Given on 30 June 1987 in South-East London, at the Church of St Thomas More, Bexley Heath, in a service of healing held during a Dominican-led parish mission.

Here, tonight, we are going to perform one of the most ancient ceremonies of the Church. The Letter of St. James was written perhaps only twenty or thirty years after the death and resurrection of our Lord, and we shall be anointing and praying over the sick of this parish in an almost identical way to that described there:

Is there any among you that are sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
(5:14)

Oil in the ancient world was a very precious commodity. It was used in cooking, as it still is today, but also for washing, as there was no soap in the ancient world. And it was used as medicine. It was rubbed into the body and it was drunk.

The liturgical use of anointing in the church has a long history and has varied a lot over the centuries. At some periods sick people or their friends went to the church to collect the blessed oil and they would anoint themselves or get others to do it for them if they were too ill. But for a long while and in fact until very recently this sacrament was thought of chiefly as the sacrament of the death bed—‘extreme unction’.