Washing and anointing: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Washing and anointing tub in the Salt Lake Temple, June 1911.png|thumb|One of ten washing and anointing rooms of the [[Salt Lake Temple]] of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] circa 1911.]]

'''Washing and anointing''' is a Latter-day Saint practice of ritual purification. It is a key part of the [[Endowment (Mormonism)|temple endowment]] ceremony as well as the controversial [[Second Anointing]] ceremony practiced by [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) and [[Mormon fundamentalism|Mormon fundamentalists]]. It was also part of the female-only healing rituals among Latter-day Saints until at least the 1940's1940s.

In preparation for the temple endowment, a person, generally over the age of 18, is sprinkled with water, then [[Anointing|anointed]] with perfume or oil as a cleansing before God.<ref name="buerger35" /><ref name=":1">John Christopher Thomas describes this Old Testament practice, “This cleansing from bodily uncleanness was a symbol of putting away of the filth of sin; the washing of the body therefore was a symbol of spiritual cleansing, without which no one can draw near to God..." {{citation |title=Footwashing in the Old and New Testament, the Graeco Roman World, the Early Church, and the Liturgy |date=April 15, 2014 |url=http://www.zionlutherannj.net/footwashing-in-the-old-and-new-testament-the-graeco-roman-world-the-early-church-and-the-liturgy-2/}}</ref> Once washed and anointed, the participant is dressed in the [[temple garment]], a symbolic white undergarment.<ref name="packer">{{Harvtxt|Packer|2007}}.</ref> The ordinance performed by the authority of the [[Melchizedek priesthood (Latter Day Saints)|Melchizedek priesthood]], and by an officiator of the same sex as the participant,<ref name="ABVW" /> is "mostly symbolic in nature, but promis[es] definite, immediate blessings as well as future blessings," contingent upon continued righteous living.<ref name="packer" /> These ordinances of washing and [[anointing]] are referred to often in the temple as "initiatory ordinances" since they precede the endowment and [[Sealing (Mormonism)|sealing]] ordinances.<ref name="perry">{{harvtxt|Perry|1992}}.</ref>