No incense?

[SeekerOfChrist94]

I visit quite a few Anglican parishes. I visited one this past Sunday and there was no incense. All the others I've been to have had incense. Is this common in some parishes?

 

[Albion]

I visit quite a few Anglican parishes. I visited one this past Sunday and there was no incense. All the others I've been to have had incense. Is this common in some parishes?

The use of incense is rather uncommon. I never see it in any of the parishes I visit and they're not what's called Low Church. Even in a lot of parishes where it is done, there isn't incense at every service.

 

[Paidiske]

I have only been in one parish where incense was used regularly. In my city you could probably count on your fingers the number of parishes which would use it every Sunday.

 

[Adstar]

I have only ever seen incense being used in catholic churches.. I thought it was only a catholic thing..

 

[seeking.IAM]

My church uses incense on special occasions, but not routinely -- much to my dismay. For example, during Holy Week we will have incense on Palm Sunday and the Vigil.

We do not have it more often because of those who have respiratory concerns and those who say they do. I suspect there are more of the latter than the former.

 

[Philip_B]

Incense in Anglican circles to some extent has been a marker of Parishes standing in the Catholic tradition. It is used in our Diocesan Cathedral, and possibly with varying frequency in perhaps 10 or so of our 50 or so parishes. It is regarded as contentious by some, largely those who would never use it, unnecessary by many more and seen by some as a 'necessary non-essential'* of worship. I think it is a shame to abandon a practice with thousands of years of tradition associated with it, however at the same time I don't want to make a big thing of it.

I recall one parish with a very keen evangelical youth leader who wanted rid of the incense as he wanted worship to be relevant to the young people. The vicar agreed not to use incense t the youth liturgy, and was amused to find that he had arranged a band for the liturgy complete with lighting and a fog machine! Go figure!

*I recall this exact phrase being used by Bishop John Hazelwood, sometime Bishop of Ballarat

 

[seeking.IAM]

I think being Episcopalian must be inherently unhealthy. Seemingly, we have a lot more respiratory disorders than the Eastern Orthodox or Church of Rome.

 

[Paidiske]

I think being Episcopalian must be inherently unhealthy. Seemingly, we have a lot more respiratory disorders than the Eastern Orthodox or Church of Rome.

Not necessarily true...

Warning: worship may be harmful to your health.

 

[seeking.IAM]

Not necessarily true...

Warning: worship may be harmful to your health.

I will not be dissuaded by your trying to confuse the matter with factual evidence.

 

[Paidiske]

I think common sense goes a long way. Use high-grade incense, keep the doors open, and accept that more is not always more, and you're probably already doing well.

It's just helpful to be aware that issues can be real...

 

[seeking.IAM]

...accept that more is not always more, and you're probably already doing well.

Until visibility in church is significantly decreased, you probably have not used enough incense. Burn more. Cense harder.

...Okay, I've had some fun with this topic. Obviously, I like use of incense a lot. I do not have known respiratory problems. Truth be told, sometimes incense makes me cough, too. I suppose that is a bad thing, yet I would rather cough occasionally and have incense in every service than not cough and have it infrequently. On the positive side, I have found a shaving soap with a scent that reminds me of church incense. Paidiske, please don't tell me the shaving cream can't be good for me either. Don't take all joy from me

 

[Paidiske]

Fortunately for you, I have never looked into the health effects - positive or negative - of shaving cream.

 

[Fish and Bread]

I visit quite a few Anglican parishes. I visited one this past Sunday and there was no incense. All the others I've been to have had incense. Is this common in some parishes?

The parish I was a member of when I was an Episcopalian years ago used to do incense once a month on the first Sunday of the month for it's traditional Eucharist service, but not on the other 3-4 Sundays of the month. There was a contemporary service that did not have incense on a regular basis at all. For Christmas, it depended on what time you went- there was a "high" service at 11pm with incense and bells, their highest service of the year in general parish wide, but there were contemporary services with no incense even on Christmas Eve.

