An Orthodox priest presents an infant before the icons of Christ and the Theotokos.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
The fact that some Anglicans have never heard the term
"churching" of women suggests that they are not aware of the significance of blood in the Bible, and specifically about the blood
work of women.
The "churching" tradition was lost in the wave of prayer book revisions. It was obfuscated by feminists who saw the early
tradition of a new mother remaining home for 40 days, then coming to the church
for a rite of purification and blessing, as misogynistic.
The eastern churches have preserved the custom. After 40
days of being sequestered with the newborn, the mother comes to the church. She
is met at the door where the priest offers a rite of purification and blessing.
The mother remains standing there while the priest takes the infant to the
front of the church and presents the child before the icons of Christ and the
Virgin Mary. If the child is a female, she is then carried back to the mother
who joins the congregation. If the child is male, the priest carries him into
the altar sanctum and walks him around the altar. This rite acknowledges the
blood work of females and clarifies that it is distinct from the bloodwork of
male priests at the altar. Consider the deep significance of that gender distinction.
The traditional rite is about more than giving thanks for
the safe delivery of a child. The 40 days before returning to church is symbolic, and good
for the woman and infant. The sequester is patterned on the symbolism of the
number 40 in the Bible. The Virgin Mary took Jesus to the Temple 40 days after his
birth. Angels ministered to Jesus after his 40 days in the wilderness. Liturgy
that is rich in symbolism connected to Scripture should not be so easily
eliminated or dismissed.
Blood when shed in any form has significance in the Bible.
After being involved in combat the priest-king Melchizedek ministered to
Abraham with bread and wine. This was a rite of blood cleansing as was common
in the ancient world. Our unbreakable bond as Christians is that of kinship
formed through Christ's blood. St. Paul refers to the blood of Jesus no less
than twelve times in his writings. Because God makes peace with us through the
blood of Christ, the Apostle urges us to, "Take every care to preserve the
unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together" (Eph. 4:3).
Blood speaks of the distinctions between male and
female and between life and death. For the early Hebrew, the blood work of
males and the blood work of females was distinct. The blood work of females
pertains to the monthly cycle and childbirth. The blood work of males pertains
to war, hunting, execution, and animal sacrifice by the priests. Men preparing
to hunt or go to war sequestered themselves from menstruating women. That also
was true of the priests when it was their time to serve at the Temple. Women in
childbirth sequestered themselves from men. The distinction between the two
types of blood work speaks of life and death. The two are never to be confused
or mixed. Men were never allowed in the birthing chambers and women were never
allowed in the place of animal sacrifice.
The traditional churching of women addresses blood. It
involves priestly prayer for purification. Antinomian Anglicans neglect what the Bible reveals about our accountability to the Creator for
all blood that is shed. Balanced acknowledgement of the "blood work"
of males and females is biblical. That anthropological observation is confirmed
by a detailed study of the canonical Scriptures which themselves reveal acute
gender balance. I have written on this extensively as an Anglican.
By reducing the rite to a service of thanksgiving, the newer
prayer books lost the connection to the biblical understanding of blood as
having power before our Creator. That takes us back to Genesis where we read
that Abel’s blood cried to God from the ground.
Related reading: A Christian Anthropologist Considers Gender in the Bible; Orthodoxy Requires Binary Reasoning; Is "Male Headship" a Biblical Doctrine?; Changing the Church by Stealth; Philosophers' Corner: Two Types of Binary Reasoning; Binary Reasoning Informs Christian Morality and Ethics
