[Leonard Arrington]
Second Anointings I have been seeing what references there might be in my library about Second Anointings. Nothing in Mormon Doctrine by Bruce McConkie. Nothing in Carter, LDS Encyclopedia. Nothing in the indexes to Joseph Smith, History of the Church; [B. H.] Roberts, Comprehensive History; and Journal of Discourses. Mike Quinn's article on Prayer Circles in BYU Studies, Fall 1978, mentions them. Suggests they were first given shortly before the completion of the Nauvoo Temple, shortly before Joseph Smith's death. Suggests that those who belonged to the Holy Order or Anointed Quorum had all received their Second Anointings. Perhaps those who received the Second Anointings were all invited into the Holy Order, and that the Anointed Quorum consisted of all and only of all who received their Second Anointings. This was the original Prayer Circle. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, III, p. 228, has a letter to Presidents of Stakes and Bishops of Wards, Nov. 6, 1891, which states that the approval of the President of the Church was required for those receiving Second Anointings, but presumably they are initiated by bishops and/or stake presidents. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, V, p. 112, had a Circular with temple instructions to bishops, dated 1918, which states that bishops are not to issue recommends for second anointings. That is the province of stake presidents and must have the endorsement or approval of the President of the Church, and individuals are not to be informed until the latter is approved. "As a general rule, such recommends are issued only in behalf of those who have had endowments in lifetime, and have been sealed and lived together faithfully as husband and wife, and who have been valiant in the defense of truth and active in all good works."
[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]
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