Guidelines For Planning An Anointing Service

The following guidelines provide liturgical and pastoral rationale for planning an anointing service. Anointing with oil for healing is usually done in the context of worship, although it can take place in any appropriate setting. At a given point in the service the minister may invite all those in need of healing to come to the altar or another designated area. The congregation may continue to sing songs of worship led by the chief musician or minister of music during the anointing service. Usually a minister or an elder of the church will approach the person for whom the minister is to pray and ask the nature of the complaint. He or she may then apply olive oil to an index finger from a small bottle or flask and touch it to the sufferer's forehead, sometimes marking it in the shape of the cross. The minister or elder then places one or both hands on the person's head, or on the afflicted areas of the body where proper or appropriate to do so, and prays for healing from the specif…