Liturgy Lesson for Independence Day: Invoking God in the Affairs of the Country

July 3, 2011

Why does the Church offer prayer for the nation and its leaders? To teach her people the duty of loyalty and submission to civil rulers and to secure peace and righteous government. (Read 1 St. Timothy 2:2). Our liturgy employs prayers for our government in several places. In today’s Holy Communion we celebrate our Nation’s birth with the propers (Collect, Epistle, and Gospel) especially composed to render the Eucharist, or Great Thanksgiving, with the intention of thanking our Heavenly Father for our free land and His blessings on it, while at the same time calling down further blessings from Him for our country. In the Prayer Offices, we pray the Prayer for the President and Civil Authority, derived from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, a 4th Century rendering of the Holy Communion service. In it, we ask for Godly leadership, inspired by the Gifts of the Spirit exercised in obedience to God. In other places, we pray for Congress, the military, legislatures, justices, and our Country in general. We also pray for fruitful seasons, rains, relief from rain, safety in calamity, education, and Christian service. And, of course, we also thank God for His provision and Grace to our land. Clearly the Church, along with the Founding Fathers (mostly Anglican) intended us to invoke God into the affairs of our Country. May we continue in their footsteps…may God bless and revive America!