by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – As the parliament resumed this week in Australia, a coalition of pro-secular Australian organizations initiated a petition on the Australian Parliament House website calling for the removal of Christian prayer from its longstanding tradition.
Since 1901, two Christian prayers have been recited at the commencement of each sitting day in Australia’s Federal Government House of Representatives, one of which is the Lord’s Prayer. Atheist groups contend that the use of Christian prayers in Parliament favors one religious worldview over another.
The petition urges the House of Representatives to update its standing orders, advocating for substituting daily Christian prayers with a more inclusive practice that does not favor one religious worldview over others.
“Australia’s multicultural society is becoming increasingly non-religious and more religiously diverse,” Michael Dove, the principal petitioner and chair of Secularism Australia Conference’s organizing committee, told Yahoo News Australia.
The 2021 Census revealed a decline in Christianity by over 1 million people in Australia, constituting less than half of the population. Despite this decrease, 43.9% of Australians view themselves as Christians. The second-largest group comprised individuals with no religious affiliation, representing 38.9%. Other notable religions included Islam at 3.2%, Hinduism at 2.7%, and Buddhism at 2.4%.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Sunday that countries participating in his Gaza “Board of Peace” have pledged more than $5 billion toward humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, along with committing thousands of personnel to support new security arrangements in the enclave.
An additional 27 members of Venezuelan transnational criminal organizations, Tren de Aragua and its splinter faction, anti-Tren, have been indicted in New York in an ongoing prosecution of groups the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
Two pastors in eastern Uganda who were reportedly attacked by a group of Muslim extremists have been discharged from a hospital and are continuing to recover at home, Worthy News learned Sunday.
Western leaders sought to project unity at the 2026 Munich Security Conference despite tensions over U.S. interest in acquiring Greenland, differences on ending the war in Ukraine, and questions surrounding the future of transatlantic cooperation.
The Pentagon is deploying the Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the Middle East as the United States intensifies preparations for potential military action against Iran.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said over the weekend that Hungary should fear the European Union more than Russia, pledging to dismantle what he called Brussels’ “oppressive machinery” ahead of heated parliamentary elections in April.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pledged to deepen cooperation with a group of four Central and Eastern European nations, including Hungary and Slovakia, despite concerns over their leaders’ perceived authoritarian style and refusal to provide military aid to war-torn Ukraine.