Restoring Sister Administrations for Healing and Blessing in the LDS Church: Part 2
Baptized and confirmed women of the Church in good standing may be asked to participate in healing work and blessings. While these spiritual administrations can and should take place within a Sister's home with their family members, these efforts may also extend to their ministries inside and outside of the Church. In these efforts, Sisters should strive to be dignified and gentle, striving always to be led by the Holy Ghost.
Unlike with priesthood ordinances, these administrations are not governed by priesthood authority. Their use and application is not associated with any priesthood office and makes no use of priesthood keys. As such, they require no special permission from any presiding authority to perform. They rely fully on the faith of the Sister(s) participating in them, and may be performed and guided fully at their discretion. Following previous instruction and historical practice, these administrations should be open to all women who want to participate. There is no requirement for the gift of healing, or any other spiritual gift, to be restricted to endowed women.
The Categorization of Sister Administrations for Healing
For clarity and the prevention of confusion and conflict, it should be understood that these administrations are rooted in faith in Jesus Christ and prayer, not priesthood. While priesthood is the appropriate name for the divine power of God, and women within the Church handle the power of God in their own right through worship every day, the separation of healing administrations for women must remain distinct from any office of priesthood. There has never been, nor can there ever be, a restriction against women participating in blessings of healing brought about through prayer. Such a restriction does not belong to any man within the Church to instill. It would involve severing the claim every member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has on the spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Applications
Precedents exist for women healing each other successfully within the Church, including during meetings of the Relief Society. Later restrictions came to define the appropriate sphere of influence for women to administer within their own families, with the exception of washings and anointings for childbirth and bed confinement. Current understanding of administrative responsibility and spheres of influence over which women have authority would suggest three potential applications:
- Home administration within one’s immediate family.
- In efforts related to specific callings.
- In Relief Society ministering assignments.
As in priesthood administration, the first is a realm that should largely be left to the discretion of the father and mother within a family. In the second purview, care would likely have to be taken in defining which callings would benefit from Sister healing administrations. Creating women’s callings to provide administrations for pregnant women and new mothers, addressing their physical and spiritual needs within the unit, would be an opportunity for women to serve meaningfully within the ward. The third option would simply increase the meaningful service that ministering Sisters could provide in existing assignments. These would continue under the supervision of the Relief Society president, who could provide updates to the ward council.
The primary uses of washing and anointing for healing have been for childbirth and what Wilford Woodruff called a woman’s “confinement,” when ill health, injury, or mobility loss necessitated women to become primarily bedridden. Women in these conditions may request washing and anointing in the stage of their choosing during these life events, either in preparation or as part of recovery.
Other avenues in which Sister’s administrations would be appropriate include, but are not limited to: menstruation, survivors of child abuse and sexual violence, preparation for and recovery from childbirth, infertility, miscarriages and stillbirths, and menopause would all be appropriate opportunities to seek healing administrations from one another, rather than seeking our administrations from men. Holding the priesthood does not automatically give men the experience and sensitivity to speak and administer on these subjects to girls and women.
These administrations should remain distinct from the washing and anointing ordinances of the temple. Great care should be taken not to use or refer to any language from temple ordinances. These blessings differ from temple washings and anointings in their specific application for personal healing, and the ability to adapt the administration to the needs and concerns of the person requesting it.
The Laying on of Hands
Current church policy maintains that administering to the sick through the laying on of hands is a priesthood function. The laying on of hands, however, is not an ordinance. It is the methodology by which ordinances are performed. Women used the laying on of hands previously with divine sanction from God to achieve successful healings. Although there is no necessary exclusive relationship between the laying on of hands and priesthood ordinances, limiting access to the laying on of hands as a priesthood function would likely be the grounds for church discipline with respect to Sister’s administration.
While the laying on of hands is traditionally performed by placing hands lightly upon a person’s head, there is no such requirement for Sister’s administrations. Alternatively, hands may be placed on shoulders, in or on the hands of the person receiving the administration, or in whatever other configuration is most comfortable and accessible for the task at hand. Where there is any question of what position in which to place the hands, consult the person receiving the administration of what is most comfortable for them.
The Use of Consecrated Oil
Consecrating oil for use in administering to the sick is a priesthood function. There is no legitimate means by which Sisters may consecrate oil in the performance of their own healing administrations. There are three possibilities in approaching the use of oil for these tasks:
- Using oil that is not consecrated.
