praying for the dead?

[FireDragon76]

Do Lutherans ever pray for the dead, individually or together?

Recently my wife learned that a friend of her's had died at a relatively young age from cancer. Both went to a school for the blind together. She felt guilty that she had lost touch as she has been busy so much with therapy and medical problems, and even worried for her soul, since her friend embraced Pagan religion and she remembers "witnessing" to her about Jesus as an older teenager (my wife used to be Pentecostal when younger, then the church she was involved with turned abusive, the Nazarene pastor just became drunk with power and harsh. Eventually, he was defrocked and excommunicated).

I encouraged her to take her concerns to the local Episcopal priest when we visited the healing service like we do weekly. I was not sure what the canon would do, but he ended up saying a prayer for her friend and it seemed to make my wife get over her guilt. The canon there is one of the few priests at the cathedral that is one of those broad-church types, and he really matured as a Christian in the Anglo-Catholic and charismatic movements- he's not like a lot of the other priests that are basically fresh out of the local conservative Reformed seminary.

I was just wondering how Lutherans would handle such a situation. Do Lutherans have prayers for the departed in the litany of the people, similar to Episcopalians?

 

[Arcangl86]

We do have a prayer for the departed saints in our prayers of the people, but it usually takes the form of thanksgiving rather than petition. However, every church has complete freedom on how to do the liturgy unlike the Episcopalians, so I cannot really say if something is a universal practice or not.

 

[Albion]

Do Lutherans ever pray for the dead, individually or together?

Recently my wife learned that a friend of her's had died at a relatively young age from cancer. Both went to a school for the blind together. She felt guilty that she had lost touch as she has been busy so much with therapy and medical problems, and even worried for her soul, since her friend embraced Pagan religion and she remembers "witnessing" to her about Jesus as an older teenager (my wife used to be Pentecostal when younger, then the church she was involved with turned abusive, the Nazarene pastor just became drunk with power and harsh. Eventually, he was defrocked and excommunicated).

I encouraged her to take her concerns to the local Episcopal priest when we visited the healing service like we do weekly. I was not sure what the canon would do, but he ended up saying a prayer for her friend and it seemed to make my wife get over her guilt. The canon there is one of the few priests at the cathedral that is one of those broad-church types, and he really matured as a Christian in the Anglo-Catholic and charismatic movements- he's not like a lot of the other priests that are basically fresh out of the local conservative Reformed seminary.

I was just wondering how Lutherans would handle such a situation. Do Lutherans have prayers for the departed in the litany of the people, similar to Episcopalians?

But in truth, praying for the dead in Episcopal or Anglican churches is more often for all the faithful departed, that they may continue to grow in God's favor (or something like that), as opposed to praying that an individual will be treated a certain way by God, etc. Of course, I don't know what, exactly, the priest said in this case and, as we all know, it's hard to say that anything is always or never done in our churches.

 

[FireDragon76]

In the Episcopal Church, with the rite that is most commonly used, it is just a generic prayer for the dead. Usually, when I have heard it used, specific individuals are mentioned if appropriate.

 

[Obedientiarius]

It's already been said, but yes the prayers of the church include a petition for the departed - almost always in the form of a thanksgiving.

 

[FireDragon76]

What about praying for somebody specifically, not for thanksgiving but for the case of, say, a mother's child who committed suicide. Or a son's father that was a nominal Christian who passes away and the son has doubts?

I have known Episcopalians to pray specifically for the deceased in those cases. Not for thanksgiving but for mercy to the deceased and consolation of the survivors. It's not thanksgiving really, its specifically for consoling the families and the community and trusting the deceased to God's mercy.

 

[Korah]

No problem for me. I ended my 23-year-long conversion to Roman Catholicm in 1992, but I have never considered myself any less a "Catholic" for having affiliated 1992 to 2004 with ECUSA and from 2004 with ELCA. Even while RC I (all the more!) cringed at the excesses I saw at local ethnic RC parishes where I lived in Sacramento, CA. Putting aside such paganism makes me more Christian and Catholic now than then. I'm as strong a believer in Purgatory as I ever was.(however unorthodox my particular interpretation of it had been and still remains).