Canada’s Department of National Defence has introduced a new nationwide policy prohibiting military personnel, including military chaplains, from mentioning God, using religious expressions, or referring to any religious tradition during official public events. The move has drawn criticism from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), the inVictory portal reports.
The new guidelines, titled “Spiritual Reflections in the Military Environment”, continue to allow chaplains to conduct voluntary religious services, pray at military funerals, and provide spiritual support to service members and their families. However, at official and mandatory military events, they are prohibited from delivering prayers, mentioning God, or using religious symbols.
The ban applies to events such as change-of-command ceremonies, military graduation parades, as well as Remembrance Day events traditionally held with the participation of the Royal Canadian Legion.
According to Bruce Clemenger, a senior representative of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the new policy goes far beyond a ban on prayer.
“It is now prohibited even to acknowledge that some people in attendance believe in God while others do not share that belief. In this way, chaplains’ spiritual reflections are reduced exclusively to a secular, humanist approach,” he said.
Clemenger recalled that the first restrictions were introduced as early as 2023, when prayers were banned at mandatory military events. Under the new policy, even mentioning God or using religious expressions is now prohibited.
The Department of National Defence says the changes make official events more inclusive. The rules were reviewed following complaints from some non-believing service members who said that prayers and references to God made them feel excluded.
However, the Evangelical Fellowship believes that the new policy does not ensure neutrality but instead imposes a particular worldview.
“The assumption is that the absence of any references to God is a neutral position. But that is a myth of neutrality. In practice, such an approach gives preference to one system of beliefs over others,” Clemenger said.
The EFC believes that the new rules restrict the participation of military chaplains in official events and fail to reflect the religious diversity of the Canadian Armed Forces.
In response, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada called on the federal government to repeal the new policy and develop a different approach that would ensure respect for the diverse beliefs of citizens, including those who believe in God.
