Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 16th April 2023

Dear Friends,

Anointing

Although we don’t use the word very much, large numbers of us use anointing as a therapeutic practice – those wary of the damage the sun can do to the skin, and those suffering from eczema, for example. Oil has healing properties. Roman and Anglo Catholics use anointing with oil as a sacrament, what the 1662 Book of Common Prayer calls ‘the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace’. The olive oil has usually been blessed by the local bishop on Maundy Thursday. It is then used for spiritual healing and blessing in advance of such normal occurrences as a new job, a surgical operation, or at the end of life. It is a very old spiritual activity and dates back to the Hebrew Bible when kings were anointed.

On 6 May, Charles Mountbatten Windsor will be anointed before his coronation as king, surely a role that makes many demands which will seem the heavier because of his age and other vulnerabilities. A constitutional monarchy as we have it is contrary to simplicity and equality. The very military ‘glamour’ which figures in big royal occasions are not exactly in keeping with our peace testimony, or with simplicity; and the perceived necessity for a good public image probably is at times economical with the truth. However Charles has a good record when it comes to caring for the planet, and, like all of us, he is a mixture of strengths and weaknesses.

Quakers have a much broader view of sacraments than the sacramental practices of diverse Christian churches. During my 20 years with Friends I can’t remember hearing very much about this subject. There are however some very helpful references to sacraments in Quaker Faith and Practice and it seems to me we take a generous view towards this type of worship. I would suggest our faithful habit of gathering together in the silence of Meeting for Worship is our collective ‘outward and visible sign’, and there will be others of a more individual nature.

Meanwhile, may we support the new king when his concerns overlap ours, and in ‘the things that are eternal’.

In Friendship
Caroline

On behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Caroline Pybus, Theresa Samms, Nancy Wall)