The Lords Prayer

I can still recite it - but that's from Sunday School, not school. I honestly believe religion should play no part in a state school education whatsoever though...and that's all religions.

I had to learn poetry off by heart at school, and I don't think it has made me a poet...in the same way I don't think that learning the Lord's Prayer off by heart would make the person learning it a Christian. It is part of our Western culture and heritage in the same way as poetry is also part of culture and heritage.
(I would not be against people learning the main prayers of other faith traditions either, although I am a Christian, because I think that it is only by learning about faiths that a person has the tools to make an informed decision about whether they wish to follow a faith or whether they think that all faith is bunkum.)
I have sat with very elderly people towards the end of their lives and it seems to me that even if they cannot remember who they are, when I say the Lords Prayer with them all the words come back and in the right order and we say the prayer together and it has a calming effect on them. It is the same with The Lord's My Shepherd sung to the tune Crimond - elderly and apparently completely demented people will join in. I wonder what common things people will remember in a 100 years time, to be able to share at the end of their lives in the same way?

I can recite The Lords prayer in Scottish and English..

We learnt the Lords Prayer and some of the psalms at primary school. And we recited our tables every day.
We also wrote down a poem every Monday morning (for handwriting practice) and had to be able to recite it to the teacher by Friday. Things like The Vulture, the Ducks Ditty and From a Railway Carriage. I can still remember them all.

Like others I say The Lord's Prayer most days. It would be unthinkable to me not to know it. At school we also had to be word perfect on the Apostle's Creed which I love.
As a small child I learned the prayers and bible stories at home and Sunday School so parents these days whose children go to multi cultural schools could still ensure they learn if that is what they want for them.

Like other posters on here had this stuff drummed into me at a rather tedious girls school, left in 1966 without a backward glance, very hard pushed to remember anything now.

Our previous SubDean told the story (with the family's permission) of a lady who had been unconscious for weeks and was slipping away. The family asked him to say prayers round her bed, and as he started the Lord's Prayer her eyes opened, she sat up and joined in, with a wonderful smile on her face. At the end she lay down and passed away.

I'm in our church choir and we're often asked to sing at weddings. Bride and groom rarely know any hymns to choose and with the exception perhaps of any grandparents, the congregation won't know the Lord's Prayer, we in the choir stalls will be the only people reciting it.

I learned the Lord's Prayer at school aged about 4 and feel that it's very important for anybody who is a Christian - not of much importance for somebody who isn't.

In confirmation classes, we also learned 'The Magnificat', the 'Nunc Dimitis', the 'Prayer of Humble Access', the 'Catechism', the 'Apostle's Creed' and the 'Nicene Creed' - I find them all to be comforting in their familiarity.

Yes, I know the Lord's Prayer - it's also part of my daily life.
I know many schools do not hold assemblies now. All I would say that it is a very sad.

The benefits of having a morning assembly provides children with a good opportunity to meet together and is a symbol of unity in the school. It helps to cultivate a sense of belonging and helps children to understand the importance of good behaviour and how to respect and appreciate what others do.
It was also a channel to release information related to school life such as club activities and extra-curricular activities.

It had taken me a couple of attempts before getting it correct without having to reach for my book of prayers given to me as a child. Another I can remember word for word is psalm 23.

I am a humanist. No comfort in prayers for me (perhaps sadly as it must be a solace to believe there is better still after this life).

That said, when younger, my favourite little grace said at meal times was

‘Some people have hunger but no food,
Others have food but no appetite.
I have both - praise the Lord’

It reminded me of how fortunate I was (still am).

P.s. I don’t think it is sad that there are no school assemblies with prayers.

Education ought to be secular (like France) in my humble.

Families who have their faiths can pray in their own time, outside of school.

Yes said it every day at school- both primary & secondary.
3 of our DGC still do as they go to a church primary school. The other 3 said it at junior school but no religious assemblies at secondary school.
I am not a religious person but have no problem with children learning it at all. I am amazed at how many hymns I know by heart too.

I learnt the lords prayer at junior school and have never forgot it . My daughter's have never been taught it though and my grandchildren haven't been taught it either . I don't think they will miss out on anything in life by not knowing it .

I also say the Lord's Prayer every night on going to bed and ask him to bless my family and to guard us, guide us, love us, protect us and keep us safe from harm.

School hymn - Now Thank We All Our God. Will probably have that at my funeral.

While I don't believe in communal worship and, as an atheist, don't believe in the power of prayer except as a consolation for those who do believe, I find it troubling that "basic" Bible knowledge is sometimes not taught because there's so much in western culture which is incomprehensible without it.

As a piano teacher, I was going over Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (only the first verse) with a 9-year-old boy. He didn't know who David was (except that it's also his dad's name) and I tried explaining about King David and the psalms. He comes from an entirely secular family, and at a secular school, and had never heard of David and Goliath.

It struck me many years ago that the actual content of the Lord's Prayer was such that it worked for Judaism and Islam as well. Only the name "lord's prayer" would make it ineligible. Do Muslim children learn it, I wonder?

I left school in 1966 and the only times I have recited it is at elderly relatives funerals. But I just closed my eyes and managed to say it word perfect. I didn't know it had some words changed over the years.

I say it often before going to sleep.I also say a prayer I learned in Church of Ireland. It starts "Almight and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy ways".

I can assure you that's it's still the law to have daily collective worship in schools. Some schools may not have the hall capacity for the all the children at once so often split into key stages. They're inspected by Ofsted too.

When I was at school I was given a detention taken by a particular teacher who required us all to write out the Lord's prayer before we could leave. As a regular church goer I was the first to be allowed to leave!

I still can say/do

The Lord's Prayer
Any random mix of the 1-12 x tables
The National Anthem

All learned at infant school 70 years ago.

I have a vast repertoire of Catholic prayers from childhood! Hail Mary, Hail Holy Queen, The Memorare, Acts of Contrition, Faith, Hope, & Charity, Grace before and after meals, and probably more!
I can also still remember Latin responses to prayers at Mass.

Now, where did I leave my specs?

When I was young I said the Lord's Prayer in a superstitious way as if the repetition could make things better or safer.

I do support the idea of secular morning assemblies in schools but no school should include religious instruction in any form.
Religion is too important to be a matter of indoctrination.

Hildegard ....I for one am glad to see the back of religion...I’m a non-believer....and would never allowed my children to be indoctrinated from birth with superstitious nonsense ...luckily my daughter feels the same about her two kids..... who are beautiful...upright...honest and responsible human beings. They know right from wrong without any help from religion .... I would rather they concentrate on the provable facts of life with open minds, and curiosity! One of your holy relics ,St.Augustine said that “curiosity is a disease “....long may we all be infected!