Purpose
This worship centers on prayer for couples who want children but, for whatever reason, haven’t been able to conceive. Its effectiveness rests heavily on everyone present being genuinely comfortable offering reproval, since there’s usually some underlying reason the Lord hasn’t yet given the couple children — the goal is physical healing accomplished through repentance. Because of this, it tends to work best only within a truly close, loving community, and requires significant preparation and spiritual readiness from the couple themselves.
How the Congregation Gathers
A couple who already has children offers the opening prayer, the man positioned on the south side, the woman on the north. Everyone else enters and takes their place according to where they stand in the journey toward marriage and parenthood, in this order: single women, single men, engaged couples, married couples without children, married couples with children, married grandparents, and married great-grandparents. If anyone resists the reproval being offered, or if any real conflict surfaces, the ceremony must be called off entirely — a rule that holds for other ceremonies too.
A Note of Confidence
This ceremony has a strong track record; the Apostle Thaddeus himself performed it (see I Achee 9:86-87).
What Must Be Prepared in Advance
Cattail pollen; leather hair ties; the couple’s own wedding ree; a bouquet of trumpet vine flowers; two crowns of Mothers’ grass woven with twelve butterfly weed blossoms each — the man’s flowers standing upright, the woman’s hanging down; matching wristlets and anklets with four flowers apiece; two clay pots of spring water; mint and yucca or soapwort for washing; anointing oil; a sending fan made from a whole, folded wild turkey wing; and sand paints in every color.
Where to Read
- Handbook — Fertility Ceremony (p. 383)
- I Achee 9:86–87 (p. 325)