Star-Tribune: For Hmong, a book of prayer of their own

It’s a story that loses a lot in translation: Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul is working on a Hmong version of the Book of Common Prayer. This simple-sounding endeavor goes far beyond just replacing one word with another.

It’s a story about a church that was in danger of dying joining forces with a culture that was worried about the same thing. It’s a story about finding just the right words in a language that didn’t even exist in written form until the 1950s. It’s a story about a book from a St. Paul neighborhood that will spread around the world.

Five years in the making, the first Hmong translation of the most important book in the …[Episcopal] service might be completed by fall.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, Episcopal Church (TEC), Parish Ministry, TEC Parishes, Theology, Theology: Scripture

5 comments on “Star-Tribune: For Hmong, a book of prayer of their own

  1. A Senior Priest says:

    Oh, good. Now the real (as distinct from the teensy Potemkin) Diocese of San Joaquin can minister to the Hmong within their borders (where along with Minneapolis-St Paul are where most Hmong in the USA are found).

  2. azusa says:

    This is Hmongous news. 🙂

  3. Br. Michael says:

    All translation is treason!

  4. A Senior Priest says:

    Br M- like the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said, “Innovation leads to deviation, deviation leads to error, error leads to sin, and sin leads to hellfire.” Or something like that. Actually, I’ve used that saying in the context of the dreaded Filioque more than once.

  5. Doug Martin says:

    There are a surprising (to me) number in the Carolinas, 20,000 or so. Maybe there is a mission out there.