Anointing of the Sick and Anglican Tradition

Anointing of the Sick and Anglican Tradition describes the ministry of healing through anointing with oil or laying on of hands as it appears in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. In the 1928 book it is not an independent sacrament in the Roman sense of "Extreme Unction," but a pastoral rite within the Visitation of the Sick, joined to prayer, repentance, forgiveness, bodily healing, and preparation for Communion of the Sick.

1928 Prayer Book Text

The 1928 office gives the rite its own heading, "Unction of the Sick," but makes its use conditional on the sick person's humble faith and desire. It also permits either oil or the laying on of hands:

When any sick person shall in humble faith desire the ministry of healing through Anointing or Laying on of Hands, the Minister may use such portion of the foregoing Office as he shall think fit, and the following:

O BLESSED Redeemer, relieve, we beseech thee, by thy indwelling power, the distress of this thy servant; release him from sin, and drive away all pain of soul and body, that being restored to soundness of health, he may offer thee praise and thanksgiving; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

I ANOINT thee with oil (or I lay my hand upon thee), In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; beseeching the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all thy pain and sickness of body being put to flight, the blessing of health may be restored unto thee. Amen.

Several features matter for Anglican interpretation. First, the rite is requested by the sick person "in humble faith"; it is not a mechanical act performed apart from faith and prayer. Second, the minister may use "such portion of the foregoing Office" as is pastorally fitting, so unction remains inside the wider visitation structure of psalms, confession, absolution, and prayer. Third, the formula is Trinitarian and explicitly petitions "the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ" for the putting to flight of "pain and sickness of body." The rite therefore asks for bodily healing, but does so as a work of Christ's mercy and not as a promise that every sickness will be immediately removed.

The placement after Psalm 103 is also significant. The office has just prayed and sung of the Lord who forgives and heals:

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thy sin, and healeth all thine infirmities; Who saveth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with mercy and loving-kindness.

The rite is not isolated from repentance. Immediately before the later unction section, the 1928 office directs the minister to examine the sick person pastorally and to move him toward confession when conscience is troubled:

Here may the Minister inquire of the sick person as to his acceptance of the Christian Faith, and as to whether he repent him truly of his sins, and be in charity with all the world; exhorting him to forgive, from the bottom of his heart, all persons that have offended him; and if he hath offended any other, to ask them forgiveness; and where he hath done injury or wrong to any man, that he make amends to the uttermost of his power.

Scriptural Basis

The classical scriptural locus is James 5. Anglican editions and commentaries regularly connect the Prayer Book visitation office with this passage because it joins sickness, presbyteral prayer, oil, forgiveness, and mutual confession:

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.

Mark 6 supplies the other direct New Testament witness to apostolic anointing of the sick. It places anointing in a mission context that also includes repentance and deliverance:

And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

These passages explain why the 1928 office does not separate bodily healing from repentance, forgiveness, and ecclesial ministry. The minister prays in the Name of the Trinity, asks Christ's mercy, and leaves the result to God's will, while the sick person is called to faith, charity, confession where needed, and thanksgiving.

Doctrinal Boundary

The Articles of Religion are important because Article XXV denies that "Extreme Unction" is a Sacrament of the Gospel in the same class as Baptism and the Lord's Supper. That denial does not abolish every pastoral use of oil; it prevents the rite from being treated as a dominically ordained sacrament necessary to salvation:

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

This is why the 1928 rite can be described as sacramental in a broad pastoral sense, but not as one of the two Sacraments of the Gospel. Its outward action is prayerful, biblical, and ecclesial; its efficacy is sought from Christ by prayer. It is not a guarantee of recovery, not a substitute for repentance, and not a third Gospel sacrament alongside Baptism and Holy Communion.

Historical Development

The first English Prayer Book of 1549 retained a fuller unction form. It directed anointing only if the sick person desired it, restricted the anointing to the forehead or breast, and interpreted the visible oil by reference to inward grace:

If the sicke person desyre to be annoynted, then shal the priest annoynte him upon the forehead or breast only, makyng the signe of the crosse, saying thus, As with this visible oyle thy body outwardly is annoynted: so our heavenly father almyghtye God, graunt of his infinite goodnesse, that thy soule inwardly may be annoynted with the holy gost, who is the spirite of al strength, coumforte, reliefe, and gladnesse.

