Temple washing and anointing: Clothing and contact changed in 2005
Participant accounts describe an earlier open-sided shield and a 2005 change to wearing the garment first, with more limited physical contact.
The short answer
Did washing and anointing once involve different clothing and physical contact?
Yes. Participant accounts describe undressing beneath an open-sided shield before the earlier initiatory. Accounts of the 2005 revision describe putting on the garment beforehand and limiting the application of water and oil to the head.
The defining contrast
The earlier and later records
The participant undressed and wore a shield for washing and anointing; the garment came afterward.
Participant-account summary ↗The participant wore the garment beneath a closed-sided shield before the ordinance; water and oil were applied at the head.
Anonymous report summary ↗A named earlier participant
A recollection identifies the clothing procedure
Alison Moore Smith’s “Terrified of the Temple” describes her own 1985 experience. Her account identifies undressing and wearing the shield, and describes female workers administering to her. It is a retrospective first-person account, not a contemporaneous temple instruction sheet.
An addendum describes the 2005 change to putting on the garment privately before wearing the shield. A further addendum recounts a 2018 visit involving ordinary white temple clothing without the shield. The page’s original 2008 publication date should not be mistaken for the date of every later addition.
The 2005 report
Contact changed as well as clothing order
Utah Lighthouse Ministry’s May 2005 article reproduces an anonymous account of a January 18 visit to a Utah temple. It describes the closed shield, the garment already being worn, and water and oil applied at the head instead of contact with the additional body areas named in the blessings.
That is a dated report of practice, not proof that every temple implemented the change on January 18. The account’s anonymity limits independent verification of the detailed procedure.
Official framing
A general acknowledgment is not a detailed procedure record
The Church’s history topic acknowledges adjustments to temple administration and clothing. It does not itemize the 2005 initiatory changes. Its general explanation therefore accompanies the participant evidence rather than substituting for it.
Finding
What the record establishes
A present-day experience cannot disprove an earlier participant’s account of different clothing and contact. The sources describe a procedural change; the detailed 2005 report and the later recollections are identified with their respective limitations.
Verify the record
Sources and provenance
Document type, dates, and limitations are identified below.
Named participant’s recollection of 1985 and later updates about clothing. Addenda are not all dated; one recounts January 2018.
Read source ↗May 2005 · reproduced participant report“Temple Ritual Changed Again,” Utah Lighthouse MinistrySection on 2005 changes reproduces an anonymous January 18, 2005 account. Critical ministry publication; the witness is not independently identified.
Read source ↗2022 · official historical explanationChurch History Topics: “Adjustments to Temple Work”Acknowledges changes to administration and clothing without documenting the detailed 2005 procedure.
Read source ↗