In general, I would say "It varies", based on my limited personal experiences. I would imagine there are parishes out there that use incense every Eucharist, parishes that never use incense, and a lot of parishes in between that pull out incense on high holy days like Christmas or special occasions only or otherwise use it only sporadically. It's very much like Roman Catholicism in the United States in that respect.

If it's an important concern for you one way or the other (i.e. You love incense or you have respiratory problems that make incense problematical for you), you could probably call the parish office on a weekday during regular business hours and ask the secretary if they use it and if so, when.

In Roman Catholicism, the ultimate determining factor is the priest. If the priest wants it, it's used that mass. If the priest doesn't want it, it isn't. The priest also has final say over the hymns used and various other factors involving the masses he celebrates. Even associate pastors have a large degree of control. Of course, even for the pastor, it is sometimes wise to go with established traditions at the parish as to not ruffle feathers- just because you can do whatever you want doesn't mean that it's necessarily in the spiritual best interests of the parish to do whatever you want.

I am not sure how Episcopalian and other Anglican provinces handle who gets to decide those type of things. I know that in general terms, in the Episcopal Church, the priest is considered to be in charge of the spiritual affairs of the parish, and the vestry (Elected board of mostly lay people [regular members of the parish]) is considered to be in charge of it's business affairs. So, my guess is that the priest decides whether to use the incense and the vestry decides whether to buy it. But I think there even more so than in Roman Catholic parishes, what the tradition of the parish is (or a particular service time), and mood of the parishioners attending the services is a big consideration.

 

[FireDragon76]

It's not common. I think because a lot of people have allergies and lung problems at some churches (especially common among the elderly), and also because it's an additional expense. Some don't appreciate the point of using it.

On the first point, a lot of people don't know how to use incense properly without causing alot of smoke. It's really supposed to smolder and vaporize, not burn. Eastern Christian incense is usually a pellet covered with clay for that purpose, but also making sure the charcoal is covered in ash helps.

 

[Big Drew]

Is this a recent change? I haven't attended Episcopal services on a regular basis in almost 20 years, but the church we attended did have incense every Sunday. I've been back for numerous Midnight Mass services over the years since, and they still use it for those...but as some have mentioned, that makes sense since it's a special service.

 

[Albion]

In my experience, the answer definitely is "No." That covers quite a few years and parishes.

I'm sure that a person who wanted incense could find a worship service that featured it--somewhere--but it's not common and certainly not every Sunday.

 

[SeekerOfChrist94]

I visited an ACNA parish, and they use it every. single. service. So I guess it's more common in the 'conservative' parishes.

 

[seeking.IAM]

...There was a contemporary service that did not have incense on a regular basis at all...there were contemporary services with no incense even on Christmas Eve.

A contemporary worship and no incense? That's sort of like double anathema, right?

 

[gordonhooker]

My current Parish never uses incense but the services I attend in communion with my tssf and ssf Franciscan brothers and sisters use burn incense on feast days and at funerals of Priests, or members of the Order.

 

[Fish and Bread]

A contemporary worship and no incense? That's sort of like double anathema, right?

I was not a big fan of their contemporary service personally, but it drew hundreds of people every Sunday, whereas the more traditional high church service I attended drew approximately... 12 people (And I think that was counting the priest and the altar servers). So, I appreciated the contemporary service people subsidizing the traditional service for us. I actually was pleasantly surprised that the high church service stayed on the schedule. My guess at the time was that there must have been a big donor who attended it exclusively, or that the rector thought it was an important thing to offer those of us who were attached to it for pastoral reasons.

The service I gravitated towards included an ad orietum altar and an altar rail to kneel at while receiving communion, as well as a pipe organ. It was this great little stone church that looked like an extremely small version of a Gothic cathedral (The contemporary service was held in the parish hall). There were even permanent red wine stains on the altar that I thought were a great inadvertant way of recalling Calvary.