Francis Procter and Walter Howard Frere describe the older Anglican visitation office as closely related to Sarum patterns and to James 5 and Mark 6, while also noting that the 1549 unction provision was omitted in 1552:

The Church has always been zealous in her care for the sick, the dying and the departed. The Apostolical example and the precept that the sick man should "call for the elders of the Church" was fully carried out in medieval times and the present Order for the Visitation follows closely the lines of the old service in the Sarum Manual.

The second division of the service then began which was designed to help the sick man to acts of faith and repentance especially in view of his communion and unction. This was continued in the Prayer Book though the provision for the unction made in 1549 was omitted in 1552.

E. Clowes Chorley gives a near-contemporary American account of the earlier English trajectory. He treats 1549 as reform rather than revolution and names anointing of the sick among the retained older elements:

On the other hand, private confession, anointing of the Sick, the sign of the Cross in Communion, Baptism and Marriage, Prayers for the Dead, the use of the word "Mass" and eucharistic vestments were retained. The Prayer Book of Edward VI in 1549 is an illustration of liturgical reform; not liturgical revolution.

Chorley also identifies the 1552 omission directly:

Anointing was omitted from the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, as was also the provision for the reservation of the Sacrament.

The 1928 American restoration is therefore not an isolated novelty. It retrieves a practice present in 1549, omitted from the 1552 English book, and later restored in the American Prayer Book under a more concise formula and an explicitly optional rubric.

Anglican and Ecumenical Witness

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge summarizes the historical position of the visitation office by naming both its biblical basis and its Sarum inheritance:

VISITATION OF THE SICK: One of the occasional offices in the Book of Common Prayer. Its Scriptural basis is found in James v. 14-15 (cf. also Mark vi. 13).

Writing shortly after the 1928 American book, H. Henry Spoer noted both the 1552 omission and the restored 1928 provision:

The use of anointing as a part of the Service for the Visitation of the Sick was omitted from the Anglican Prayer Book in 1552. It was revived for a time by the "nonjuring" bishops and priests in 1717, was employed by their successors, and has been in use sporadically ever since.

The Service for the Visitation of the Sick in our revised Prayer Book now makes provision by a rubric, collect, and declaration for the "ministry of healing through Anointing or Laying on of Hands."

Spoer's comparison with Orthodox practice is useful because it shows both continuity and difference. Anglican unction in the 1928 BCP shares the old Christian instinct that the Church should pray bodily and spiritually for the sick. Yet the American rite is brief, discretionary, and embedded in the Prayer Book's own doctrinal order: Scripture, repentance, forgiveness, healing, and Communion are held together without making unction a third Sacrament of the Gospel.

Pastoral Use

In parish practice the 1928 rite belongs at the sickbed, in the home, hospital, or other place where the Visitation office is used. The minister may use the preceding prayers and psalms as needed, inquire about faith and charity, move the sick person to confession where conscience is troubled, and then anoint with oil or lay on hands. Its grammar is hopeful but sober: it asks for relief, release from sin, the driving away of pain of soul and body, and restoration to soundness of health, while the surrounding Communion of the Sick collects teach patience, God's gracious will, and readiness for death.

The rite also cautions against two opposite mistakes. A merely rationalized reading would reduce anointing to a symbolic encouragement and miss the Prayer Book's direct petition for healing. A mechanical reading would detach oil from faith, repentance, Christ's mercy, and Article XXV's sacramental boundary. The 1928 Prayer Book holds the older Anglican balance: embodied prayer for real healing, received in humble faith, governed by Scripture and the Articles, and placed within the Church's pastoral care of the sick.

See Also

• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Occasional Offices (1928 BCP)
• Visitation of the Sick (1928 BCP)
• Absolution of the Sick (1928 BCP)
• Communion of the Sick (1928 BCP)

External Links

• The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Visitation and Communion of the Sick
• The 1549 Book of Common Prayer: Visitation of the Sick
• E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book
• H. Henry Spoer, An Aid for Churchmen Episcopal and Orthodox, chapter VIII