Let my prayer rise up like incense before you,
the lifting up of my hands as an offering to you.
~Psalm 141
The use of incense in worship goes back to our earliest scriptures. Within the Episcopal Church the use of incense is varied – from “Smokey Mary’s” in New York City to “low churches” where the word ‘thurifur’ sounds like Greek (which is not too far off as it is derived from an Old French word with a Latin root that is an alteration of the Greek word for sacrifice). Whether your church regularly uses incense, or not, has a lot to do with when it was founded, who its founders were, or who were the people that most dramatically shaped your church over time. A brief but good overview of “high and low church” can be found at the link below. But for brevity’s sake, the higher the liturgy and ritual of your church was, the more likely you are to use incense. The term “smells and bells” came to be used for those churches that rang bells during the Sanctus and used incense every Sunday, in short, those that were ‘more Catholic.’ On the other side of the spectrum were churches whether liturgical ritual and sacramental importance were not as central; preaching was instead emphasized. Over time the rigidity of these designations has diminished and while there are still clearly “high” and “low” churches, most churches have found a happy place in the middle. It’s most common for churches that don’t regularly use incense to pull it out for the big feasts of the year: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, All Saints, and a parish’s patronal feast.
I’m still learning the story and stories of St. James’. One piece I would like to learn more about is the use of incense here. We have a lovely thurible and some nice incense. I haven’t included incense in any of our worship services yet because I want to know more. What’s the history of incense at St. James’? When was incense in worship introduced? Has it varied over time, perhaps in relation to the clergy present? Do you wish we used it more often? Do you wish we never used it at all? I want to hear from you, and so I hope you will drop me a line or catch me at coffee hour to tell me your part of the story.
In the meantime, we are planning to use incense at the Easter Vigil on March 26th. We have some Ethiopian myrrh, which has a deep, earthy smell. It burns clean and is hypoallergenic. I will use enough to know it’s there, but promise not to smoke us all out!
In peace,
Kristin+