In the South Yarra congregation, we have three main times when we anoint with oil.

1. Accompanying prayers for healing, as per James 5:14. This can have at least three variations too. Sometimes we include a special rite of healing in the middle of our Sunday service. This is rare, but we did have one just a couple of weeks ago. It includes some special prayers and songs, and a laying on of hands with prayer, and then the anointing with oil. We first give thanks to God for the oil with a prayer such as:

Gracious God, we bless you for this oil pressed from the fruits of the earth, given to us as a sign of healing and forgiveness, and of the fullness of life you give. Send your Holy Spirit upon all who are anointed with this oil that they may receive your healing touch and be made whole, to the glory of God.

We then anoint the person with the oil saying something like:

Name, we anoint you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that through his Holy Spirit he may restore you to health and strengthen you for service to the glory of God the Father.

A variation on this happens sometimes when visiting the sick in their homes or in hospital. Depending on the circumstances there may be a small group gathering with the sick person, or it may just be one of the pastors or someone else. We have a short rite which includes Bible readings, prayers and the laying on of hands and anointing. Sometimes we also share communion within that time, with bread and wine brought from the previous Sunday's celebration of the Lord's Table.

The other variation is that at the end of every Sunday service we have an opportunity for those who wish to to seek prayer with laying on of hands. This is a much simpler and variable practice, but can still include anointing whenever the prayer is for healing.

2. When initiating people into the membership of the Church. There is no clear biblical precedent for this, but it arose pretty early in the life of the church and is grounded in good biblical theology. Among our pre-Christian forebears in the faith, anointing was associated with the bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon those who were to serve as prophets, priests or kings. Because the ministries of prophets, priests and kings were gathered up into Christ, and because we as the gathered Church are now literally the body of Christ in the world, anointing is part of the rites of entry into that prophetic, priestly and kingly body. It is important when teaching on this to emphasise that it is we collectively, who carry this identity, not each of us individually. We are born into this body through water, and anointed with oil for our participation in the ministry of the body. The other biblical image associated with this practice is that of God marking us with the "seal" of the Holy Spirit (eg. 2Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13). Some scholars quote these verses and the accounts of Jesus receiving the Holy Spirit as soon as he emerged from the waters of baptism as evidence that the practice of anointing with oil as a sign of the bestowal of the Spirit was already current when the New Testament was written, but I reckon that is drawing a pretty long bow. However, there is clear biblical evidence for the practice from a number of sources in the third century, still well before Constantine, and the nature of the descriptions makes it clear that they are not debating a new practice but teaching about a well established one. It is probably a fair bet that it dates back at least into the second century, if not the first, in some communities, and became gradually more widespread over time.

3. During the Presentation of Infants. Here we pick up the same prophetic, priestly and kingly imagery referred to above, and put it in terms of a call from God to the child. We are utilising the ideas that not all those anointed to those ministries ever fulfilled them faithfully, but that every child is now the recipient of God's call to become part of the prophetic, priestly, kingly community, even though we know some may never respond to that call. We would anoint the child with words such as:

, we welcome you into the care of the Church in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We anoint you with oil as a sign that you are an honoured child of God, touched by the healing love of Christ, and called to rule with him in justice and mercy forever.

We're right out on a limb with this one, because there is no real precedent for it, either in the Bible or in the traditions of the Church. The closest we can get to a historic precedent, and we'd really be stretching the idea, is that the anointings associated with baptismal rites in the early church were both before and after baptism. Those before baptism were associated with various stages of preparation for baptism, and we do see the presentation of infants as the beginning of a preparatory process that will hopefully culminate in baptism many year later.

Who can do it? Our archetypically Baptist answer would be that only the body of Christ, the gathered community of disciples, can do it. Of course, for logistical reasons there will usually be one person acting as the representative of the community, and more often than not that person will be a pastor, but it is the prophetic, priestly, servant community which performs the tangible signs of Christ's bodily ministry.

Peace and hope,

Nathan ______________________________________ Nathan Nettleton

Pastor, South Yarra Community Baptist Church

Melbourne, Australia