Churching of women
In his sermon yesterday, Canon Michael St.John-Channell, a fine preacher, spoke about Candlemas which celebrates the presentation of Christ in the temple and the the purification of Mary after giving birth (which was a Jewish tradition). It used to be common practice for the Church of England to celebrate the churching of women as a thanksgiving after they had given birth and there's a section of prayers for this purpose in the Book of Common Prayer. With improvements in medicine, giving birth is now rarely thought to merit a special church service and the Canon has only performed it twice in his 29 year ministry.
posted by Whispering Walls at 9:29 am
1 Comments:
This does sound a good idea. It would certainly get round the arguments my parents would have when children were 'baptised' in their chapel, when they viewed baptism as something only adults could indulge in. 'The Baptists' in Wales view it as something which adults carry out at a pre-determined age, whatever beliefs they may have. Rather like the 'confirmation' in Ireland one suspects.
As something of an agnostic this has given me a few 'sticky moments'. I'm afraid that I'm grumpy enough to loathe going to 'christenings' for people who clearly not only never go to church, but look down on believers with a mix of pity and condescension. Grrrr.....
I once nearly lost my temper totally with someone who gave such a response of condescension towards my sister, who had promised to 'love, honour, cherish and OBEY' her husband, since that is her faith. Not necessarily mine. But this person said, 'She needs to get a life!'. I could have let this go, but this was the person who insisted she had to get married in a picturesque church near her parents 'Because it's nice.' Hmmmm...'Nice'...
My sister opted to have a 'blessing' for her sons in their church in Cardiff instead, though a few months after she had given birth. But you are right that just because we have a modern NHS [?] we shouldn't just take this miracle of life for granted.
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