Why We Pray for the Dead

All Saints’ Day, which we’ll celebrate this Sunday, emerged fairly early in the history of the church as a day set aside to remember those faithful believers throughout time and space who have set a godly witness of Christian life that we might emulate. For this reason All Saints’ Day is one of the four days during the year on which we do baptisms – the others are Easter, Pentecost, and the first Sunday after the Epiphany, on which day we celebrate the baptism of Jesus. One of the main themes of the Feast of All Saints’ is, as we say in the creed, “the communion of saints,” which is the mystical connection that all Christians share with each other throughout time and space.

This brings me to an issue that many who visit our church, or even longtime members, often raise with either curiosity or alarm: praying for the dead. Why, in the course of our liturgy each week, do we pray for the dead?

Unfortunately, a tradition developed over time that associated praying for the dead with the doctrine of purgatory. The Anglican Reformers, along with the Reformers on the continent, rejected the doctrine of purgatory along with several other popular devotional practices of medieval Roman Catholicism. Article 22 of the 39 Articles (the “confessional” statement of the 16th century Church of England), states: “The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.”

This seemed to rule out praying for the dead, because in popular practice praying for the dead was connected to setting them free from purgatory. However, this is not necessarily true. N.T. Wright, in his book Surprised by Hope, writes this:

“Since both the departed saints and we ourselves are in Christ, we share with them in the ‘communion of saints.’ They are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we celebrate the Eucharist they are there with us, along with the angels and archangels. Why then should we not pray for and with them? The reason the Reformers and their successors did their best to outlaw praying for the dead was because that had been so bound up with the notion of purgatory and the need to get people out of it as soon as possible. Once we rule out purgatory, I see no reason why we should not pray for and with the dead and every reason why we should – not that they will get out of purgatory but that they will be refreshed and filled with God’s joy and peace. Love passes into prayer; we still love them; why not hold them, in that love, before God?”

Thus, praying for the dead becomes acknowledgement of the communion of saints, and an act of love toward those who have passed through the veil of death into the presence of God.