Letter: Modern prayer
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Like much media treatment of church affairs, your article "Synod changes the Lord's Prayer" (12 February) suffered from presenting the issue solely as a contest between traditionalists and modernisers.
A modern version of the Lord's Prayer has been in use in the Church of England for over 20 years, and the principle that modern and traditional versions should exist side by side is widely accepted.
A less tractable question is the wording of the modern version, particularly the clause traditionally rendered "Lead us not into temptation". The choice for the new millennium is between adopting the new, ecumenically agreed version "Save us from the time of trial", and further experimentation to find a better rendering.
While, in the interests of Christian unity, the Church of England would be right to fall into line with the ecumenical text, it should do so in full awareness that "Save us from the time of trial" is superior to the traditional version neither as a rendering of the biblical text nor (arguably) in terms of intelligibility to present-day churchgoers.
Dr GRAHAM GOULD
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
King's College London
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments