Watching the National Remembrance Day ceremony from Ottawa today I was pleased to see that the religious aspect has been dial WAY back from years past. I've rarely missed watching it, and while the "prayer" section was conducted by the chaplain of the armed forces he only mentioned the word "prayer" (in reference to praying for peace) once, and said "amen" at the end (probably out of habit). Zero "Lords" or "Christs" or even "gods"!

After welcoming everyone and expressing that we had gathered from across Canada to remember he then said, "in respect to the individual beliefs and conscience, I invite you to take this moment for contemplation".

In years past he would give a decidedly Christian prayer, followed by a rabbi and an indigenous prayer. Not this year. Just a mostly secular "prayer" albeit delivered by a priest.

Looks like the government and/or armed forces are taking steps to reduce or eliminate the religious aspect of these ceremonies. Must be tricky to do given the historical ties to Christianity, the Crown, and God in general.

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