Something we in the East do, with regularity, or should

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Yes! This is so important. We also do this in the “Orient”, as you might imagine. There is one little girl in our church here in Albuquerque (she must be about one year old now, as we were actually baptized on the same day, and the Copts practice ‘churching’, i.e., waiting until the 40th/80th day after the birth of the child before baptism), and she always receives, as do the children of our frequent Ethiopian visitors (between the ages of 2 years and 8 years). To deny these beautiful children of God access to His saving sacraments is unconscionable, from the OO perspective.

http://292fc373eb1b8428f75b-7f75e5e...8101502080156-1301775639-4d978517-620x348.jpg
From the Malta Times: "Malta-born Eritrean Yoran Tesfalem, 21 months, with his mother Yordanus Ukwamkal just before receiving his first Holy Communion yesterday." (Photo: Jason Borg)

How sweet it is. 🙂
 
dzheremi said:
Yes! This is so important. We also do this in the “Orient”, as you might imagine. There is one little girl in our church here in Albuquerque (she must be about one year old now, as we were actually baptized on the same day, and the Copts practice ‘churching’, i.e., waiting until the 40th/80th day after the birth of the child before baptism), and she always receives, as do the children of our frequent Ethiopian visitors (between the ages of 2 years and 8 years). To deny these beautiful children of God access to His saving sacraments is unconscionable, from the OO perspective.
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Churching refers to the mother; why would the child have to wait 40 days for baptism?
 
Further to [post=10746830]dzheremi’s post[/post], I’ll add that even the Maronites, despite both the “old” latinizations and the on-going and never-ending Novus Ordo-inspired neo-latinizations, maintain the the same tradition. Infant Baptism is normally (except in case of need, i.e, in extremis), done at 40 days (approximately 6 weeks), and the mother is “churched” at the same time.

Unfortunately, we do not commune infants, but that’s a whole other story which has been discussed in previous threads and which I’m not about to go into here.
 
aemcpa said:
Churching refers to the mother; why would the child have to wait 40 days for baptism?
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It is not that the child has to wait. Children can be baptized at any time. It is that, under normal circumstances, the mother is to participate in the baptismal rite. That is not possible if she is to be recuperating.
 
aemcpa said:
Churching refers to the mother; why would the child have to wait 40 days for baptism?
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Tradition as well. 40 days is always a symbol of fulfillment or completion.

I’m not sure in the Coptic tradition, but in the Constantipolonian/Byzantine tradition, there are minor rites performed on the 1st and 3rd days. On the 1st day from birth, the midwife comes to church and presents the name of the child to the priest. On the 3rd day, the child is brought to the church but does not enter, and the priest blesses the child by the door. So it is not like the child is completely banned from church for 40 days. There is a process which culminates in the baptism on the 40th day.

Although I doubt anybody still practices this today, especially here in North America. I learned about this from my former pastor/priest. It was still in the Ukrainian book of Liturgical Rites he has.
 
Thomas48 said:
In the Syro Malabar Church we currently Confirm and Commune infants on the date of there Baptism. All three are given at once, I believe this is apart of the restoration of the Syro Malabar Rite. Such factors of Latinizations are at constant being removed.
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It looks like Mar George is having some impact. 👍
 
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