I have guilt. The Lord's Prayer

[R4roger]

I know it off pat but my dc dont - in fairness they didnt go to a church school and we rarely go to church.
do you know it and do your dc?

The difficulty is that different churches use different versions. I learnt one at my CofE primary school, one at the local Methodist Chapel, one at the church I first went to up here, another at my in-laws church and another at the church I've started going to after moving.

They're pretty much the same but ever so slightly different. I now just say my version quietly. It's the act of prayer that's important and the meaning in it not the exact words.

I know it. we used to say it regularly at school assembly and I went to Sunday school. My children don't - DD and I have been to Remembrance service today with Guides and the words were printed in the order of service do clearly they expected quite a few not to know it. It felt wrong to me, as it had the debtors wording whereas I always default to trespass. I think times have moved on - when I was growing up most of my class went to church and Sunday school, now I think it is much rarer. We go to the services Guides or Beavers are involved in, but that's all.

Why on earth would you feel guilty about your kids not knowing a particular prayer if you're not religious enough to send them to church regularly? Do you feel guilty about their lack of church attendance?

Is it necessary to know it???

When I was little, in the 70s, it was, I believe, the LAW that we had to learn it. Just like we now have to have an act of collective worship each day, we HAD to learn it back then.

I prefer

Our father
Who art in prison
Mother knows not his name
Thy chavdom come
Thy shoplifting be done
In JJBSPORTS as it is in Poundland
Give us this day our welfare bread
And forgive us our ASBOs
As we happy slap those who give evidence against us
And lead us not into employment
But deliver us free housing
For thine is the chavdom
The Burberry and the Blackberry
For ever and ever
Innit

Our father, who's art in Devon
Harold be thy name.

That's about right, isn't it?

that's horrible Badlad

Not impressed BadLad

My son, when he was about 6, though it Was "Our father, Enchanted Heaven, Halloween they name."

YY to the poster who said the rythym is very comforting, regardless of whether you believe it or not.
I spent my early childhood in England, where we said the Lords Prayer every morning at school, and my later childhood in the US, where we said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school. Neither mean anything to me particularly (being a non-American and Pagan) but the rhythm of both is very soothing.
In fact, now that I think of it, the rhythm is very nearly the same.

More worrying than not knowing the Lords Prayer, from my point of view, when my daughter was about 14 I realized that she had no knowledge of any Biblical stories beyond the blindingly obvious. Because they're not allowed to teach religion in American public schools, and it never occurred to me to teach her. That can actually affect her understanding of literature, history, and other things I do find important. This oversight has since been largely remedied.

Badlad, that's very poor taste

I'm happy my dc's don't know it.
Load of tosh.

DD still said it every day at primary school - not a church school either. She only knows it in Welsh, though!

I think it's relevant to be familiar with it (rather than to know it off by heart), as it's part of UK culture. In the same way, I think it's relevant for children to know what you're talking about if you say 'he's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy', or '42' - it's about a basic shared cultural background.

Heh, I go to Mass every Sunday and still inevitably end up mumbling for the last few lines because I can't remember what order all the parts come in There are different versions anyway I think (Catholics don't say the 'for Thine is the Kingdom...' bit for example) - I can never keep them straight in my head!

There's apparently one theory that it was never meant to be learned by heart, more as a guideline for the style of prayer. I don't know anything about that but it sounded like an interesting idea.

A bit London (?) centric perhaps, but I like this part:

And forgive us our Westminster
As we forgive those who Westminster against us

Tres a propos.

I can say it in English and Irish When I was little I thought one of the lines were "lead a snot into temptation"

Mine both know it through school and going to church.

I had it drilled in to me by Irish grandparents as it was only when visited them were we forced to sit through church.

My son doesn't know and I'm not arsed about teaching him it. Never going to be used

I don't know it, neither does dd.

I grew up in a Christian family but don't believe. My children are in their 20s now and have never learned it. No guilt at all here.

They're both atheists but one of them made it a mission to read all the key holy books in his teens, to find out what they said. It didn't change his views!

I know it and the Hail Mary

I know it, my children know it. We are Christians; we go to church and the kids go to church schools.

We all know it, but dh, who is catholic, was quite dumbfounded by the last few lines the first time he attended a CofE service as he had never heard them before. I also remember a new vicar in my old church trying to instigate a new version that was missing the last few lines which led to confused mumblings at the end from most of the older congregation. He soon went back to the traditional version.

I know it.

We had to say it daily at Primary School at the end of every assembly. We also sang hymns daily and had hymn practice on Tuesdays. It wasn't even a church school, just a County Primary!

I have no idea if DD1 knows it or not. DD2 doesn't but she's only 3. I have no intention of teaching it to either of them as I'm not a practising Christian.

DD1 goes to a church school because most of the schools round here are church schools. They might well have taught DD1 the prayer but I've never asked her.

I know most of it but would perhaps stumble a bit, as others have said we used to have to say it every day in school.
I'm an atheist and will raise my daughter the same but it wouldn't bother me if she had to learn it at school.