A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

In the Greek Church the time for performing this office is limited to be on the fortieth day; but, in the West, the time was never strictly determined. And so our present rubric does not pretend to limit the day when the woman shall be churched, but only supposes that she will come “at the usual time after her delivery.” The “usual time” is now about a month, for the woman’s weakness will seldom permit her coming sooner. And if she be not able to come so soon, she is allowed to stay a longer time, the Church not expecting her to return her thanks for a blessing before it is received.—Wheatly.

It is required, that whenever a woman is churched, she “shall come into the church.” And this is enjoined, first, for the honour of God, whose marvellous works in the formation of the child, and the preservation of the woman, ought publicly to be owned, that so others may learn to put their trust in him. Secondly, that the whole congregation may have a fit opportunity for praising God for the too much forgotten mercy of their birth. And, thirdly, that the woman may, in the proper place, own the mercy now vouchsafed her, of being restored to the happy privilege of worshipping God in the congregation of his saints.

How great, therefore, is the absurdity which some would introduce, of stifling their acknowledgments in private houses, and of giving thanks for their recovery and enlargement in no other place than that of their confinement and restraint; a practice which is inconsistent with the very name of this office, which is called “the churching of women,” and which consequently implies a ridiculous solecism, of being churched at home. Nor is it anything more consistent with the end and devotions prescribed by this office, than it is with the name of it. For with what decency or propriety can the woman pretend to “pay her vows in the presence of all God’s people, in the courts of the Lord’s house,” when she is only assuming state in a bedchamber or parlour, and perhaps only accompanied with her midwife or nurse? To give thanks, therefore, at home (for by no means call it “churching”) is not only an act of disobedience to the Church, but a high affront to Almighty God; whose mercy they scorn to acknowledge in a church, and think it honour enough done him, if he is summoned by his priest to wait on them at their house, and to take what thanks they will vouchsafe him there. But methinks a minister, who has any regard for his character, and considers the honour of the Lord he serves, should disdain such a servile compliance and submission, and abhor the betraying of his Master’s dignity. Here can be no pretence of danger in the case, should the woman prove obstinate, upon the priest’s refusal (which ministers are apt to urge for their excuse, when they are prevailed upon to give public baptism in private); nor is the decision of a council wanting to instruct him, (if he has any doubts upon account of the woman’s ill health,) that he is not to perform this office at home, though she be really so weak as not to be able to come to church.—Conc. 3, Mediol. cap. 5. For if she be not able to come to church, let her stay till she is; God does not require any thanks for a mercy, before he has vouchsafed it: but if she comes as soon as her strength permits, she discharges her obligations both to him and the Church.—Wheatly.

The rubric, at the end of the service, directs the woman that cometh to give her thanks, to offer the accustomed offerings. By “the accustomed offerings” is to be understood some offering to the minister who performs the office, not under the notion of a fee or reward, but of something set apart as a tribute or acknowledgment due to God, who is pleased to declare himself honoured or robbed according as such offerings are paid or withheld. We see under the law, that every woman, who came to be purified after child-bearing, was required to bring something that put her to an expense; even the poorest among them was not wholly excused, but obliged to do something, though it were but small. And though neither the kind nor the value of the expense be now prescribed, yet sure the expense itself should not covetously be saved: a woman that comes with any thankfulness or gratitude should scorn to offer what David disdained, namely, “of that which costs nothing.” And indeed with what sincerity or truth can she say, as she is directed to do in one of the Psalms, “I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people,” if at the same time she designs no voluntary offering, which vows were always understood to imply?

But, besides the accustomed offering to the minister, the woman is to make a yet much better and greater offering, namely, an offering of herself, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to God. For the rubric declares, that “if there be a communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy communion;” that being the most solemn way of praising God for him by whom she received both the present and all other God’s mercies towards her; and a means also to bind herself more strictly to spend those days in his service, which, by this late deliverance, he hath added to her life.—Wheatly.

In the Greek and Ethiopic Churches women upon these occasions always did receive the holy sacrament; and it seems in this very Church above a thousand years ago; and still we carry them up to the altar to remind them of their duty. And doubtless the omission of it occasions the too soon forgetting of this mercy, and the sudden falling off from piety, which we see in too many. Here they may praise God for our Lord Jesus Christ, and for this late temporal mercy also: here they may quicken their graces, seal their vows and promises of obedience, offer their charity, and begin that pious life to which they are so many ways obliged. To receive the sacrament, while the sense of God’s goodness and her own engagements is so fresh upon her, is the likeliest means to make her remember this blessing long, apply it right, and effectually to profit by it. Wherefore let it not be omitted on this occasion.—Dean Comber.

The woman is directed to kneel down in “some convenient place, as hath been accustomed.” No general rule is either prescribed or observed as to time or place, and therefore these are matters which fall within the office of the ordinary to determine. Many read the office just before the General Thanksgiving: others, though not so usually, at some part of the Communion Service; some at the altar, others at the desk: the woman in some churches occupies a seat specially set apart for this office; in others she kneels at the altar table, and there makes her offering. And in others a custom prevails (which does not seem worthy of imitation) of performing this service at some time distinct from the office of Common Prayer.

CHURCH RATE. (See Rate.)

CHURCHWARDENS. These are very ancient officers, and by the common law are a lay corporation, to take care of the goods of the church, and may sue and be sued as the representatives of the parish. Churches are to be repaired by the churchwardens, at the charge of all the inhabitants, or such as occupy houses or lands within the parish.

In the ancient episcopal synods, the bishops were wont to summon divers creditable persons out of every parish, to give information of, and to attest the disorders of clergy and people. They were called testes synodales; and were, in after times, a kind of empanelled jury, consisting of two, three, or more persons in every parish, who were, upon oath, to present all heretics and other irregular persons. And these, in process of time, became standing officers in several places, especially in great cities, and from hence were called synods-men, and by corruption sidesmen: they are also sometimes called questmen, from the nature of their office, in making inquiry concerning offences. And these sidesmen or questmen, by Canon 90, are to be chosen yearly in Easter week, by the minister and parishioners, (if they can agree,) otherwise to be appointed by the ordinary of the diocese. But for the most part this whole office is now devolved upon the churchwardens, together with that other office which their name more properly imports, of taking care of the church and the goods thereof, which has long been their function.