Inspired to learn a new way to pray? Looking for a tool to create your own rich, multicultural peace-with-prayer event? Then look no further!
Your smorgasbord is prepared, and your place at the table awaits. Enjoy morsels from every continent, even American Sign Language. Browse detailed notes on the prayer. Eat and be filled! For dessert, enjoy sweet songs based on the prayer. Enjoy txt-msg, morse code, and Klingon versions as icing on the cake, just for fun. Yes, this time you can eat your cake and have it. Makes a great gift, too!
Background
The project seeks to offer aesthetically pleasing, culturally sensitive versions of The Lord’s Prayer in as many languages as possible, and all the tools necessary for others to create rich, meaningful, multicultural Lord’s Prayer experiences on their own.
Traveling beyond the obvious differences in languages and voices, we find each person lifting up the same prayer. Then, the interwoven voices are joined by a gospel choir. The Voices Home project invites everyone to look beneath the skin-deep differences and move beyond language barriers to find the common humanity and hope for a better world. We hope you’ll agree that beneath all our different languages and exteriors are similar searches, and that the work of realizing the dreams of a better tomorrow begins by expanding our outlook to see our shared humanity today.
Sneak Peek
How This Project Emerged
It started innocently enough, as an embellishment for a song – “Voices Home.” The song, entitled Voices Home, was one cut from the Commodore Callahan album, Love is Here, which we subsequently released and is still available for purchase [visit our store]. The idea was that a blend of voices speaking different languages but the same prayer (The Lord’s Prayer) would start a song based on that same prayer. Then, as James Earl “Jimmy” Carter’s 85th birthday approached, the idea took hold to create a website in anticipation and celebration, dedicated to the work of the Carter Center “Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.” Then, we had an epiphany: why not create videos from each version? And so, we did! We took that simple site and brought it under the auspices of NHM Ministrants, www.ministrants.com, and hosted all the videos on the NHM Ministrants’ YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/nonharming, swiftly garnering hundreds of thousands of viewings. Meanwhile, we continued to gather audio versions, and create new video releases.
Key Ingredient: Partnership
Our thanks to all of the voices who continue to take part in this project – interns of The Carter Center, our own team members, and other friends and supporters, far and near. Our thanks to you, our visitors, for all you do as a voice for peace in the world.
Feedback So Far
- Beautiful… it touches my heart to hear recited so beautifully, to pick out words that I recognize even in other languages, and the music and visuals are lovely! – Pastor JM
- I really thank your ministry in blessing all of us the ability to understand and hear the Lord’s Prayer in many languages.-
