When you are next in a good bookshop take yourself off to the section on Christianity and look for the prayer books. Amongst the others you might find - The New Zealand Prayer Book.

In the late 1980s it was completed as the Anglican prayer book for the province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Holding closely to the Book of Common Prayer, it still managed to include Maori texts in an integrated way that has been confirmed by its continued popularity throughout the world-wide Anglican communion.

Just to give you a taster here is:

A version of The Lord’s Prayer
from The New Zealand Prayer Book

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever. Amen.


Rather lovely, isn't it? You might want to print it off and use it in your prayer times occasionally.

10 comments

  1. Anonymous  

    23 May 2009 at 00:52

    Wow I really like that version!! I wrote a version a couple of years ago for the Methodist Conference and I have read so many...it is such a popwerful prayer and the most important thing is the original meaning....it can be interpreted in so many ways to include and express...but the message is the same.
    Thanks Kath

    Col x

  2. Teresa @ Grammy Girlfriend  

    23 May 2009 at 07:24

    I have enjoyed reading your blog.
    I am new to the blog world, but have seen the miracle of the blogging community and prayer in the last two days. Hope you will stop by my blog and pray for little Maggie.

  3. Kath Williamson  

    29 May 2009 at 23:04

    Will pray indeed for Maggie, Teresa.

  4. zaK  

    27 March 2011 at 23:03

    Wow! That's beautiful. Do you know who translated it or how they came to this unique understanding of Pater Noster? I know that the New Zealand prayer book gives voice to Maori faith and integrates it into the Christian.

  5. Anonymous  

    15 November 2011 at 14:18

    I have been using the New Zealand Prayer Book for several years for daily prayer. This version of the Lord's Prayer is so very meaningful to me, it makes my heart full. I am brought to tears when I say, "Loving God, in whom is heaven."

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    19 August 2012 at 19:10

    Hi. I use blogger but go into the html and change it to suit myself. I think I picked up to template html from the Web but its a long time ago now!

  8. Unknown  

    3 May 2014 at 02:19

    I am sure the intentions were good but do you think we really need to "interpret" in "modern" language the prayer which Jesus taught us or are you saying that Jesus was just a wee bit "dated" and needed revision so as to make his prayer relevant to modern ears?
    Interpretation is one thing but it is not accurate or perhaps honest to call this "The Lord's Prayer"!

  9. Kath Williamson  

    5 May 2014 at 10:50

    Gerales, I do not think that we 'need' to interpret the Lord's Prayer, but the Holy Spirit often leads us in our prayer life and God can use texts other than just academic translations of our scriptures.
    The testimony of many people thoughout the world (in other places on the internet) and the testimony of the few here on this blog is that this version of the Lord's Prayer has been helpful in prayer to them.
    As regards calling it the Lord's Prayer, the NZ Prayer Book calls it a 'version' of the Lord's Prayer, which I personally believe is a fair description. As regards the title of my blog entry, you will just have to accept that I have used poetic license.
    Regards, Kath

  10. Anonymous  

    15 May 2016 at 01:28

    Greetings: I happened upon this long-running but sporadic conversation while looking for something related, and was intrigued.

    The prayer in question is both lovely and provocative, expressing the feelings of many and beloved of many. Lovely as it is, however, I believe it is not a text that can be accurately described as a translation or version of the Lord's Prayer.

    Although commonly cited on the internet as "The New Zealand Lord's Prayer" this text is nowhere, to my knowledge, represented as such in "A New Zealand Prayer Book," nor do I find any reference in ANZPB to this prayer as a "version" of The Lord's Prayer. If that attribution exists and I have missed it, I would appreciate a page citation so that I may review it.

    To the best of my knowledge, this prayer appears in just one place in ANZPB, that being the Night Prayer liturgy (pp. 180-181), where the rubric allows its use as an "alternative" to the Lord's Prayer. The rubric does not imply that it is an equivalent version, but simply that in this one context, this prayer may be used in place of The Lord's Prayer.

    This unnamed "alternative" to The Lord's Prayer is not intended to be substituted for an actual translation of The Lord's Prayer in the liturgies of the Eucharist, or indeed in any of the other ANZPB liturgies other than Night Prayer.

    The only text actually referred to as "The Lord's Prayer" that I find anywhere in ANZPB is the contemporary English translation of the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), published in "Praying Together" (1988):

    http://englishtexts.org/Portals/11/Assets/praying.pdf

    Ironically, the "alternative" prayer does not even originate in New Zealand. It is adapted from a text by the late Rev. Jim Cotter of the C of E. See Bosco Peters' tribute, and Cotter's original text, here:

    http://liturgy.co.nz/god-our-love-maker

    The alternative prayer in the Night Prayer liturgy is a very free elaboration and paraphrase that might more accurately be said to be "inspired by" the Lord's Prayer. Its use of new language and images can provide fresh insights in a devotional context. It may well be what the Spirit of Christ was saying to Jim Cotter, and Cotter's text has undoubtedly spoken to many others on a deep spiritual level.

    But the text known as "The Lord's Prayer" is a specific thing: a translation of the prayer of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in (primarily) Matthew's Gospel. This is manifestly not that, and ANZPB does not call it that, so it seems to me that the rest of us should not call it that, either.

    Wishing you blessings on your journey,

    The Rev. Doug Simonsen
    www.saintdavidsepiscopal.org