The Lords Prayer

Someone upthread mentioned saying grace before meals - my parents had a friend who used to sit down at the table and say: "Thank Gawd it's come!!"

I can recite the Lords Prayer so can my children. When my daughter was small she started Sunday School and my mother decided to teach her the Lords Prayer beforehand. All went well and suddenly my daughter collapsed with giggles, why? Well when we came to the words Hallowed be thy name, my daughter thought it was Hello Ed be thy name and laughed at the funny name!

Prisons are full, many churches are empty.

Oh the Christingle service is so good for the soul!

I cope until the little ones with their candles (in oranges) sing 'Away in a manger.' Without fail, the tears flow.

So moving - and 'holy'.

I haven't known a school which has 'a collective act of worship' for about 35+ years!

Occasionally nowadays there is a Harvest Festival without any religion seemingly involved and a Christingle service (come if you wish, if not don't worry!) but no service, daily or otherwise, in schools.

yes it is,Annie faith schools can obviously have a stronger emphasis on teaching their faith in assembly/ collective worship: Christian(RC or C/E) , Islam ,Judaism etc! Community schools do not promote one faith more than another but should have a time for worship and ensure broadly Christian values..which are shared by the main religions anyway!

Is it not against the law to ban freedom to practice faith ?

ps that is nonsense about OFSTED!

www.gov.uk/government/publications/collective-worship-in-schools
Schools do do this. I have delivered 100s in my career teaching in non faith based schools!

PECS

Assemblies are compulsory as is a daily act of worship, mainly Christian in nature.
However if you are keen for your family to grow up with a faith then there are 100s of churches to go to!

Sorry but that’s not true. Unless it is a particular faith school then assemblies are not religion based. They are about school community, news, stories, issues, showcasing work etc. Religion only comes up when it is a particular festival and then all major religions are included.
Any non-denominational school running an assembly with a Christian bias are poorly managed and will be in hot water if ofsted get wind of it.

I can, my children can too - I went to the local non denominational school in the days when non-denominational meant Christian - their idea of being inclusive was that the Jewish kids didn’t have to join in if they didn’t want to!
My kids went to church schools.
Amen

I attended C/E church regularly until age 17. Did A level RE & went to a C/E TT college. I do not have a faith now but value the knowledge I have about the Bible.. so much of British culture references it!

It's odd isn't it? I can recite the old version of the Lord's prayer, can sing at least a 100 hymns,
won the RE prize through most of junior school and the first 2 years of secondary and ended up an agnostic on a good day and an atheist otherwise.

fiona reading your post made me wonder if our Head of State should not also be required to be Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of tbe Faith.
Although Prince Charles says he would want to be Defender of Faiths.

The C of E is the Establishd Church.

Am reminded of DH leading an inspection of a major northern boys grammar school. The colleague asked to report on that morning’s assembly summed it up neatly as “a hymn, a prayer and a bollocking”!

Assemblies are compulsory as is a daily act of worship, mainly Christian in nature.
However if you are keen for your family to grow up with a faith then there are 100s of churches to go to!

The Catholic education received by my children bore no resemblance to my ‘ hard core’ one, and my grandchildren’s bears even less, being mostly centred on respecting and helping others.

I don't agree with faith schools either. They have the potential to create divided communities - just what we don't need!

Totally with you on that one, fionajk42. Religion should play not part in a state school education. If parents really want their child to receive a religious education, then they should pay for it.

I think school is not the place to indoctrinate children in Christianity or any other religion. Schools are for teaching facts, not beliefs. Assembly should be restricted to covering school announcements and such like.

Fennel yes, it does.

As it says in the bible, it is the Lord's prayer as Jesus taught to his disciples. But Jesus was a Jew praying to his Father in heaven.
In St Matthew's text it finishes 'but deliver us from evil'.
The rest was added later.

Jesus is mentioned in the title of the Lord’s Prayer.

Grandma70s I agree about the aesthetics of prayers and hymns. One of my favourite hymn is The Spacious Firmament on High, the words are simple, poetic, and the science is all wrong. but the spirit is true because sometimes we simply need to express a feeling of awe.

My two GC go to a Church of Wales Primary school, they know the Lords Prayer in English and Welsh, (they are also taught their times tables up to 12 x 12). In their school there are Muslims and a Buddhist, and nonconformists, in fact the Buddhist played the lead role in the Nativity play a couple of years ago.

SueDonim - If you think about the wording of The Lord's Prayer it covers the beliefs of Jews, Muslims and Christians,
Jesus isn't mentioned, only God.
And the values contained in it are universal for all 3 religions.