Why Do Anglicans Pray for the Dead?
For those new to the Anglican tradition, it may surprise you that the Book of Common Prayer, in all of its major editions, offers prayers for those who have died in the Christian faith. We don’t just pray for those who mourn but for the departed themselves. We see these prayers for the dead in the Ministry to the Dying, Prayers for a Vigil, and the Burial of the Dead. The burial service includes many such prayers, including this one from the burial rite:
Almighty God, grant us, with all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, the fullness of life in your eternal and ever-lasting glory, and, with all your saints, to receive the crown of life promised to all who share in the victory of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The practice may seem strange if you grew up in a Christian tradition that did not pray for the departed. What do these prayers accomplish, after all? Aren’t they already with God? Anglicans do not believe in purgatory! Similarly, if you grew up within the Anglican tradition, you may have prayed for the dead your entire life without knowing why. In fact, the latter is more common in my experience than the former. So, why do we do it?
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Why Pray for the Dead?
Why are there so many prayers for the departed in the Book of Common Prayer? Like most questions posed in theology, the answer is multifaceted. However, here are some basic reasons why Christians have always prayed for those who have gone to be with God.
You Already Pray for the Dead!
First and foremost, you already pray for the departed. Believe it or not, no matter what Christian Tradition you have come from, you have prayed for the departed and likely done it your entire life. Think for a moment: what is the most common Christian prayer? “Our Father, who art in heaven…”—what does this prayer contain? Well, we pray for God’s name to be hallowed, for our daily bread, for our sins, and for God’s kingdom to come.
This last petition is significant. Why? Well, because the heralding of God’s kingdom affects the souls of the departed just as much as it affects you or me. The same is true when we pray “Maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22) or “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20). The coming of our blessed Lord is a universal event that has a direct impact on the living and the dead alike.
The coming of our Lord is monumental for both the Saints in glory and the Saints on earth. You see, some prayers are so universal that they touch both the earthly and the departed. In fact, St. Paul seems to indicate that the coming of our Lord is more significant to those who have died than to the living when he writes:
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
1 Thessalonians 4:15
This passage implies a certain deference to those who have already passed. So then, when we pray for the coming of that great day, we are in some sense praying for the departed more than the living as they will precede us—they will experience the benefit of our prayers before we do. Whether or not we intend to, whenever we pray these things, we also pray directly for our departed brothers and sisters just as much as—if not more than—we are praying for ourselves. When we pray for the departed from the Prayer Book, we are only making explicit what all Christians already pray implicitly.
The Dead Pray for Themselves
Secondly, the Faithful Departed pray for themselves. St. John records in his Revelation:
I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Revelation 6:9-10
The souls of the righteous martyrs cry out for vengeance before Almighty God. Holy Scripture reminds us in several places that the blood of Abel still speaks. He and all of the faithful slain “of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:38) are crying out to God and making petitions before him from under his throne. So we see clearly that the Saints in glory are praying. These prayers, too, are not merely doxological praises sung to God, but they are praying for themselves. If the Saints can pray for themselves, we can surely pray for them, too. We simply join them in the petitions they are already making on their own behalf.
Even St. Paul Prays for the Dead
A third minor point is that it appears that St. Paul prays for the dead explicitly in his Second Epistle to St. Timothy. St. Paul prays for his friend Onesiphorus: “[M]ay the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!” (2 Timothy 1:18). It is quite likely that Onesiphorus is dead in this passage and St. Paul is commending his soul to Almighty God. This reading of the text may surprise some, but this is not a particularly “Catholic” reading, but quite at home within classical Protestantism. In fact, the great Presbyterian Theologian Philip Schaff writes confidently: “[T]his would, of course, be a prayer for the dead.”
Now, this text does not explicitly tell us whether or not Onesiphorus is dead, but it does seem to imply it. When this is taken with the fact that, at the time, it was common to pray for the departed within the Synagogue, it becomes quite likely that this is precisely what St. Paul is doing: praying for his beloved friend who had gone to be with the Lord.
What Do Prayers for the Dead Do?
Hopefully, These brief explanations will demonstrate ample Biblical evidence for praying for the departed. It is not merely a sentimental practice to achieve a sense of catharsis amidst our grieving. It is founded upon certain beliefs that Christians have held for quite a long time. That said, I also recognize that I haven’t explained what our prayers are accomplishing. The question I get most about our prayers is, “What do they do?”
I understand the sentiment and empathize. We are twenty-first-century people, and it is hard not to think about cause and effect. I’ll say that we have a deficient view of prayer. In our daily experiences, we most often find ourselves crying out to God by way of deficiency. What I mean is that when I sin, hurt, or lack, I pray for myself. We are accustomed to praying when the need arises, not for much else. For us, progress in the Christian life is from sin to holiness. But what if this is not the only kind of progress there is? What if one can leap “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
An Imperfect Bliss
However, the scriptures have told us of another kind of progress: a journey from good to good, from God to God. This was true of our first parents in the Garden of Eden. They were not crushed under the weight of sin, but they were imperfect. There was still much for them to accomplish and new heights to achieve. They had not fulfilled their divine mandate, after all. For them, their progress was to go from good to better and to someday eat from the tree of life.
Similarly, we may think of the saints in bliss, but it is an imperfect bliss as they await the final consummation of the last Great Day. They are with the Lord, but they are not yet like the Lord. They are still awaiting the recreation of all things and glory of their incorruptible bodies. While they await that day—while they journey—we may and ought to pray for them.
Photo by Jacob Amson on Unsplash. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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