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.

Sources

• BBC
• The Telegraph
• Image: Best Picture and Wallpapers today

The New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference has not set a day for national implementation of the new Roman Missal as yet, but they will be soon be informing people of a date that the new texts are to be in use by.

Wellington Archbishop John Dew, in his newsletter, thanked priests and leaders for their patience over what he said was an unavoidable delay while the printing error was corrected.

The new Roman Missal does not include any more new responses for the people to learn. However the traditional Our Father must be used now. The one that has been used in recent years may still be used for any other time of prayer, but not in the Mass.

Source:

• Archbishop Dew's Newsletter
• Image: Food for Thought

This was the Novus Ordo - the new rite of the Mass. It incorporated features called for by the Council, including dialogue, the penitential rite, the prayer of the faithful, much more Scripture, and new Eucharistic prayers.

It kept the Pater Noster exactly as it was prayed before the Council. This became available in English translation in 1973.

That English translation has been revised and in 2011 we have begun praying a new translation of the Mass of Paul VI. One thing which will be the same in both translations is the text of the Our Father.

Ironically, since 1984 most New Zealand Catholics have been praying a more modern translation of that prayer.

The translators of the 1970s made a brave decision with respect to the Pater Noster. They did not introduce a new translation but chose to use the form of the Lord's Prayer that the Anglicans were praying throughout the English-speaking world.

Anglicans had been praying the Our Father in English since the Book of Common Prayer came out in 1662 with its text very close to that found in the Gospel of Matthew in the King James Bible (1611). In 1928, in a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer, they had modernised the text slightly ("which" in the first line became "who"; "in earth" became "on earth"; "them that trespass" became "those who trespass").

Anglicans also prayed a doxology at the end of the prayer, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever." This reflects very early liturgical practice. It appears in some ancient manuscript variations of the Gospel of Matthew and a similar doxology is attached to our other ancient witness to the Our Father, the second century text The Didache.

The Mass of Paul VI included this doxology, but separates it from the end of the Our Father by another prayer.

This prayer is called "the Embolism" and is an expansion of "deliver us from evil" influenced by Titus 2:13 "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus". This influence is seen more clearly in the newer translation.

So, for a time, English-speaking Christians prayed the prayer that Jesus taught in the same words, though the Catholics did not usually join in the doxology. In the decades since this ecumenical unity has broken down.

English has changed since 1661, the word 'trespass' has acquired a different sense from its then equivalence to 'sin'.

"Lead us not into temptation" does sound as if God is actively tempting us, rather than merely permitting it.

Different church communities introduced new translations of the Our Father.

In the 1980s an ecumenical group now called the English Language Liturgical Consultation offered to the Christian churches a modern English translation of the Lord's Prayer. This is the one that the New Zealand Catholic Dioceses, except Christchurch, permitted and encouraged in the Mass. This is what most NZ Catholics call 'the new Our Father'.

The hope of the ecumenical group was that this form of the prayer would be accepted world wide.

Their hope has not, so far, been fulfilled.

Many places are using the modern translation but it has not supplanted the traditional forms; it has not 'swept the field', and instead of restoring unity it has effectively added to the diversity.

The five New Zealand dioceses were almost alone in the Catholic Church in introducing the new Our Father. The vast majority of the English-speaking Christian world pray the 'old Our Father' - it is still the most successful ecumenical text.

This may be why the Congregation for Divine Worship did not accept the New Zealand Bishops' request that the new Our Father be part of the New Zealand Missal.

So, among all the new translations we will be hearing and praying in Advent of this year there is going to be one text that is far from new, and to be honest, is not a great translation. Its strength is its long history, its popularity and its familiarity to many Christians throughout the world.

Sources

• Marist Messenger (used with permission)

The ICET text of the Our Father (what people refer to as the "new" Our Father) was not among the texts given recognition for the Missal. This means that all English-speaking countries will now use the same text of the Our Father. The ICET text will still be able to be used in private prayer and devotions outside of Mass, e.g. in the Rosary. Archbishop Dew said, "We have made strong appeals to Rome for the permission to use the text we have become used to, and we will continue to plead for it."

" This will be disappointing to many. However I think we must acknowledge that the people's parts have already been accepted and people are praying them well, although there are still a few words and phrases which are uncomfortable and are taking some getting used to," he said

Source:

• Archbishop Dew's Newsletter
• Image: Pray Tell