40% less children know the Lord’s Prayer

Children are less likely to know the Our Father but are more likely to say religion is more important to them than children of 40 years ago, a BBC study shows.

The survey marked 40 years since Newsround was first broadcast.

The programme surveyed over 1,000 children aged 6-12 and 1,000 adults who’d have been that age 40 years ago, and compared the answers, reports the BBC.

Of the 1011 adults surveyed, 92 per cent said they knew the Lord’s Prayer as a child, while only 55 per cent of children knew it today.

Responding to the findings of the survey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams said he would like to see schools teaching students the Lord’s Prayer.

“I’d like to see schools introducing children to the Lord’s Prayer, so that they know that it’s there, they know what it means and know why it matters.”

“The Lord’s Prayer isn’t a very big or complicated thing,” the archbishop said.

“It’s not as if you have to learn pages on end of things in a strange language. There are modern language versions of it.

“I don’t think it’s too difficult to introduce children to this and introduce it in plain language and say not ‘You’ve got to pray this,’ but this is something that’s really, really important to lots and lots of people and can change their lives.”

Some senior Church of England officials are of the view that Christians are being discriminated against and greater tolerance is being shown for other faiths.

Despite a legal requirement for Christian worship, Christian assemblies are being dropped in favour of multi-faith worship.

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