Eucharist and Unction
The midweek service is Holy Eucharist celebrated in Rite I, with the ministration of healing added after the readings. A lector reads, the celebrant offers a brief reflection, and those who wish come forward to be prayed for by name. The priest lays hands on the head and anoints the forehead with oil, making the sign of the cross. The whole liturgy takes about thirty minutes, and it is kept each week in commemoration of a saint or a witness of the church.
An Ancient Practice
Anointing the sick is among the oldest recorded actions of the church. The Letter of James instructs the sick to call for the elders, who are to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. The gospels report the disciples doing the same. From the earliest centuries bishops blessed oil for this purpose, and priests carried it to the bedsides of the sick and the dying.
Healing in the Prayer Book
Over the medieval period the rite narrowed until it was chiefly administered at the point of death, and it became known as extreme unction. Anglican reform trimmed it back further. The recovery came in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as parishes restored anointing to its earlier and broader use: prayer for the sick, not only for the dying. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer gives it a full order of service under the Ministration to the Sick, and unction is counted among the sacramental rites of the Episcopal Church alongside confirmation, ordination, marriage, and reconciliation.
Not a Substitute for Care
The church does not offer these prayers as an alternative to medicine, and it does not promise a particular outcome. Healing is asked for in the widest sense: of body, of mind, of memory, of relationships, and of the spirit. People come while waiting on a diagnosis, during treatment, in grief, in exhaustion, in recovery, and on behalf of someone else entirely. Prayer offered for another person is as welcome as prayer offered for yourself.
What to Expect
The chapel is small and the gathering is unhurried. You may come forward or remain in your seat; either is ordinary here. You may name your intention aloud, name it quietly, or say nothing at all and simply be prayed for. What is said is held in confidence. Anointing is offered to anyone who asks, and receiving Communion is not a condition of receiving prayer.
Tuesdays at 11:30 AM
The service is held in St. Alban’s Chapel at St. Stephen’s, 212 N Tulane Ave in Oak Ridge, every Tuesday at 11:30 AM. Parking is beside and behind the church, and the entrance is accessible. If you are homebound or in the hospital and would like the sacrament brought to you, the parish office can arrange a visit from the clergy.