Churching of Women following Childbirth

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SusanneT

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Does anyone know anything about this practice or where I can find more information ?
 
Does “churching” have its roots in the old pre-Christian concept that childbirth makes a woman “ritually impure?”
 
I vaguely recall old threads on the old CAF where posters claimed churching was required for women before they could re-enter the church. :roll_eyes:
 
Churching is a practice I’d never heard of until I came to my present parish when I was in my 40s. Then some of the older women I was on committees with mentioned it, usually when talking about asking a specific priest to be churched and he not knowing what they were talking about. I felt for him because I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.

If it was a practice in my little French parish in Atlantic Canada it’s one that women kept to themselves. And since Mom never asked me if I’d had it done I presume it’s not something she was familiar with. Like “Solemn Communion” which English Canada seemed not to know, and the taking of a new name at Confirmation which I didn’t hear about until I moved to this parish, I presume there are practices in the Church that have remained localized within certain ethnic communities or within countries. The Irish influence in this province may account for the practices I didn’t know in my French parish.
 
In Christian tradition the Churching of Women is the ceremony wherein a blessing is given to mothers after recovery from childbirth. The ceremony includes thanksgiving for the woman’s survival of childbirth, and is performed even when the child is stillborn, or has died unbaptized.
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It does appear to be a Christian tradition. I’m not sure it is used much anymore. I have never seen it done.
 
Horton said:
It does appear to be a Christian tradition. I’m not sure it is used much anymore. I have never seen it done.
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I don’t think it’s something you would have seen done unless it was your wife. From what I was able to glean from the women here it was something done almost in secret before she was allowed to return to church. This at a time when women didn’t usually go out until 40 days after childbirth and the first stop was the church to be churched before she could return to Mass and Communion the next Sunday.

From what I knew of the Jewish tradition of ritual purification it’s certainly was my thought on the process. That may not have been its purpose but the women who were having it done certainly believed that. That’s why they were shocked that a priest would not know what they were talking about.
 
Thanks! I am a female and I don’t have a wife 😀
 
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I have heard of it taking place in some of the Lutheran parishes where I live. It seems like it is an old custom for that part of the country. The tradition was that children were baptised during their first couple of weeks due to high rate of infant deaths up until modern medicine. The mother would not be at the baptism of her child so this “churching” would be the official recognising of her as mother. The godparents of the child were more important during the baptism.
 
It is still used, albeit very occasionally in the Church of England. The rite that we have in the Book of Common Prayer 1662 is similar to the pre Reformation Sarum rite. We know that St Augustine of Canterbury spoke of the rite of Churching in the 6th century.

 
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We should note that the rite of baptism now includes a blessing for the mother and the father. That is perhaps why the Churching blessing is now seen as unnecessary for the mother who is present at the baptism.
 
This is a normal thing for at least some Eastern Orthodox to this day. The Catholic church at some point stopped this practice.
 
I know about this. It is a common practice in the Orthodox Church. I’m not sure if the term is still “churching”. Also traditionally the mother cannot participate in the baptism of her own child because baptism is about the child entering the Church, the god parents are the most important there. My mom did not participate at my baptism e.g.
Also the mother has to read a special prayer that she composes with the priest including many unseen sins. It’s a small exorcism.
We may not like it today but it is based on Scripture and Church tradition. In Psalm 50/51 it is said that
“Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”
It is about Adam and Eve’s sin and what we inherit from that.
If I were to have babies one day I would do. It cannot do any harm on the contrary. It is like an ointment, an extra help.
 
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