Book of Common Prayer · Churching of Women (1662)

Versions of the Churching of Women

The base text is the 1662 Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth (plain text, source). Earlier and later rites are listed below, beginning with the medieval orders for purifying a woman (Chichele, Rathen, Sarum and York) (in English, AnglicanGuide translations unless credited; editions linked). Public-domain texts are given in full; copyrighted modern rites, and texts not separately transcribed, have a short note and a link. Use the Compare tab on the Churching page to read any of them beside 1662.

• Anglo-Saxon, Irish and Welsh books (700)
  No order for churching survives in the early books edited so far: none is in the Irish Dimma, Mulling or Stowe books, the Pontifical of Egbert, the Leofric and Robert of Jumièges missals, the Durham Collectar or the 12th-century Magdalen Pontifical. The practice is first discussed in Gregory the Great's answer to Augustine, given by Bede. Bede, Ecclesiastical History I.27, Gregory's answers to Augustine (Internet Medieval Sourcebook).
• Pontifical of Archbishop Chichele: the Order for Purifying a Woman (English) (the pontifical of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury 1414–1443 (Trinity College, Cambridge)) · English translation · Latin · Source: W. G. Henderson (ed.), Manuale et Processionale ad usum Eboracensis, Surtees Society 63 (1875), appendix VIII, pp. 213*–214* (Internet Archive)
• Rathen Manual: the Blessing of the Purification of a Woman after Childbirth (Scottish) (a 15th-century Scottish parish manual (Advocates Library, Edinburgh), after the Use of Sarum) · English translation · Latin · Source: D. MacGregor (ed.), The Rathen Manual, Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society (1905), transcript p. 5 (Internet Archive)
• Middle English (1450)
  No Middle English form of the office has been found: the Sarum, York and Rathen manuals and Maskell's collection give it only in Latin. W. Maskell (ed.), Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, vol. I (1882) (Internet Archive).
• Sarum Manual: the Order for Purifying a Woman after Childbirth (the Use of Salisbury, as printed in the early 16th century) · English translation · Latin · Source: W. Maskell (ed.), Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, vol. I (1882), pp. 46–47 (Internet Archive); also W. G. Henderson (ed.), Manuale et Processionale ad usum Eboracensis, Surtees Society 63 (1875), preface, pp. xix–xx
• Hereford Use (1502)
  No Hereford churching order survives in print. The Hereford Missal (1502) has the marriage order but no purification, the Hereford Breviary (1505; Frere and Brown, HBS 26, 40, 46) has none, and no Hereford manual is known. W. G. Henderson (ed.), Missale ad usum Percelebris Ecclesiae Herefordensis (1874) (Internet Archive).
• York Manual: the Order for Purifying a Woman (the Use of York, as printed in 1509) · English translation · Latin · Source: W. G. Henderson (ed.), Manuale et Processionale ad usum Eboracensis, Surtees Society 63 (1875), p. 22 (Internet Archive)
• First Prayer Book of Edward VI (1549) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1549 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Second Prayer Book of Edward VI (1552) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Elizabethan Prayer Book (1559) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1559 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Jacobean Prayer Book (1604)
  Not given separately: the 1604 book kept the 1559 Churching of Women unchanged. Charles Wohlers, the 1604 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org).
• Scottish Prayer Book ("Laud's Liturgy") (1637) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1637 Scottish Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Episcopal Church (USA) Book of Common Prayer (1789) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1789 Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Church of England Proposed Prayer Book: The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth (1928) · full text · Source: The Book of Common Prayer with the Additions and Deviations Proposed in 1928, pp. 442–445 (Internet Archive)
• Episcopal Church (USA) Book of Common Prayer (1928) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1928 U.S. Book of Common Prayer (justus.anglican.org)
• Episcopal Church (USA) Book of Common Prayer: A Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child (1979) · full text · Source: Charles Wohlers, the 1979 U.S. Book of Common Prayer, Thanksgiving for a Child, pp. 439–445 (justus.anglican.org)
• Church of England, Alternative Service Book and Common Worship (1980)
  Text under copyright and not reproduced. The ASB (1980) Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child and Thanksgiving after Adoption, and Common Worship's Thanksgiving for the Gift of a Child (2006), replace churching with a family service. Church of England, Common Worship: Thanksgiving for the Gift of a Child (official text).
• Anglican Church in North America, Book of Common Prayer (2019)
  Text under copyright and not reproduced. A Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child, based on 1979, with Psalm 116 or the Magnificat. ACNA, The Book of Common Prayer (2019) (official site).