Anglicanism and Anzac Observance

Abstract

Research has shown that the precise origins of Anzac commemoration are to be found in the work of the Brisbane Anzac Day Commemoration Committee (ADCC) founded on 10 January 1916. The precursor to that committee was the Brisbane Recruitment Committee consisting of leading Brisbane businessmen and municipal leaders, the secretary of which was an energetic Dubliner and Anglican priest, one Canon David John Garland. The article shows that while the Anzac Day “liturgy” devised by Garland had to take account of religious/theological divisions as well as secular attitudes, underneath it lay a specific Christian purpose, namely to commemorate the fallen, console the bereaved and call the nation to penitence for the sin of war.