Bishop Robert Forsyth has reminded Sydney's judges they must live "humbly and in fear' at the annual law service at St James, King Street this morning.

"Lawful authority carries the divine authority behind it," he said.

"This is why I say that this truth is a call for humility and even fear. Humility before the awesome responsibility you have."

The end of January marks the start of the law term in NSW.

In a colourful tradition, Sydney’s senior lawmakers and administrators, in all their pomp and regalia, attend special church services at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral and St James Anglican Church.

St James, situated in the heart of the legal quarter of Sydney, has a long association with the legal profession.

Preaching on Romans 13: 1-7, Bishop Forsyth greeted the judges and counsel as "fellow minsters of God'.

"That's what you all are, according to the Christian faith. Ministers of God. Whether you know it or like it," he said.

Bishop Forsyth said the apostle Paul's comments are a far cry from a call for a pro-Christian legal sytem.

"The apostle may designate the governing authorities as minsters of God but it is not because the governing authorities were introducing some kind of special Christian law, a Christian sharia," he said.

"They were simply ruling according to the customs, insights and practises of their situation."

"Paul is basically positive as the justice of these pagans who are nevertheless unwittingly God's servants."

Bishop Forsyth reminded the judges of the powerful symbolism of their traditional dress.

"One of the values of the ceremonial and special dress of our courts is that they express reverence, that "forgotten virtue' of awe for what is above us without which the exercise of power that you have would be become dangerous personal arrogance. These things are not to make you a bigger person than you are but a littler person before that which is bigger than you."

He continued: “Ministers of another are accountable. The gospel announces that humanity will face judgment by the crucified man Jesus Christ."

St James’ Rector, the Rev Peter Kurti told the congregation that “we must always be concerned to maintain the kind of order which undergirds community life and yet which also secures the basic freedom of the individual”.

“We pray that our body of law and system of justice may continue to guarantee and strengthen the freedoms of civilised life we have hitherto enjoyed,” Mr Kurti said.

Justice Keith Mason AC, President of Court of Appeal of the NSW Supreme Court and Judge Derek Price, Chief Magistrate of NSW, were among those who led the congregation in prayer.