Lords Prayer read in Urdu at Canterbury

CANTERBURY Cathedral’s Easter Sunday services saw the Lord’s Prayer read in Urdu and Swahili to reflect the “very international” congregation.

At the 10am service shown on the BBC, The Very Rev Dr David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, invited each member of the congregation to say the Lord’s Prayer in their own language, while it was led in Urdu on the microphone by a member from Pakistan. The subtitles on screen were in English.

At an earlier service, aired on Radio 4, the prayer was led in Swahili.

The Dean said: “We invite congregations to say the Lord’s Prayer in their own first language at most of our communion services.

“We are aware that our congregations are very international and reflect the worldwide Anglican Communion... This practice happens in many church services today along with music and songs in different languages too.”

It is not known if this is the first time that the Easter Sunday service at Canterbury Cathedral read the Lord’s Prayer in a language other than England. The BBC, which has long broadcasted the service, said it was not an editorial decision made by the BBC.

The prayer derives from when Jesus’s disciples asked him how they should pray and begins: “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name.”

Revd Wendy Dalrymple, head of worship and events at Canterbury Cathedral, said: “As a place of worship where people visit from all over the world, every Sunday we invite the congregation to pray in whichever language is their own.

“On special occasions we ask someone to lead this from the microphone.”

Shortly after the Lord’s Prayer was said, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, used his Easter sermon at the cathedral to condemn “the evil of people smugglers” in the wake of a row over the Clapham chemical attacker being granted asylum.