Members of relief societies are not set apart and given authority to wash and anoint sisters for their confinement, for the reason that this practice which has grown up among some of our relief societies, is not an ordinance, and because it is not an ordinance authority to act in it need not be given, and is therefore not given. Some of our relief society sisters appear to have confounded this practice with one of the temple ordinances; and because certain sisters, as temple workers, are set apart as such, relief society sisters appear to have jumped to the conclusion that they too should be authorized and set apart to wash and anoint sisters for their confinement. This is a mistake, a mistake which has arisen, as intimated, in confounding this practice with one of the ordinances of the temple. ... In thus writing we do not wish it understood that sisters may not wash and anoint for the purpose mentioned, as there is no impropriety whatever in their doing so ... no member of the Church therefore need be barred from receiving a blessing at the hands of faithful women inasmuch as she has faith enough to desire and ask that this be done in her behalf. As to the particular form of words to be used, there is none, not any more than there is for an elder to use in administering to the sick.

[First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith) 12-minFPLtNP]


[19081222]