ANZAC Day address from the Anglican Church

ANZAC Day address 2023 from the Anglican Church

We come together every year on ANZAC day to remember those who have fought in the defence of our nation. We don’t come to glory in war. For, when we think of the lives that were lost, the families left without parents and siblings, and the survivors left to deal with a lifetime of physical and emotional scars, how could we celebrate?

No, it is a day when we remember all those who, despite knowing the cost they may well pay, would take up the call to fight that we might have peace - and we remember, especially, the 100,000+ Australians who would never return home. Of course, these 100,000 are no mere statistic. They are more than faceless names on a roll.

As John Howard reminded us in his 1997 ANZAC address, “each of the fallen had a family and friends whose lives were enriched by their love and diminished by their loss. Each added to the life of a city suburb or country town. Each worked before enlistment, as a teacher, a farmer, a labourer, a nurse, a doctor, a clerk, or one of countless other occupations which add to the prosperity and the richness of a nation.”

I want to share with you the story of one such man.

Andrew Gillison was a Presbyterian Minister, who, when war was declared in 1914, made the decision to enlist immediately and was appointed Chaplain to the AIF in October the same year. Gillison arrived in Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, but as a chaplain was ordered to stay on the ship until the initial fighting had died down. At first, he did this, doing all he could to help medical staff and provide comfort for those soldiers who had been returned to the ship injured.

However, as the casualties grew, and the numbers of dead and injured became too great to bring back to the ships, Gillison managed to gain permission to go ashore on the morning of April 27. He immediately attached himself to the dressing station, the first place to which the casualties were brought, consoling the wounded, and burying the dead.

Gillison conducted funerals under cover of darkness, beginning at 11.00pm and finishing when possible before first light. Such was his conduct, that one soldier wrote in his diary that Gillison was the bravest man he ever knew and that “everyone praised his efforts to cheer the men under hardship and when wounded.”

 Corporal J. W. Barr wrote of Gillison, “Stained by earth and the blood of fellow men, he was grandly eloquent, his clothes and appearance telling us what he did not.”

Others spoke of his Christian comfort while he supported the weakening frame from which the soul was speeding; a Christ-like devotion to his fellowmen that found him near them in their last moments”.

On 22nd August 1915, Gillison was preparing to read a burial service over yet more bodies when he heard groaning in the scrub above them on the ridge. The men crawled up to the top from where they could see a wounded soldier, covered in ants. They crawled out to the wounded man and started to drag him back over the ridge. Suddenly they were in the sights of a Turkish sniper. Crawling backwards, a bullet hit Gillison in the shoulder and exited through his chest. He died in agony three hours later.

What is it that could motivate a man like Gillison to such sacrifice? We need look no further than the epitaph on his tomb stone.

In remembrance of Rev. Andrew Gillison M.A.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Words straight from the lips of Jesus Christ. Words that anticipate the ultimate sacrifice - when Jesus Christ would willingly lay down his life to earn forgiveness of sin and peace with God for any who would turn to him and bring themselves under his protection and lordship.

It is that great sacrifice that changed the life of countless millions throughout history, including Andrew Gillison. It was the example of his master which would lead him to spare nothing in the care of those he was sent to minister to.

And so, I am thankful as I remember the 100,000 Australians who have died, and the many others who have served that I might enjoy this peaceful land. And I thank God for Jesus Christ, whose death has earned peace with God, and has inspired the service of many men and women just like Andrew Gillison.

Matthew Hearne, Barraba Anglican Church