National
Working Group on Worship
Theology &
Discipleship
The Uniting Church in Australia
Paper No. 12
THE LORD'S PRAYER: WHICH VERSION?
It is not many years ago that it was
possible for a worship leader to announce, simply, "The
Lord's Prayer", and a congregation could repeat it in
unison, without any book or screen in front of them. There might
have been discrepancies between "Our Father who art"
and "Our Father which art", and between "those who
trespass" and "them that trespass", but otherwise
there was agreement.
This is no longer so. The multitude of
modern translations of the Bible has given us a wide choice of
possible wordings. Various books of worship in the
English-speaking world now print a variety of versions.
There are obvious advantages, both for
ecumenical occasions and within one congregation, in coming to
agreement on a modern version. The only serious candidate is the
English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC) version (1988)
which has the endorsement of ecumenical liturgical bodies in
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, South Africa and the
United Kingdom.
It is this version which is printed in Uniting
in Worship and it is the same as the one published throughout
the UCA since 1980, except for one word in Line 9: "Save us
from the time of trial" replaces "Save us in the time
of trial". The change, proposed by ELLC after much
discussion, is closer to the New Testament meaning. In the Greek
there is a negative, giving a literal rendering something like
"Do not bring us to the time of hard testing". The line
is not dealing with-everyday temptations but with the crucial
test when we might deny the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
These and other points are discussed,
briefly but clearly, in the publication Praying Together
(1988) which is the successor to the earlier collection of texts
called Prayers We Have in Common (1969 and 1975). The new
book is published by The Canterbury Press, Norwich.
The Assembly Commission on Liturgy recognises that on some occasions, such as weddings and funerals, the older version, "Our Father who art in heaven", may be appropriate, so this is printed in several places in Uniting in Worship. But the Commission hopes, as do other denominations, that congregations will
move toward a single, common modern
version which all regular worshippers can say by heart. For this
reason, the Commission will recommend to the 199I Assembly of the
UCA that, where a modern version is used, congregations and
councils of the Church be encouraged to use the ELLC version.
Uniting in Worship also uses ELLC
texts for other prayers, creeds and canticles which we share with
other Churches, e.g. Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Gloria in
Excelsis, Te Deum, Magnificat (Song of Mary). Only in the Nicene
Creed is there a slight departure from the ELLC version, on the
recommendation of the Commission on Doctrine.
The commentary in Praying Together
is highly recommended for further reading. An Australian scholar,
The Revd Dr Evan Burge of Melbourne, played a large part in
compiling the commentary.
D'Arcy Wood I2/10/90
Acknowledgment:
The English translation of The Lord's
Prayer was originally prepared by the International Consultation
on English Texts (ICET) and revised in 1987 by the English
Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC).
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