What is "Churching" After Childbirth And its Customs

[Raconteur]

In Christian tradition the churching of women, also known as thanksgiving for the birth or adoption of a child, 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.

The custom of blessing a woman after childbirth recalls the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary mentioned in Luke 2:22. The Jewish practice was based on Leviticus 12:1-8, which specified the ceremonial rite to be performed in order to restore ritual purity. It was believed that a woman becomes ritually unclean by giving birth owing to the presence of blood and/or other fluids at birth. This was part of ceremonial rather than moral law.

 Historically, European women were confined to their beds or their homes for extensive periods after giving birth in a custom called lying-in; care was provided either by her female relatives (mother or mother-in-law) or by a temporary attendant known as a monthly nurse. "Churching" served to mark the end of these weeks of separation and reintegrate the new mother into her community. She would receive no outside visits during this time period from either women or men. The ritual of childbirth was strictly a woman's world with no outside interference from men at all. The Midwife was the only person of any real 'medical' knowledge - which was why it was so important to choose the right midwife to attend you. (The number of babies safely delivered and that Lived, and mothers that did not Die in her care.)

A Churching ceremony acknowledged the woman's labours and the perils of childbirth. At the conclusion of a month after childbirth, women looked forward to churching as a social occasion, and a time to celebrate with friends. For men it marked the end of a month during which they had to take care of the domestic affairs, commonly referred to as the "gander month" as they were not allowed to see or visit their wives.

The Ceremony 

Custom differs, but the usual date of churching was the fortieth day after confinement (or giving birth), in accordance with the Biblical date of the portrait 'The Purification of Mary and the presentation of Jesus at the Temple' are commemorated forty days after Christmas.

The service included in the English Book of Common Prayer dates only from the Middle Ages.While the churching was normally performed by a priest in the parish church there were exceptions of women being churched at home.

(For our Game purposes since Lord Toledo is Catholic this ceremony might be done in a Catholic Church of his choosing by a Priest rather than a Protestant Church.)

The new mother would go to the Church where   .....

"she was to be "nigh unto the place where the Table (or altar) standeth". Bishop Matthew Wren orders for the diocese of Norwich in 1636 were that women to be churched would come and kneel at a side near the communion table outside the rail, being veiled according to custom, and not covered with a hat. In some parishes there was a special pew known as the "churching seat" Conducting the ritual inside the church rather than on the porch is an outward sign that ritual impurity of a childbearing woman was no longer presumed.

Churchings were formerly registered in some parishes. In Herefordshire it was not considered proper for the husband to appear in church at the service, or to sit with his wife in the same pew. The words in the rubric requiring the woman to come "decently apparelled", refer to the times when it was thought unbecoming for a woman to come to the service with the elaborate head-dress then the fashion. A veil was usually worn. In some parishes a special veil was provided by the church, for an inventory of goods belonging to St Benet Grace church in 1560 includes "a churching cloth, fringed, white damask."

In pre-Reformation days, it was the custom in Catholic England for women to carry lighted tapers when being churched, an allusion to the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin (February 2), and also celebrated as Candlemas, the day chosen by the Catholic Church for the blessing of the candles for the whole year. At her churching, a woman was expected to make some votive offering to the church, such as the chrisom or alb placed on the child at its christening.

Our time period it was set down that 

"The mother, kneels in the vestibule, or within the church, carrying a lighted candle. The priest, vested in surplice and white stole, sprinkles her with holy water in the form of a cross. Having recited Psalm 24, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof", he offers her the left extremity of the stole and leads her into the church, saying: "Enter thou into the temple of God, adore the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary who has given thee fruitfulness of offspring." She advances to one of the altars and kneels before it, whilst the priest, turned towards her, recites the appropriate blessing, and then, having sprinkled her again with holy water in the form of the cross, dismisses her, saying: "The peace and blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, descend upon thee, and remain forever. Amen."

It is important to note that the fact that the priest goes to meet the mother and escort her into the church is in itself a mark of respect for her.

It was formerly regarded as unwise for a woman to leave her house to go out at all after confinement until she went to be churched.

Being "Churched" was the outward sign that the new mother was now considered ready to resume her place in Society and to receive visitors.

In Anglo-Irish folk tradition, new mothers who had yet to be churched were regarded as attractive to the fairies, and so in danger of being kidnapped by them. 

In contemporary times "Churching" was still being practiced by the Catholic Church as follows

The custom, referred to in many places as the "Churching of Women", was retained in the Church until very recent times, and still is in the old rite. The official title of the Rite was actually Benedictio mulieris post partum (the blessing of a woman after giving birth), and focused on blessing and thanksgiving. The rite largely fell into disuse in the late 1960s following the Second Vatican Council, but a number of traditional Catholic women still undergo the rite. The Book of Blessings published in 1984 contains a "Blessing of a Woman after Childbirth" that is significantly altered from the old rite used before the Council, but fulfills the same liturgical purpose. The current baptismal rite (which also incorporates a blessing of the father) contains a blessing for the mother, but the older rite is a special blessing.

The concluding prayer reads:

Almighty, everlasting God, through the delivery of the blessed Virgin Mary, Thou hast turned into joy the pains of the faithful in childbirth; look mercifully upon this Thy handmaid, coming in gladness to Thy temple to offer up her thanks: and grant that after this life, by the merits and intercession of the same blessed Mary, she may merit to arrive, together with her offspring, at the joys of everlasting happiness. Through Christ our Lord.

The "Order for the Blessing of a Mother after Childbirth" is still used, primarily for those mothers who were unable to attend the baptism, and is not necessarily held in a church. It may be imparted by a priest, deacon or authorized lay minister.

Anglicanism

The rite of the "Churching of Women" is offered in the Anglican Communion with a liturgy as part of the Book of Common Prayer.

In the US-based Episcopal Church, the "Churching of Women" is a liturgy for the purification or "churching" of women after childbirth, together with the presentation in church of the child. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer, avoiding any hint of ritual impurity, replaces the older rite with "A Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child." The rite is to take place within the Sunday liturgy, after the intercessions, soon after the birth or adoption. In this service, parents and other family members come to the church with the newly born or adopted child "to be welcomed by the congregation and to give thanks to Almighty God" (Book of Common Prayer, p. 439).