Short answer
Prayers are read at the church tribune on Wrath, the sixth day, one sermon per week, and a written prayer is never used up. Your parishioners are the lower of your Likes and your church quality; each prayer needs a minimum to start, and more for a sure success. Most prayers are written at the Writing Desk. Six kinds grant blessings — Prayer for Storms lets you resurrect on any day, and Prayer for Excellence adds +1 to all five masteries.

The graveyard
View full-size image ↗Official promotional screenshot · © Lazy Bear Games / tinyBuild · Official media kit · Material credits
How a sermon pays
Parishioners = the lower of Likes and church quality. With no Likes or zero church quality, nobody comes.
Success chance = parishioners ÷ the prayer's difficulty, capped at 100%.
The base reward is paid even on a failure: parishioners × the prayer's Faith per head, and parishioners × its bronze per head.
A success adds bonus Faith per parishioner, bonus bronze per point of graveyard quality, and the prayer's blessing if it has one.
Worked example from wikily.gg: Basic Prayer I with 20 parishioners and graveyard quality 30 pays 11 Faith and 4 silver.
An original summary of the weekly Faith routine. Sermons are held on Wrath; this is not the prayer stand.
View full-size image ↗Original diagram · Graveyard Keeper 2 Wiki · editorial illustration · Original wiki diagram
Writing prayers at the Writing Desk
Faith Prayer and Money Prayer: 1 Story, 3 Clean Paper and 1 Ink, Book writing mastery 8, 14 ticks. Unlocked by Religious Writing I.
Prayer for Repose, Prayer for Storms, Combat, Combo, Harvest and Prayer for Excellence: 1 Story, 1 Blank Softcover Notebook and 1 Ink, 16 ticks.
Their mastery gates differ: 8 for Repose and Storms, 10 for Combat, Combo and Harvest, 14 for Excellence.
Hypno Prayer swaps in a Blank Hardcover Notebook and needs mastery 16, after Reanimation II.
Most are star crafts: enough successful ticks lift the result to silver or gold.
Parishioners each prayer needs
Grade I minimum / sure: Basic 4 / 8, Faith 7 / 15, Money 7 / 15, Combat 15 / 40, Harvest 15 / 40, Repose 20 / 50, Combo 30 / 60, Excellence 40 / 90, Hypno 60 / 120.
Prayer for Storms has a single grade: 20 to start, 40 for a sure success.
Grades II and III ask for more people — Prayer for Excellence III wants 140 to start and 200 to be sure.
Prayer for Old God needs 180 parishioners and pays 1 Faith and 50 bronze a head.
The six blessings
Combat Prayer — God's fury: +2 damage per sword hit and +3 per bow hit, including zombie fighters' bows.
Harvest Prayer — God of nature: Garden Bed and Vine Trellis growth ticks are 20 seconds shorter.
Prayer for Storms — God of the storms: the Resurrection device works on any day, as often as you like.
Prayer for Repose — God of dead: every arriving corpse comes from the next tier up.
Prayer for Excellence — God of craftsmen: +1 Building, Smithing, Farming, Book writing and Anatomy.
Hypno Prayer — God of delusions: clears the Excessive zombies penalty the moment it is granted.
Grade I blessings last 45 minutes, grade II 1 h 30 min and grade III just under 1 h 40 min.
Prayers you cannot get yet
Prayer for Music and Prayer for Speed exist in the files but nothing gives them in version 1.009.
Prayer for Old God is handed to you during Eye, Red Eye — its Writing Desk recipe is never unlocked.
Perks that raise every sermon
Priest raises Basic Prayer's Faith per parishioner from 0.25 to 0.35.
Cardinal raises its bronze per parishioner from 5 to 6.
Performer raises the success bonus from 10 to 12 bronze per graveyard quality point, and bonus Faith from 0.3 to 0.4 a head.
Sources
- communitywikily.gg — Church and Sermons
- communitywikily.gg — Writing Desk
- communitywikily.gg — Prayer for Storms
- communitywikily.gg — God of delusions
Related pages
Official screenshot · © Lazy Bear Games / tinyBuildProgressionGraveyard Keeper 2 Faith
Official screenshot · © Lazy Bear Games / tinyBuildCraftingGraveyard Keeper 2 Writing Desk
Official screenshot · © Lazy Bear Games / tinyBuildGuidesGraveyard Keeper 2 Calendar & Days of the Week
Official screenshot · © Lazy Bear Games / tinyBuildAutomationGraveyard Keeper 2 Zombie Limit & Excessive Zombies
Official screenshot · © Lazy Bear Games / tinyBuildCraftingGraveyard Keeper 2 Incense