Words like “peace” and “mercy” are vital to talking about Christianity. They’re just two of many English words difficult to translate smoothly as an evolving Episcopal congregation tries to create a Hmong version of the denomination’s Book of Common Prayer.
“Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. You can see it is important,” said Cher Lor, a member of the congregation at Holy Apostles, an Episcopal church in St. Paul that is the only Hmong-majority congregation across the entire denomination. “But the word mercy itself, we don’t have in Hmong. So we are using ‘hulb,’ which is a concept something like love. We believe that is the closest.”
The Book of Common Prayer is the foundational text of the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its roots trace to the Church of England’s split from Roman Catholicism in the 16th century, and ever since it has dictated morning and evening prayers, the rites of Holy Communion, baptism, marriage and funeral services, and much more. It typically runs to about 1,000 pages.