Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

Crikey recently reported on the Canberra Declaration’s prayers for the 2022 election. Plenty of the details were wrong, but we’re happy to have our prayer campaign amplified nationwide!

The Canberra Declaration’s election prayer campaign is already making an impact nationally. Left-wing news blog Crikey put the spotlight on the Canberra Declaration last week for our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting offensive.

While the article, written by Investigations Editor David Hardaker, is in sore need of a fact-check, it did get several key details right. “The call has gone out from a coalition of conservative Christian groups to pray, pray and pray again for a 2019-style miracle,” the Crikey piece reports.

Hardaker evidently got hold of a recent Canberra Declaration subscriber email in which we explained, “We need to see Godly leaders placed in our Parliament,” and that “Australia’s greatest need is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival and transformation for our nation.”

This message — which is the heartbeat of our organisation — is one we are more than happy to have amplified on the national stage in the lead-up to election day.

However, a little more investigation from Hardaker wouldn’t have gone astray.

Included in his report was an online Anzac Day prayer event organised by Ross Bellos and the team at EKKLESIA 21C, which three high-profile Liberal MPs agreed to attend. See the video recording above. Crikey mistakenly suggested the event was a Canberra Declaration initiative. In fact, the Canberra Declaration was one of many Christian groups to endorse the event.

When organising similar events in the past, the Canberra Declaration has proudly endeavoured to involve Christian MPs from across the political spectrum, rather than aligning ourselves exclusively with one party. We are of course praying for a “miracle in the election,” — but our aim is not to “save the Morrison government”, as claimed by Hardaker.

Several other details reported by Crikey stand in need of correction. Hardaker labelled our organisation “the so-called ‘Canberra Declaration’”. In fact, we are simply the Canberra Declaration. (You can read more about us here.)

Moreover, he wrote that the Canberra Declaration “claims to represent ‘80,000 Aussies who love their country’.” This isn’t a claim but a statement of fact. To date, the Declaration has attracted over 90,200 signatures from people passionate about religious freedom, marriage and family, and the sanctity of life in Australia. Tens of thousands of signees remain active in promoting these values at a grassroots level and through prayer.

Hardaker wrote that “the Canberra Declaration group has worked itself into an apparent frenzy over who might be elected to federal Parliament on May 21”. More accurately, our prayer and confident hope is that God will rule over the 2022 election and bring about His perfect will for Australia. Our prayer points for the coming weeks include:

• Praying that God would rule over this election, that righteous leaders would be elected to govern this nation in truth and justice because, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.” Proverbs 29:2
• Praying God’s blessing upon all our current parliamentarians and leaders, including their families and all the candidates of all the parties standing for this federal election. 1 Timothy 2:1-3
• Praying for a multiplication of prayer and unity across the Body of Christ in Australia, that people will wake up to the dangers facing our nation and respond in prayer. Ephesians 5:14
• Praying for a Revival for Australia, Spiritual Awakening and Transformation for our nation, and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16

The Canberra Declaration team is delighted to have our prayer campaign highlighted at this crucial time.

We are also encouraged that a mainstream blog feels our prayers are important enough to feature in an election report. We’d only add that we’re more than happy to help with Crikey’s investigations if they were ever to reach out to us when writing a similar report in the future!