Children 'should learn Lord's Prayer', says Archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury says he believes that children should be taught the Lord's Prayer in schools.

Dr Rowan Williams says he's worried by news that half as many children know the prayer compared with 40 years ago.

He said: "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.

"Then they may make up their minds about whether they use it."

To mark 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.

The results suggest that children today are twice as likely to say that religion is important to them compared with 40 years ago - but they are now half as likely to know the text of the Lord's Prayer.

Speaking to Newsround, Dr Williams said: "The Lord's Prayer isn't a very big or complicated thing.

"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."