Scott Morrison talks about why we should all pray more

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reflected on his religious convictions today, saying prayer has the power to bring Australians together.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison promoted the power of prayer in a further demonstration he is perhaps the most religiously motivated prime minister of the modern era.

At a prayer breakfast in Parliament House this morning, organised by the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship, Mr Morrison reflected on how he had met his wife Jenny at a small church camp in NSW and then decades later they were being given a top-level ceremonial welcome at the White House.

“We were very young … and we were there, and as we were heading into the South Lawn of the White House, I turned to Jenny and said, ‘We’re a long way from the Central Coast now, darling.’”

Mr Morrison said prayer could bring about nonpartisan unity by reminding MPs of their vulnerability and humanity.

And he quoted an American preacher he met in Washington as saying “the only prayers that you can be assured are never answered, are the ones that are never prayed”.

“I think that’s true and it’s a reminder of the importance of prayer,” the Prime Minister said.

The personal recollection underlined that Mr Morrison is arguably the first Liberal prime minister from outside the major Christian blocks of the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment Protestant churches.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with his wife Jenny on Easter Sunday at the Horizon Church in Sutherland. Picture: Gary Ramage

He is member of a prominent Sydney Pentecostal church, and a US newspaper report, not denied by Mr Morrison, said he had wanted to take its pastor, Brian Houston, to a White House state dinner but the plan was vetoed by the hosts.

Australian prime ministers visiting Washington on a Sunday usually attend worship at St John’s Episcopalian Church near the White House. Known as The Presidents’ Church it has seen both Bushes and Bill Clinton on its pews.

In his visit last month, Mr Morrison attended a community church that was established in the mid-1990s using vacant movie theatres. It was the pastor of the church Mr Morrison quoted.

“But while I was in Washington we went along to a wonderful church there, the National Capital Community Church, the church of Pastor Mark Batterson and there’s a whole range of campuses there,” he told the breakfast meeting.

“He’s written a wonderful book on prayer. which they gave me, and I’ve been reading it since I’ve come back and where he talks about the only prayers that you can be assured are never answered, are the ones that are never prayed.”

Mr Morrison said prayer could aid political unity.

Australian PM Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny on stage at Hillsong with founder Brian Houston.

“What I like about prayer and what is so important about us coming together in our Parliament and praying, is prayer gives us a reminder of our humility and our vulnerability, and that forms a unity,” he said.

“Because there’s certainly one thing we all have in common, whether we sit in the green or red chairs in this place, or anywhere else, and that is our human frailty. It is our human vulnerability.

“It is one of the great misconceptions, I think, of religion that there’s something about piety. It is the complete reverse. The complete reverse.

“Faith, religion is actually first and foremost an expression of our human frailty and vulnerability and an understanding that there are things far bigger than each of us.

“And so when we come together in prayer, we are reminded of that, and we are reminded that the great challenges we face in this world are ones that we need to continue to bring up in prayer.

“And that is what we do each day as we come together as a Parliament and that’s why I am particularly pleased to launch this publication here today.”