Let us pray

In Competition No. 3025 you were invited to submit a Lord’s Prayer for the 21st century.
 
One of my favourites, among the many parodies of the Lord’s Prayer already out there, is Ian Dury’s ‘Bus Driver’s Prayer’: ‘Our father,/ who art in Hendon/ Harrow Road be Thy name./ Thy Kingston come; thy Wimbledon…’.
 
The challenge drew a smallish but pleasingly varied entry. Bill Greenwell’s ‘The Refugees’ Prayer’ started strongly — ‘Half-hearted, we chant/ in haven, harrowed by the numb;/ deny kin can come,/ deny well, be dumb…’ — but then puzzled in parts. A.H. Harker, Alan Millard, Paul Carpenter, David Silverman and Meg Muldowney were also strong contenders.
 
The winners, printed below, are awarded £25 each.
 

Our Dawkins, who art in Oxford,
Followed be thy meme.
Let religious apologists come,
You’ll tear them a new one
In Fort Worth, Mombasa or in Devon.
Give us this day our daily facts
And forgive those who criticise our best guesses,
As if an as yet incomplete explanation of the laws governing the physical universe somehow represents a damning indictment of the scientific method.