My latest article for Humanists Australia has just been published on Medium. It asks – should ANZAC Day public commemorations be purely secular? Are the current Christian services divisive? And do they reflect the true Anzac ethos?
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Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear 
Dear Chrys,
I appreciate your essay very much. Christian religious services are inappropriate for two of the men who were there. Simpson was an atheist, and Monash was a Jew. I wrote something about Anzac Day also.
https://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=17285
My objection to Anzac Day is as follows:
“I am writing this article in reaction to ANZAC day. I think it would be a more suitable way to remember the 62,000 and the many others killed in Australia’s wars to try to lessen the possibility of future wars rather than have dawn services, parades, speeches and monuments.”
I have followed your writings with interest and appreciation. I am now 96 and amazed to be still be alive. Perhaps you remember me.
David Fisher
I remember you vividly and with great affection, David.
proxy church service,stopped going because of that.Still have full respect for those men at Gallipoli.
As a formerly ordained person and long since non-believer, I couldn’t agree more. I vividly recall the unseemly jockeying carried out by the more evangelical of my former colleagues to snag the podium for the local ANZAC day events and oh, how they would waffle on! Those of us of the more catholic end of the spectrum (NB little ‘c’) while happy enough to attend in support were only too glad to leave it to the RSL, service personnel etc. Its not the place for proselytising. Its a time to stand in silent solidarity with the grieving.
I had a similar story conveyed to me by a member of the clergy this week. The religious co-option of Anzac Day is also unpopular with many inside the church.