Has anyone else heard of being "Churched" after the birth of a baby.?

Does anybody else find Granbunny's style strangely familiar? I don't think we should keep her from finding a more interesting forum.

Yes Greatnan

If there is no reaction, there is no fun. Ignore it.

Every so often someone turns up and tries to rile the regular posters. They must have very boring lives if they need to break into other people's conversations to get a bit of excitement.

Isn't it easy to sit at a computer and throw s* at people? Then when they tell you they don't like it, accuse them of bullying you?

Quite right Elegran

you might indeed find my style strangely familiar - i have no idea what goes on in your minds. but i have not been here until recently, so you are making false connections.

Elegran, . For the first time. I am feeling uncomfortable on Gransnet.

I've been away and have to say it certainly feels a bit skewed at the mo!

Hi Grannylin, good to have you back.

Don't let it get to you, ladies! Ignore it.

To be positive, what's wrong with giving thanks for being alive after childbirth and having a hopefully, healthy child? Some rituals in life are helpful and are missed now.
As far as unclean is concerned, for this particular act, I would just put that out of my mind.
But, to be frank, after a lifetime of painful and heavy periods, I think they were unclean and shudder when I pass the sanitary pads section.........!

Crikey, this is a blast from the past!

What on earth made you choose this topic out of all the others you could have chosen, floriana?

Have they stopped "zombie-ing" old threads?

I have never heard of this. Very odd, surely giving birth is a very natural thing. How can it make you 'unclean' in the eyes of God

Nina - if you read the whole thread you will get the full story!

I have just finished reading The White Princess, about the wife of Henry 7th. When she had Arthur and Henry 8th, her mother in law, the Red Queen, made sure she did not come out of confinement until she had been churched. I think it was six weeks. But it was so she could pretend to rule with Henry Tudor for as long as possible.
It happened to me in 1967 when my eldest was born. My mother's cousins would not see me or my son until I had been churched. Their father had been a C of E vicar. When his brother was born two years later, we did not live in the same place, so they did not know I had not been churched. Come to think of it, I still haven't!

Sorry to bring this up again, but was looking up "churching" as my mother did it and was a non-church goer, disliked lots of things about Christianity, but enjoyed having babies....,as one turns into one's mother in some respects,some of the things she said pop into my mind now she is no longer here,
In doing so, I came upon this site and found the unclean topic very interesting.

This is the actual service from the Book of Common Prayer, 1552. When you think how hazardous childbirth was (sadly, still is in some places) not surprising! users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/bcp1552.html

I can understand a religious act of of thanksgiving having been 'safely delivered' etc but the rest about being unclean is just 'holy men' nonsense! Repressive and awful.

I have heard of this , I myself was not "Churched" !

Where is there anything about being unclean?

The anglican ceremony is to give thanks for the safe arrival of the child, though it was performed after a still-birth too or if the child had died unbaptised.

"It contains no elements of purification but is related to Jewish practice as noted in Leviticus 12:2-8" . . . " Under Mosaic law as found in the Old Testament, a mother who had given birth to a man-child was considered unclean for seven days; moreover she was to remain for thirty-three days "in the blood of her purification."

For a girl child, it was fourteen days and sixtysix days. In the seven days of a womean's normal menstrual flow, she was also considered unclean, and anything she touched had to be purified (including her man, who could not "lie with her" - euphemism)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churching_of_women
www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0312.htm

And a mother who has given birth to a female child, I wonder??

I have no problem with the service of thanksgiving. Too many people take childbirth for granted in out developed world and if one is religiously incilined it seems eminently appropriate to register gratitude for a healthy baby and a healthy mother.

Sorry - Elegtan - just read on to "for a girl child etc"

I was 'churched' after the birth of our two daughters, 1969 and - 1970. No one suggested I should, I chose to. As a Christian I found it gave me that quiet time to give thanks for our babies. No mention or thoughts of sin , just joy for the blessings of two new little lives.