Clergy do not need written permission from the Bishop to use holy oils for anointing the sick or for baptism. However, if a parish is moving into such use of oils for the first time, please be in touch with your Bishop prior to the event. It helps for us to be informed.
Note: Two kinds of oils are under discussion - Oil of Healing and Chrism. They must be kept in separate vessels at all times. Refer to appropriate sections of the documents mentioned below for further details.
It is essential that parishioners be given adequate teaching before introducing the use of holy oils into a community. Sermons and newsletter articles are two appropriate methods of teaching though others may be needed.
The use of oil to anoint the sick is directed in both The Book of Common Prayer (page 584-587) and The Book of Alternative Services (page 552 and 555). See also page 616-617 of The Book of Alternative Services. This along with the two pages attached gives the background, rationale and direction for the use of oils.
If the use of oil(s) has been the custom of a parish before the arrival of a new cleric, the practice should continue. If the newly arrived cleric is unfamiliar with the use of oils he or she should seek guidance from the local Archdeacon, Regional Dean, member of the Doctrine and Worship Committee or other person familiar with their use.
In the Diocese of Huron oils are episcopally consecrated on an annual basis. Supplies are kept throughout the year at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. The parish supply of both kinds of oil should be renewed annually from the newly consecrated supply. Old oils should either be poured onto the ground or onto a cloth and burned. In emergency situations priests may consecrate oil with the prayer on page 585 or The BCP or similar prayer.
It is important that suitable containers be used to store the oils, and that they be kept reverently and in a safe place such as an aumbry or tabernacle. Smaller vessels (oil stocks) are useful when traveling to visit the sick in hospital or at home.
Revised July 2003
THE BLESSING AND USE OF OILS IN RITES OF INITIATION
Peter A. Wall and John L Hodgins
Priests of the Anglican Diocese of Huron
The recovery since the nineteenth century of the practice of anointing the sick with oil has been in response to pastoral need in light of the biblical mandate of James 5:13-16. This is now a widespread practice within the Anglican Communion.
In the most recent period of prayer book revision, restoration of the oil of chrism has commended itself in light of its biblical symbolism, historical practice, and increasing ecumenical acceptance. We should consider these three sources in our theological reflection upon scripture, tradition and reason, as they relate to Christian initiation in the Anglican Communion.
Scripture
The bible is replete with references to the use of the "oil of gladness: for the anointing of Jewish kings and converts to the faith. Oil evokes a rich variety of biblical images; the anointing of kings (1 Sam. 16:13), , the royal priesthood (I Pet. 2:9), the seal of the saints (Rev. 7). Psalm 23 clearly recalls the imagery of the oil of blessing or anointing, though it is commonly recited as well in the context of anointing for healing.
The richness of this symbol of blessing is also associated in the New Testament with Jesus, referred to as Christos, i.e. the anointed one, and with the anointing of Christians in the Holy Spirit.
References by New Testament writers allude clearly to the symbol of anointing. Anointing is the outward and visible sign and seal of the Holy Spirit's blessing. Christians insisting that Baptism is "by water and the Holy Spirit" have taken seriously the use of chrism in the sacrament of baptism as a biblical symbol for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Tradition and Practice
The Church incorporated from its earliest days the symbolic anointing with chrism (olive oil mingled with fragrant balsam blessed by the bishop). Chrism signifies the Spirit's anointing of members into the Body of Christ, the community of Christos. Later, chrism came to be used in connection with the ordination of presbyters and bishops, for whom the church asks the gifts of the anointing Spirit.
In both east and west the practice of anointing with oil in connection with Christian initiation has continued from the earliest period. The anointing of catechumens who are beginning the final stage of preparation for baptism at Easter is with the oil of the catechumens, a plain olive oil (not chrism). This preliminary anointing marks the setting apart of those who are elected to baptism. The practice has continued unbroken in some Christian communities, and is emphasized in the recovery of the adult catechumenate in many Anglican dioceses.
The first reformed prayer book of the Church of England, (1549), states in the rite for baptism that:
It appeareth by ancient wryters, that the Sacramente of Baptisme in the olde tyme was not commonly ministered, but at two tymes in the yeare, at Easter and whytsontyde, at which times it was openly mynistered in the presence of the congregacion . . .
