This post and all its pictures were contributed by Whitney Holley with additional feedback from two of our thurifers, Chris Rodgers and Mat Thekkil.
This is part of our Virtual Vicar series. In these posts we will answer common questions people have about our parish and about the Episcopal Church as a whole. We would love to hear any questions you may have ranging from great theological conundrums to more basic questions about the service or liturgy. We will do our best to find you answers and find resources to help you further seek out information. Please feel free to comment or email privately if you have a question.
What’s with all the smoke?
If you come to an 11:15 Sunday service at the Fig on a Feast, Festival, or High Holy Day you will notice something filling the air during the service and maybe even be impressed by a certain person swinging some kind of receptacle around from a chain at the front of the altar. That person is the thurifer and that smoke you see and smell is incense. Let’s look at what the reasoning behind this tradition is and Thursday we will look at what exactly this person’s duties are in the service.
Let’s start at the very beginning and look back at why humans even used incense in the first place. It’s because when a group of people got together there was a smell, sorry no way around it. Until indoor plumbing was a thing and people had more than one shirt, life with humans was smelly. Someone discovered that burning resins and gums would make the place smell better and it became something that was used to make life indoors a bit more tolerable. Of course, incense would have been expensive so people didn’t burn it every day, rather they saved it for important occasions or for important guests. Hence, frankincense was one of the special gifts brought by the Wise Men to Jesus.
Incense also makes an appearance in early Jewish temples as a way to prepare the place for God. Early Christian churches carried on this tradition and burned incense as a way to purify the sacred space and get ready for the presence of God. The Bible associates incense with prayers ascending to Heaven, and on a particularly smoky Sunday you might be reminded of the pillar of cloud which led Israelites in the wilderness.
Incense is used at specific points in the service and for very specific reasons. When you see the smoke filling the sanctuary during the procession you know that the service has begun and the air has shifted. When you see the priest ‘cense’ the altar or the bread and wine, it is a cue to all your senses that we are anticipating a bigger moment, a greater presence, and we are making the space ready. Again, this echoes Biblical images of God’s throne being surrounded by a cloud. It is a way of seeing God here with us, not separated from us in heaven, but right here with us filling the room.
After the service you will smell the incense on you all day. My favorite thing to do on a Sunday after incense is used is to smell that sweet aroma on my family throughout the day. What a wonderful reminder that God is still with me and with those I love and that the Holy Spirit is still surrounding us even when we leave our place of worship.
Incense adds to the worship service as it is a visual and aromatic reminder that God is present among us. It also is a connection to our church’s past as well as an impressive, mysterious part of the service that can just be enjoyed without knowing any of the historical background!
At the Fig we have incense for Sundays of Feast Days such as Transfiguration and Trinity Sunday, as well high holy days such as Christmas, Maundy Thursday, Easter Vigil, Easter, Ascension. We also have incense for other special services such as evensong, compline, and other requested services. Most of the time we use it during the 11:15 service but twice a year it will be present at the 9:00am service so all members of the Fig have a chance to experience all of our liturgical expressions. These services will be clearly marked ahead of time in the bulletin.