Lord’s Prayer in pidgin adorns monastery

By PRISCA PANO, of the Holy Trinity Parish, Vanimo
THE Church of the Pater Noster (“Our Father”) is a Roman Catholic church located on one of the summits of Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
It is part of a Carmelite monastery. By current Christian tradition, it is the site where Jesus taught his disciples “The Lord’s Prayer”.
The site of the church is over a fourth century Basilica that commemorated the ascension of Jesus. The original church was destroyed in the Persian invasion in 614 CE, and then it was rebuilt by the Crusaders.
The Crusaders church was also destroyed, and by 1345 it was abandoned. The current church began to be built in 1915, but it was never completed. Nevertheless, the site attracts many pilgrims, venerating the place and the message of the Lord’s prayer.
On walls around the church and its vaulted cloister, translations of the Lord’s Prayer in 140 languages are inscribed on colourful ceramic plaques.
In July 2019, the Holy Trinity parish of Vanimo, attended by the Fathers of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE Fathers), organized a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome.
Upon arriving at the church, they were surprised not to find the Lord’s Prayer in Tok Pisin.
“How can it be possible that the Lord’s Prayer in Tok Pisin has not been placed on the walls of this church?
“Papua New Guineans are Christians, and pray this prayer daily. We must do something,” they said to themselves.
A few weeks later, the IVE padres began talks with the church officials to consider the possibility of adding the Lord’s Prayer in Tok Pisin to the church.
In 2020, an agreement could have been reached, but the Coronavirus stopped everything.
Only last year, we received the news that, finally, the Lord’s Prayer in Tok Pisin is located on one of the walls of the church.
In this way, we have brought a little piece of Papua New Guinea to the same land on which our adorable Redeemer walked, died and rose again.