'Oh God': the official World Cup pithy prayer issued by Church of England

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/13/world-cup-oh-god-pithy-prayer-church-of-england

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"Oh God." Those two words now make up the official prayer for the England football team in the World Cup. The Church of England has issued a set of five prayers for the occasion, all written by the bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines. None is more than a paragraph long, but "Oh God" is the shortest of them and is likely to be the most popular.

Others include a prayer for the use of people who can't stand football: "Lord, as all around are gripped with World Cup fever, bless us with understanding, strengthen us with patience and grant us the gift of sympathy if needed. Amen."

Baines does not actually believe these prayers will help England win the World Cup: "We constantly overrate, over-hype and over-anticipate England performance and then indulge in a collective intemperate bloodletting against team and manager when they fail to deliver on the big stage," he said.

But he does believe that the enthusiasm around the tournament is worth celebrating in itself. As a passionate supporter of Liverpool, he knows how football fans feel and how the terraces talk.

His "Oh God" prayer was actually written after the England team failed in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but is likely to be useful in all future tournaments as well.

He said that the World Cup was not the most urgent thing going on in the world today – citing Nigeria, Iraq and Sudan as places that needed prayers more urgently.

Baines has also included a more conventional prayer: "God, who played the cosmos into being, please help England rediscover their legs, their eyes and their hunger: that they might run more clearly, pass more nearly and enjoy the game more dearly. Amen."

But it is expected that fans will continue to use the shorter version, perhaps varying "Oh God" with other exhortations, using words more common on the terraces than at the pews.