- Using consecrated oil in their own right, so long as it has previously been blessed by a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood.
- Allowing washing to be a separate healing function that Sisters perform, and requiring consecrated oil anointings to be performed by a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood.
The first option requires no permission and invites no interference from male leadership in the Church. The latter two options would require permission from male leadership. The second option would be the preferable solution, as it allows women the greatest return to their previous status as trusted healers who can operate independently from men. These efforts would proceed under the supervision of local leadership, the same way priesthood functions do.
Communal Blessings
Encouraging men and women to participate together in communal blessings would increase the spiritual vitality of the units who more fully exercise the gift of healing. Women participating in washings only fails to restore the full privileges of our sex. Nevertheless, it would still be preferable to the frustrated abilities of women to heal within the Church that currently exist.
The previous objections to women’s participation in healing blessings, prioritizing instead the administration of Elders for the sick, unnecessarily treats the faith and abilities of women to heal as redundant and unnecessary. While the gender of the person performing the healing allegedly makes no difference to the person being healed, the lack of opportunity for women to exercise all of the spiritual gifts available to them weakens women’s discipleship. Where women and their spiritual capabilities are neglected, the Church is inexcusably weakened by extension.
Parental Blessings
Restoring Sister’s administrations would also bring back parental blessings, in which mothers could participate in spiritual healing efforts for their own children and fathers were still the voice. This included women participating in the laying on of hands upon their own children. The blessings Wilford Woodruff and Phebe Carter performed upon their own children together provide a precedent, in which the blessings were given according to the Melchizedek priesthood “which we hold.” Subsequent rejections that women hold or access priesthood in concert with their husbands rendered such administrations inaccessible.
Recent talks insist women who act in the name of Jesus Christ and handle the powers of God can only be understood to be accessing priesthood. (“What other power could it be?” from Dallin H. Oaks.) As such, there is room to restore the overlap between Melchizedek Priesthood administrations and Sister administrations when performing parental blessings in the home.
Healing: Blessing
A woman who receives a request to perform a healing blessing for those in her stewardship will pray in the following manner:
- Call the person by their given name.
- Invoke the words of the blessing as directed by the Holy Ghost.
- Close in the name of Jesus Christ.
No special permission is required to invoke blessings in prayer. It is not necessary to advise anyone in any leadership position when such blessings have been offered. No priesthood office is invoked because prayer is not an ordinance.
Healing: Washing
When washing and anointing are requested, at least two Sisters should attend to perform the administration. Great care should be given when administering to those in sensitive conditions, especially when they are in pain. Where it would be imprudent or impossible to touch the person’s body without causing more injury or distress, do not insist upon it. Adapt to the circumstances at hand. Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost in each blessing for how to proceed. Never hesitate to counsel with the Sister requesting the administration in what they would prefer.
When performing healing washings, the following steps would be appropriate:
- Call the person by their given name.
- Invoke blessings of healing and comfort upon the body as directed by the Holy Ghost.
- Wash each body part (or the space above it) with water, as dictated by the blessing.
- Close in the name of Jesus Christ.
Washing should be performed with clean, sanitary water. It may be administered with the fingers, a clean cloth, or a small spoon, depending on the needs of the person and the circumstances surrounding the blessing. Because washing and anointing in this fashion is not a priesthood ordinance, no exact pattern for how to perform them exists. This fact opens these administrations to adaptation and flexibility in ways that priesthood ordinances cannot.
Healing: Anointing
When performing a healing anointing, the following steps should be taken after the performance of washing:
- Call the person by their given name.
- Invoke blessings of healing and comfort upon the body as directed by the Holy Ghost.
- Anoint the person with oil.
- Confirm the anointing in the name of Jesus Christ. Do not seal the anointing, as clarified by Lorenzo Snow.
It is unclear if the oil used during these administrations historically was always consecrated. The use of the oil in Sister administrations varied greatly from current usage for administering to the sick. Instead of being placed solely on the head, oil was placed on the individual body parts as they were anointed. In some instances, the oil was also ingested for internal applications. Sisters may seek inspiration from the Holy Ghost where and how to administer oil. Because this form of healing is not an ordinance, the freedom to adapt each administration belongs to the Sisters administering them.
