Praying for the Church (3)
Vol. 57 No. 32 | Fifth Sunday after Trinity | July 5, 2026
How Christ Builds the Church
The Prayer for the Church asks first for the church as a whole, its unity in truth and love, and then for the rulers of society. But then in the third petition it turns to the outward means by which the church’s work is done: “Give grace, O heavenly Father, to all Bishops and other Ministers; that they may, both by their life and doctrine, set forth thy true and lively Word, and rightly and duly administer thy holy Sacraments.” This is not just a prayer for the clergy but a prayer for Christ’s own ministry in his Church. The focus falls not on the ministers themselves but on the two gifts through which the risen Lord continues to gather and sustain his people: his Word and his Sacraments.
The Prayer Book calls the gospel God’s “true and lively Word.” It is not fictive, not imagined, not deceptive or delusionary, but true, and therefore worthy of trust in all that it teaches of God and his purpose in the world. Moreover, this word is “lively”, which means, about “living” and “life-giving”. By it, Christ, who is our Life, truly offers eternal life to as many as put their trust in his true word. To put our trust in his word of promise is not to believe in vain, because his Word accomplishes what it proclaims. That’s why the apostles repeatedly warn against “another gospel,” a message clothed in Christian language but emptied of Christian substance – not a true word, but a ruinous deceit. Every generation is tempted to reshape the faith according to its own tastes or anxieties. The Church’s calling is not to invent a message but to receive it faithfully and hand it on.
The ministry of the Sacraments belongs alongside the ministry of the Word. Together they give the Church its distinctive, Christ-centered identity. The Word makes the gospel audible; the Sacraments make it visible and tangible. In both, Christ himself is the giver. The Sacraments are therefore not merely object lessons or symbolic ceremonies. They are effectual signs through which the promises of the gospel are personally communicated and corporately enacted. In Baptism, individuals are united to Christ and made living members of his Body. In Holy Communion, we receive the Body and Blood of Christ as individuals, and in so doing are knit more deeply into the fellowship of that same Body which is the Church. Thus, the grace of Christ comes to each believer personally, yet never privately. We are not simply forgiven as isolated individuals but incorporated into a communion. It is no accident that the Reformers identified the faithful preaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments as the principal marks by which the Church is known. Wherever Christ’s gospel is proclaimed and his Sacraments administered according to his institution, there Christ is present, creating and sustaining his people.
Along with the word and sacraments, the prayer invites us to pray for those through whom these gifts are ordinarily given: “all Bishops and other Ministers.”, those whom have received authority as shepherds of God’s flock. The ministry exists for the sake of the Word and Sacraments, not the other way round. Ministers possess no authority independent of the message they proclaim or the mysteries they administer. The Prayer asks that they may set forth God’s Word “both by their life and doctrine.” The pairing is indispensable. A holy life cannot compensate for false teaching, nor can sound teaching excuse an unholy life. Yet the Church’s confidence does not finally rest on the personal qualities of its ministers. The preacher remains a sinner who proclaims a gospel greater than himself. The priest administers Sacraments that belong not to him but to Christ. Their office is fundamentally one of stewardship. They receive what they did not invent and hand on what they cannot improve.
For that reason, the ordained ministry is both exalted and humbled. It is exalted because Christ has chosen to use human voices and human hands in communicating divine life. It is humbled because those voices and hands are only instruments. The minister disappears into the ministry. Like John the Baptist, he must say, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
The Prayer for the Church, therefore, offers a profoundly Christ-centered vision of ecclesial life. It does not define the Church by its buildings, programmes, budgets, influence, or even its ministers. It defines the Church by the presence and action of Christ himself. He speaks through his true and lively Word. He gives himself in his holy Sacraments. In praying for bishops and ministers, then, we are really praying that nothing may obscure the living ministry of Christ in his Church, and that through Word and Sacrament he may continue to gather the nations into his Body until all things are brought to their perfection in him.
(Continued next week)