pastors that are doing this and if you know people in the legion that are are running these tell them how much you appreciate the fact that they are hymns and scriptures and uh and that there's a God God remembrance there in Remembrance Day so I just want to encourage you be boots on the ground if you have never gone to a um a Remembrance Day service ceremony you should go we we need to have boots on the ground and uh also another thing great thing go visit a veteran in a in a um Senior's home it is so important that we do that you know

Remembrance Day is one of the biggest days for politicians and they work from early morning till late at night I the on Remembrance Day it was easily a 15-hour day for us so um yeah be engaged be boots on the ground praying and uh even if the government says you can't pray I'm still going to pray and which they're not saying right but they're saying modify but anyway be boots on the ground how lovely on the mountain are the feet of those that bring good news that's us the prayer movement needs to have feet and here's a great opportunity to be feet on the ground for Remembrance Day I'm Chris byberg the director of the national House of Prayer and we'll see you next time don't forget to wear a

Pary bye now