Churching of women

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, and is performed even when the child is stillborn, or has died unbaptized.

Although the ceremony itself contains no elements of ritual purification, it was related to Jewish practice as noted in Leviticus 12:2–8, where women were purified after giving birth. In light of the New Testament, the Christian ritual draws on the imagery and symbolism of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Luke 2:22–40). Although some Christian traditions consider Mary to have borne Christ without incurring impurity, she went to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfil the requirements of the Law of Moses.

The rite is first mentioned in pseudo-Nicene Arabic canon law.^[1] The Christian rite for the churching of women continues in Eastern Christianity, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion and the Methodist Churches;^[2] but in the Roman Rite it is found only in the pre-Vatican II form and in Anglican Ordinariate parishes.