Incense in TEC

[RainsInApril]

FWIW, the first time I visited an Orthodox Church (which to my knowledge uses incense every Sunday), I left with a headache. However, I attended again & I did just fine on all of my subsequent visits. In fact, now I feel like the incense is part of what's missing in the TEC I'm attending.

Yeah, if it was just a headache I might be more inclined to try again...unfortunately, I'm still (a day and a half later) fighting tightness in my chest, sore and swollen sinuses, and burning eyes. I feel terrible - I can't do this every week.

 

[FireDragon76]

I sometimes have problems with incense, as I have mild asthma. The Orthodox variety seems the least offensive.

Many episcopal churches never use incense. It's mostly a high-ceremony type thing.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

Hi everyone,
I visited an Episcopal church this morning (my first to this particular parish, and my second to TEC in general) and was really surprised by their use of incense. I've never been to a church that used incense in worship before, and apparently I'm allergic to it. I really enjoyed my visit otherwise. I know that every parish is different, but is incense common in TEC? What's the theological basis for it?

Incense can cause a reaction that is pretty strong the first couple of times a person encounters it, but it is often not a "true" allergy. Most peoples' bodies can get used to it pretty quickly.

I can have my wife, a doctor with a focus in internal medicine, type something up later when she gets back from work.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

Incense is used for worship in the three largest branches of Christianity: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Anglican Communion (TEC). It is an offering to God, symbolic to me of our prayers being lifted up to Him.

"O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense." Psalm 141: 1-2

It was one of the first gifts to our Lord, "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and myrrh." Matthew 2: 11-12

Ahem! Lutheranism is larger worldwide than Orthodoxy, and we use incense as much as Anglicans.

 

[Melethiel]

Incense can cause a reaction that is pretty strong the first couple of times a person encounters it, but it is often not a "true" allergy. Most peoples' bodies can get used to it pretty quickly.

I can have my wife, a doctor with a focus in internal medicine, type something up later when she gets back from work.

Could be a true allergy. Or she could just be really sensitive to it. Hard to say. I'm not going to give any advice over the internet other than that Zyrtec is a wonderful thing.

 

[RainsInApril]

...other than that Zyrtec is a wonderful thing.

Funny you should say that. I visited what I'm calling "the incense church" (to my husband, to distinguish it from the other Episcopal parish I've been visiting) again tonight...and I went prepared. I took Allegra (Zyrtec knocks me out) and Nasonex, and put my glasses on (the incense bothered my contacts last time)...and wouldn't you know it? No incense on Good Friday. I'll have to see how I fare tomorrow night, instead.

 

[GabrielWithoutWings]

I just started the conversion process to Eastern Orthodoxy from TEC. I love the TEC church and have no beefs and no regrets with them, it just that EO is so much more.......visceral. I never went to a TEC church in 15 years of regular attendance that used incense! Maybe I would have stayed if they would have!

EO uses LOTS AND LOTS of incense, and particularly the stuff they use on the Sunday Morning Divine Liturgy ROCKS.

Try going to a Coptic liturgy sometime. They use so much that I'm surprised the fire department isn't called on a regular basis.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

Try going to a Coptic liturgy sometime. They use so much that I'm surprised the fire department isn't called on a regular basis.

I'm still amazed that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre hasn't burned down. Well, except for the Syriac chapel, which did. Actually, I haven't checked the news today; maybe this year's the year that the Holy Fire ceremony will finally do the place in.

 

[Try]

Precisely because many people are sensitive to fragrances, my parish uses incense only on special occasions and only at services which are targeted primarily at adults rather than families. For instance, we use incense at the Easter Vigil, but not at the morning Easter Eucharist.

 

[RainsInApril]

I went to the Easter Vigil on Saturday night, prepared. What a beautiful service! Incense was plentiful, and I survived. My husband visited Sunday morning, for the first time - it was his first liturgical worship experience ever, and he enjoyed it enough to visit again. I was sitting across the street from the church when the thurifer came outside after the service...apparently even that small amount of exposure (possibly combined with the lingering scent on my husband's clothes) when unprepared (I had my contacts in and hadn't used my nasal spray) was enough to cause a reaction. I can't shake the feeling that maybe I should be looking at these reactions as a sign that this church just isn't our family's home.

We'll be visiting the the other local parish again this weekend...hopefully we'll be able to get a better sense of what their children's ministry really looks like.