thumb|right|[[Holy of Holies (LDS Church)|Holy of Holies in the Salt Lake Temple, a room where second anointings have taken place.]]

In the Latter Day Saint movement, the second anointing, or second endowment, is the pinnacle ordinance of the temple and an extension of the endowment ceremony. Joseph Smith taught that the function of the ordinance was to ensure salvation, guarantee exaltation, and confer godhood. In the ordinance, a participant is anointed as a "priest and king" or a "priestess and queen", and is sealed to the highest degree of salvation available in Mormon theology.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Mormonism's largest denomination, the ordinance is currently only given in secret to select couples whom top leaders say God has chosen. By 1941, about 15,000 second anointings had been performed for the living, and over 6,000 for the dead. Most modern LDS adherents are unaware of the ritual's existence. Instructors in the church's institutes of religion are told, "Do not attempt in any way to discuss or answer questions about the second anointing" [emphasis in the original]. The ordinance is also performed by many Mormon fundamentalist groups. However, it is not performed by denominations such as the Community of Christ, who historically did not practice the Nauvoo endowment ceremony.

History

Under Smith (1842–1844)

First performance of the ritual

Joseph Smith introduced the Nauvoo endowment in 1842, but stated that his work in establishing the "fullness of the priesthood" was not yet complete. In August 1843, church apostle Brigham Young stated that "[i]f any in the Church had the fullness of the priesthood, he did not know it". Young understood that the "fullness of the priesthood" involved an anointing as "king and priest", with the actual kingdom to be given after resurrection. During Smith's lifetime, the second anointing was performed on at least 20 men and 17 women. Additionally, Orson Pratt and Parley P. Pratt received the ordinance without their wives. Beginning in the 1870s, second anointings began to be performed vicariously for dead members of the church. Stake presidents at the local congregation level were no longer permitted to recommend candidates for the ordinance; rather, recommendations could only be made by higher-ranking leaders in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. One British former stake president and former area executive secretary, Tom Phillips, said his spouse and he had received the ordinance before his public disaffiliation. According to historian D. Michael Quinn, both of the late church presidents Spencer W. Kimball (president from 1973–1985) and Russell M. Nelson (president from 2018–2025) received their second anointing in 1974; Nelson alluded to this experience in his 1979 autobiography.

Eligibility

Some members of the church were historically or are currently ineligible for the second anointing ordinance. All candidates for the rite cannot be single and must be temple married before receiving it, All temple ordinances continue to be denied for non-heterosexual couples and transgender couples .

Confidentiality

The ordinance is currently only given confidentially to select couples, and at least one obituary from a largely LDS Utah city mentioned the ordinance in 1909. In response to a researcher publishing an academic article on the topic in the 1980s the church banned him from future access to its historical archives and increased restrictions on public access. In 1978 Mark Hofmann forged a handwritten document purporting to be a historical description of the secret ordinance and sold it to Utah State University.

Ceremony

right|thumb|Part of the ceremony consists of a feet washing similar to a [[The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)#Ordinances|Bickertonite Latter Day Saint feet washing shown here.]]

According to 19th-century journal entries and contemporary sources, the LDS second anointing ceremony consists of three parts:

  1. Prayer and Washing – First the couple and an officiator or two participate in a prayer circle (conducted by the husband) in a dedicated temple room, and then a male officiator washes only the husband's feet.
  2. Anointing – Next the officiator anoints the husband as a king and priest to God, and then anoints the wife as a queen and priestess to her husband. For example, the following words were used by Heber C. Kimball during the second anointing of Brigham Young in the Nauvoo temple in 1846: "Brother Brigham Young, I pour this holy consecrated oil upon your head and anoint thee a king and a priest of the most high God, over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and unto all Israel. ... And I seal thee up unto eternal life, that thou shalt come forth in the morn of the first resurrection ... and thou shalt attain unto the eternal Godhead and receive a fulness of joy, and glory, and power; and that thou mayest do all things whatsoever is wisdom that thou shouldst do, even if it be to create worlds and redeem them."
  3. Washing of the Husband – Later, the wife symbolically prepares her husband for his death and resurrection as his priestess by washing and anointing the husband's feet and then laying her hands on his head to give a blessing. This portion of the ceremony was historically done at home, in a room dedicated by the husband.