Letters to the Editors
The Lord’s Prayer:What is in Our Words and in Our Hearts
To The Editors:
Thank you for the November/December 2015 issue of New Church Life, with
its range of interesting contents.
The Rev. Dr. Ray Silverman’s As in Heaven, So Upon the Earth raised some
interesting points concerning the prayer laid down by our Lord Himself as a
pattern for our praying. It has always been a tricky matter for the New Church
to know how to help visitors unfamiliar with our wording of the Lord’s Prayer.
One way to avoid awkwardness has been to have leaflets (alongside worship
books) available to guide visitors through our services. Today, PowerPoint
technology means we are able to project words on to a screen, enabling visitors
more easily to join in if they wish.
I am never too concerned if visitors use the version of the Lord’s Prayer
which is familiar to them. Indeed, on occasions such as weddings or funerals,
with large numbers of visitors, I may draw attention to our version but tell
visitors they are welcome to pray the words they are used to. When I find
myself attending a ceremony at another denomination, I join in with their
version of the Lord’s Prayer, knowing, as Mr. Silverman points out, that it is
what is in my mind and on my heart that is important to the Lord.
There are, of course, several other points in this prayer where our New
Church version differs from many others:
• In the very first sentence, our prayer is addressed to our Father in the
“heavens” – plural because the original Greek is plural, and because of
our teachings concerning the heavens.
• We pray for our “debts” to be forgiven, as we forgive our “debtors,” often
translated this way in Matthew’s Gospel.
• At the end of the prayer, we conclude with “ . . . the kingdom, the power
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