The authors go on to indicate that following baptism with water, and separate from the consignation (marking with the sign of the cross), the person was to be clothed in a white garment “commonly called crisome". After a prayer for the one who had been washed in the waters, we read the following 1549 Prayer Book rubric of instruction for chrismation:
The priest shall annoynt the infant upon the head saying:
ALMIGHTY GOD THE FATHER OF OUR LORDE JESUS CHRIST, WHO HATH REGENERATE THEE BY WATER AND THE HOLY GOST, AND HATH GEUE UNTO THEE REMISSION OF AL THY SINESS: HE VOUCHSAUE TO ANNOYNTE THEE WITH THE UNCCION OF HIS HOLY SPIRITE, AND BRYNG THEE TO THE INHERITAUNCE OF EUERLASTING LYFE. AMEN.
Chrism used at the baptismal anointing with prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit has been included in the rationale for baptism in the American prayer book of 1979, indicating that the baptized person is:
sealed with the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ's own forever.
This symbolic rite of sealing with aromatic chrism emphasizes the completeness of Christian initiation in Holy Baptism, including christological and pneumatic elements along with the recounting of God's action in creation. This Trinitarian formulation is an essential expression of full Christian initiation. Initiation into the community of faith is then completed with the participation of the baptized person in the Holy Eucharist.
In 1980 the Alternative Service Book of the Church of England included the use of "oil blessed for the purpose" in the celebration of Holy Baptism. Chrism also figured in the discussions of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultations in Boston in 1985 and Toronto in 1991. Recommendation 4.6 of the Consultation in Toronto urges anointing and other post-baptismal acts which
offer valuable means of explicating the significance of baptism.
A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989) allows for the use of chrism at the signing with the cross. In 1990, the Anglican Church of Australia issued a new rite for Holy Baptism which unifies the three principal liturgical ministries of the church: Word, Baptism and Holy Communion. This rite. includes the use of chrism expressing the pneumatic principle, the sealing of the baptized in the communion of Christ, the anointed one.
The following Anglican provinces allow or recommend the use of chrism for baptismal rites: Canada, Central Africa, England, Indian Ocean, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Melanesia, Mexico, New Zealand and Polynesia, Papua-New Guinea, Philippines, Scotland, Southern Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, U.S.A., Wales, and West Indies. Some others are in the process of reviewing their practices.
Ecumenical Convergence
With the re-emergence of the catechumenate in Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and other communions, much discussion of the rites of initiation has been taking place. This is due, in part, to the fact that many people in traditionally Christian societies are now unbaptized. A meaningful way of celebrating the coming to faith of adults in a largely secular culture is again necessary. The symbolic use of oil in the rites of baptism is increasingly accepted in various branches of the Christian Church as a biblically rooted way to signify the sealing of the Spirit, an integral part of the rites of initiation.
The World Council of Churches Document, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry indicates that the pneumatic element is critical to the completeness of Baptism as full initiation into the Trinitarian life of the Christian community:
In God's work of salvation, the paschal mystery of Christ's death and resurrection is inseparably linked with the receiving of the Spirit. Baptism in its full meaning signifies and effects both.
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry recognizes that the churches diverge on the pneumatic significance of certain moments in the rites.
Bryan Spinks, in his article, "Vivid Signs of the Gift of the Spirit", reflects on the Lima text and compares it with recent baptismal liturgies in English. He points out that BEM's call for the use of vivid signs is addressed not only to those churches which do not use chrism, but to many churches, East and West, where chrism is used, but its accompanying formula makes it an obscure or ambiguous sign.
Post Vatican II Roman Catholic practice has enhanced the use of the oil of catechumens in the RCIA catechumenal process. In Roman practice, chrism is used both at baptism and confirmation. The Eastern Orthodox practice of chrismation is considered an essential and unalterable part of the rites of initiation. Chrismation is also commonly employed at the reception into the eastern rite of those baptized in western churches (it is also often used in the reception of those baptised in other orthodox communions, ed.).
The 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship includes a version of the traditional prayer for the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit, immediately after the use of water, to be accompanied by the laying-on of hands and followed by a chrismation and signing on the forehead of the baptisand with the words:
... child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked with the cross of Christ forever.
As Mitchell states, signing with oil, laying on of hands, and other initiatory rites must all be interpreted within the context of the baptismal rite as a whole and not seen as individual rites in themselves.
Conclusions
There is growing Anglican and ecumenical consensus supporting the use of chrism in the rites of initiation. There is also a growing realization that such a use is based in Holy Scripture and has the warrant of the usage of the early church. The use of oil at baptism, however, should be understood not as the addition of an "extra" ceremony, but as part of a three-fold movement of washing in water, chrismation and communion. The use of chrism at confirmation is not necessarily indicated by the research and experience reported on in this article.
Reprinted with permission, Liturgy Canada
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