The latest salvo from the Church of England's “rapid-response prayer unit” shows the Established Church of the nation engaging in spiritual warfare at the front line. It represents the Church at its best, and is an example of how clerics are able to use the technological resources of the modern age to meet the pastoral needs of the people in their care. It has not always been this way.

New prayers or materials, such as for the latest authorised prayer book, Common Worship, can take years to work out. They go to committees and back, to deanery, diocesan and general synods, to meetings of the House of Bishops and sometimes even to Parliament itself for debate. Prayers and responses such as “The Lord be with you – and also with you” take months of heated debate to finalise and, even then, many Anglicans still dispute their literary merit.

But the age of the internet gives the Church another, more immediate outlet for its intercessory offerings. It is fast, accessible and, most important, not just on Sundays. The liturgical canons have been fired up in this way in cases of need such as for exams, for work and rush-hour stresses and most recently for the Olympics.

The Rev Peter Moger, 44, who wrote the new credit-crunch prayer, is the Church of England’s national worship development officer.

As former Precentor of Ely, his background in cathedral music gives him an instinctive feel for the rise and fall of liturgical rhythm that makes him a natural for the rapid-response prayer unit.

His mission is to concentrate on drawing up quick-fire intercessory prayers that can speak to distressed Christians in times of need.