CHURCHING OF WOMEN – A service of thanksgiving of women after childbirth; related to the ancient Biblical law (LEV. 12:6). The new-born infant is brought to church by its mother usually on the fortieth day, in memory of how Jesus was presented at the Temple of Jerusalem by His Most-Holy Mother. The priest meets the mother and the child at the door of the nar-thex, and reads prayers for them both. Then he takes the baby and carries it forward with the words: “The servant of God (name) is received into the Church in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.” If the child is a boy he carries him into the Sanctuary and hands him back to the Mother with the prayer of St. Simeon.
CHURCHING OF WOMEN
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