Washing and anointing
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In the Latter Day Saint movement, washing and anointing (also called the initiatory) is an ordinance (sacrament) practiced by certain denominations of the movement in temples as part of the Endowment ceremony. The ordinance consists of a ritual purification by water and an anointing by oil to prepare the participant to become "kings and priests" or "queens and priestesses" in the afterlife. Until the early 20th century, the ceremony was conducted in the nude in full-size bathtubs in the temples, and the participant was washed and anointed by an officiator of the same sex. After the ceremony, the officiator would clothe the participant in the temple garment (the church's symbolic religious underclothing). Today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the main practitioner of the ceremony, has gradually reduced the element of nudity in the ceremony, and since 2005, the ceremony has taken place with the participant entirely covered by a temple garment.
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[edit] History
These ordinances are perhaps the earliest practiced temple ordinances for the living since the organization of the Church. There is evidence that these ordinances were performed in part since 1832. They were first practised in Kirtland, Ohio (in the store owned by Newel K. Whitney) as an activity of the School of the Prophets. These ordinances continue to be administered today.
The ordinance of washing and anointing symbolizes the ritual cleansing of priests that took place at ancient Israel's Tabernacle, the temple of Solomon, and later temples in Jerusalem (see Exodus 28:40-42, Exodus 29:4-9, 20-21 29-30, 30:18-21).
[edit] Parallels in Judaism and early Christianity
Multiple early Christian documents discuss the ordinance of "chrism" which is nearly identical to the anointing ordinances in Latter-day Saint temples. The most detailed version of the practic is by Cyril and may be found at Select Library Of The Nicene And Post-Nicene Fathers Of The Christian Church: Second Series Volume VII: Cyril Of Jerusalem: "Ceremonies of Baptism and Chrism" (see § 6). Cyril details how oil or ointment was "symbolically applied to thy forehead, and thy other organs of sense" and that the "ears, nostrils, and breast were each to be anointed." Only a Bishop could anoint the forehead. Cyril states that the "ointment is the seal of the covenants" of baptism and God’s promises to the Christian who is anointed.
The text also claims that all true, believing Christians received the ordinance: "We are called Christians, because we are anointed with the oil of God."
In addition to Cyril, Theophilus and Tertullian discussed the ordinances and the "several ceremonies are thus explained in the Apostolical Constitutions."
