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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: On Earth, as It Is in Heaven

The Essay: On Earth, as It Is in Heaven: Episode 1: Art in Heaven

Religion & Ethics

On Earth, as It Is in Heaven

Episode 1

Episode 1: Art in Heaven

Art in Heaven

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, On Earth, as It Is in Heaven, Art in HeavenClose menu

Author Ali Smith discusses the first lines of the Lord's Prayer.

Author Ali Smith discusses the first lines of the Lord's Prayer: 'Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name'.

Author Ali Smith begins this series of essays on the Lord's Prayer. She focuses on the first lines, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name".

Five brilliant voices essay on different sections of the Lord's Prayer for our time. Author Ali Smith, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies Mona Siddiqui, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch and poet and author Andrew Motion examine each thought with a modern day searchlight, bringing theological knowledge, personal memory, poetic insight and imagination to an understanding of this prayer, murmured by millions every day. 

In all it's not even sixty words long and, as it appears in the Gospel according to Matthew, it's introduced by Jesus as a 'how to pray' guide: 'This then, is how you should pray". Today it's bound with the need to express our longing for a better world and something we all share, but what do these short lines mean and how do they help?


Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Producer, Kate Bland.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Series of essays exploring parts of the Lord's Prayer

Series exploring parts of the Lord's Prayer. Five people examine each thought from a modern-day perspective, bringing theological knowledge, personal memory and poetic insight and imagination

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On Earth, as It Is in Heaven

Episode 1: Art in Heaven

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