Lord, teach us to pray!

In previous contributions to this site I have mentioned my spiritual heritage in Northern Ireland, an interesting mix of Presbyterian and Pentecostal. My experience of public prayer was that of mainly extemporary prayer, (as far as I was aware), some sober and reverent and some exuberant and unrestrained. It really wasn`t until I came to England to train for the ministry in an ecumenical setting at Luther King House Manchester, that I discovered liturgical worship and printed prayers. I must say that I am eternally grateful that I did!

Living, studying and worshipping together on a daily basis meant that we became aware of each other`s patterns of prayer and they told a lot about where the other person was coming from theologically. It was easy to spot who was who by the way in which they led or contributed to, public prayer. The evangelicals and charismatics had their “theological tics,” a form of spiritual Tourette’s if you will. The main symptoms included that obligatory tooth sucking noise, a sort of “tsk” sound, which if interspersed throughout the prayer, seemed to denote extra piety for some reason which I`ve never yet been able to understand. But the most annoying habit, to many of us, was the equally mystifying use of the phrase “We just…” or even worse, “We just wanna….” Apparently, God doesn`t like grammar. There is an updated version these days, which goes, “We just wanna pray into (as distinct from about) this situation….” God apparently still doesn’t like grammar!

So, how to spot the more mainstream/liberal prayers? Back in the day, they could easily be spotted by their use of inclusive language, a concept I admit I still have some lingering difficulties with. One didn`t just include “sisters” as well as “brothers” in one`s prayers; if you wanted to be really “right on,” you actually reversed the normal alphabetical order and spoke of “sisters and brothers,” a form of grammatical positive discrimination!

“Father” and even “Lord” were on the banned list because they were sexist. These days, this now stretches to include the well-known biblical phrase “the kingdom of God.” I remember once sitting in a URC service in Cardiff musing over the repeated use of “God`s righteousness realm” before I realised it was a politically correct substitute for “the kingdom of God.”

So, where am I going with all this?

Well, I think that I am bemoaning the weaponisation of prayer, public prayer in particular, in yet another culture war within the Church.

I`m asking all of us who lead worship and especially public prayer, to think long and hard before we slip into the comfortable “group speak” of our own particular theological camps. Not everyone will find your favourite cliches either helpful or meaningful.

Let`s not assume that someone who reads a prayer which someone else has written, is somehow not “praying from the heart” or that someone who prays extempore is not “praying with the understanding.”

“Lord, teach us to pray!”

Alan Kennedy