Praying for the Church (1)
Vol. 57 No. 30 | Third Sunday after Trinity | June 21, 2026
Praying Our Mission
A mission statement says what an organization exists to do, what it hopes to become, and what principles guide its life. In the Prayer for the “whole state of Christ’s Church” in the service of Holy Communion, we have a mission statement in the form of prayer, one that engages the will as well as the intellect. In praying it we commit ourselves to the Mission that Christ has given his Church.
We may gain a sense of this Prayer’s significance by its place in the service—by which comes before, and what comes after. It comes at the end of the ministry of the Word. The faith is proclaimed and confessed; but “faith without works is dead”; it is fruitful in works of charity, such as the offering of alms and oblations. While our alms can reach only a few of our neighbours, our prayers may embrace the whole Church throughout the world. In prayer, Christian charity extends beyond the limits of our resources and places all things in the hands of God.
What comes after is the Ministry of the Sacrament—the Sacrament not only of Christ’s Body given for us upon the Cross, but also the Sacrament of Christ’s Body the Church, the Body of believers redeemed by his sacrifice. The Apostle Paul writes, “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” Before we receive the Body of Christ sacramentally, we pray for the Body of Christ ecclesially.
First and foremost, we pray God would “inspire continually the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord: And grant that all those who do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity and godly love.” Notice we do not jump immediately to human organizations and institutional structures. What we are praying for is a spiritual communion united in truth and love – not one or the other, but both equally.
This idea of a unity of truth and love is increasingly difficult for modern people to grasp. We often imagine that truth divides while love unites, and therefore that unity requires us to soften or set aside truth claims. The Prayer Book assumes precisely the opposite. Behind this assumption lies something even deeper: the missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit that shape the Church. The Son is the eternal Word, the Truth through whom the Father makes himself known. The Spirit is the one who pours the love of God into our hearts, the giver of fellowship, the bond of peace, the one who gathers believers into one Body. The Spirit does not unite us apart from the truth revealed by Christ. Nor does Christ reveal the truth merely that individuals may possess correct ideas. The Word is given that we may be gathered into fellowship, and the Spirit is given that we may share together in the life revealed by the Word.
The order of the Prayer, therefore, mirrors the order of God’s own saving work. First comes the truth of God’s Word. Then comes unity in that truth. Finally comes the godly love, which is the perfection of unity. The pattern is Christ and the Spirit, revelation and communion, truth and love. For this reason, the Church cannot choose between truth and love, as though one were more important than the other. It must hold both together, first truth and then love. Christian love is not the suspension of truth; it is the form that truth takes when it has fully accomplished its work among us. A merely sentimental unity, detached from truth, cannot endure. Nor can a merely intellectual truth, detached from love, accomplish its purpose. Both are needed.
This concern for unity in truth and love arises naturally from the Sacrament for which the prayer prepares us. The Body of Christ is not only the body born of the Virgin Mary, offered upon the Cross, raised from the dead, and exalted into heaven. It is also the Church itself – not merely an organization but a living communion created by union with Christ. For this reason, the Sacrament has always been understood to symbolize not only the Body Christ gave for us on the cross, but the unity of believers in his Body, the Church. St. Augustine pointed out that bread is made from many grains gathered into one loaf, and wine from many grapes gathered into one cup. The elements themselves signify the gathering together of many persons into one Body. Augustine, therefore, exhorted Christians: “Be what you see, and receive what you are.” In receiving the Body of Christ, we learn that we ourselves are members of Christ’s Body. What the Sacrament signifies, the Church is called to become.
That is why the Prayer for the Church begins where it does. Before we pray for rulers, ministers, congregations, the afflicted, or the departed, we pray for the Church as a whole. Before all else, we ask God to make us what we are meant to be: a people gathered by the truth of his Word, harmoniously united by the fellowship of his Spirit, and perfected in godly love. This is the first priority of our mission as a church, and as individual Christians.
(Continued next week.)