pp. 49–58
The article addresses the current practice of administering the anointing of the sick in the Russian and Romanian Orthodox Churches. The author pays special attention to the fact that the meaning of this sacrament in the church people’s mentality was distorted, largely due to the loss of the interrelation between Eucharist and anointing of the sick. As a result, the individualistic, magical and consumerist attitudes towards this sacrament get widespread, producing a shift in emphasis from the church gathering to the substance of the sacrament. The liturgical sources suggest that without a church gathering the anointing of the sick, as well as the other sacraments, loses its initial meaning.
Keywords: anointing of the sick, church gathering, history of worship, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, liturgical sources, today’s practice.