Banning incense
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,185
    Does your diocese or parish ban the use of incense? One reason given: it causes cancer.
    Curious....
  • TCJ
    Posts: 970
    Are they using nicotine in the incense or something?
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,937
    No, it isn't banned. As a Byzantine, I know that eastern incense can be better grade. I did recommend that we use eastern incense, which is not as acrid and smoky as some of the imitation scent western kind. They listened, and the complaints dropped.
    Thanked by 2kevinf Blaise
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 468
    We primarily use pure francincense (and a lot of it). It's $12/pound and gets the fewest complaints and causes the least side-effects of any sort.
  • Caleferink
    Posts: 429
    I don't think it can be banned. In fact, it's required in some liturgies (most notably funerals and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament).
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    required


    Isn't that a liturgical code word for "optional"?
    Thanked by 5Paul F. Ford kevinf Andrew Motyka francis Ben
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 892
    Sawdust is often used as filler for the cheaper sort. That seems to be the cause of the adverse reactions. Buy the good stuff.
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    We had one kind of incense of which a visiting Byzantine priest remarked : "It smells like a Buddhist temple".
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    We use incense all the time. I don't know what kind it is, but it smokes horribly and people in the congregation cough something awful.
  • TCJ
    Posts: 970
    Many things bother me (freshly cut grass, perfume, deodorants, cleaners), but for some reason, incense isn't one of them. Perhaps the churches I've been to have used high quality incense?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Imitation incense, imitation organ, imitation musician, all leads to one thing... Imitation faith.
    Thanked by 8Ben M. Jackson Osborn expeditus1 rogue63 Adam Wood Salieri CHGiffen Guadalupe
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Does your diocese or parish ban the use of incense? One reason given: it causes cancer.
    Curious....

    Lunacy. Get high quality incense and you're fine.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Cheap incense smokes badly. Also, make a point of having the thurible cleaned out thoroughly between uses. If you leave old incense or ash inside the thurible the smoke turns especially acrid.
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  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    yes. Clean it out. Last Friday I was almost gagging because of some residue in the thurible... yuck.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Pretty soon we will have cracker hosts and people will ban Jesus.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,696
    The sun also may cause cancer, but I can't see us banning it.
    Thanked by 4Gavin Chris Allen francis Mark Husey
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,369
    .
  • fp
    Posts: 63
    The "pianist and music leader" of our parish threatened to stay home if we were using incense for Christ the King. I immidiately saw an opportunity for improvement in the Liturgy.....but the pastor caved in..... Lesson learned, I need to express my very own feeeeeelings more loudly.........!
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,937
    I saw something interesting the last time I visited an Orthodox (OCA) parish. They were using what they called "smokeless" incense. It had a fine smoke - more like a vapor - and was nicely fragrant.

    I have nothing against good quality incense, and my parish uses it every week. However, it seems that people in general have more allergies and asthma. That is just a perception, and I haven't seen data to back that up. I think a valid case can be made for not using the cheap stuff. As our associate pastor says, "Nothing can be too good for God."
  • TCJ
    Posts: 970
    There was this one woman who complained about incense at my parish. The thing is, she could have avoided it if she had chosen anywhere else to sit because they didn't use it that much and it only filled the sanctuary area. However, she insisted on sitting in the front and then complaining about all the smoke.

    Couldn't changing seating location be an option for many people, or does the incense drift through the entire church where you (in general) are?
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    At my bishop's Masses, which I often assist at, it fills the church.

    Here's just one shot of him using incense. The first shot isn't great, but look at the second (we were having charcoal problems at the Mass in the first shot...).

    Bishop Morlino Incense

    By the way, this is the video that every parish in the diocese recently saw. :) Gotta love liturgical beauty in an appeal video :)
    Thanked by 1Blaise
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    If you can see the altar, there is not enough incense.
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  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,768
    Couldn't changing seating location be an option for many people
    Often not for the choir.
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    If you can see the altar, there is not enough incense.


    If the U.S. Rangers want to use your sanctuary for gas training, that's enough incense.
    Thanked by 5Adam Wood CHGiffen Chris Allen Gavin bonniebede
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Incense should be a tool for uniting liturgical progressives with liturgical traditionalists: If you are using enough incense, no one will know which way the priest is facing.
    Thanked by 10Earl_Grey CHGiffen Chris Allen Gavin veromary Jahaza Salieri bonniebede Scott_W Blaise
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,369
    Not only that, Adam! The priest himself may not know which way he is facing!
    Thanked by 8Gavin veromary Adam Wood CHGiffen kevinf Salieri bonniebede Blaise
  • JennyJenny
    Posts: 147
    We are not allowed to use incense at our parish because our pastor says he is allergic to it.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,369
    ...our pastor says he is allergic to incense(!!!)
    Well, we must take him at his word.
    And while we are doing that we may well wonder with quite a bit of perplexion how it comes to pass that no one ever hears of uncensed liturgy amongst our Eastern rite brethren who seem not to be bothered by 'allergies'... nor by priestly inabilities to sing, nor the need for street music to keep their youth faithful. Obviously, we are missing something very important in the formation of our priests, in our culture, and in the breeding of our youth.
    Thanked by 8kevinf Jenny KARU27 francis Guadalupe Scott_W CHGiffen Salieri
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    when we banned smoking in public places a few years ago, it was suggested that that might include incense, but it came to nothing. instead they made the seal of confession against the law. (sigh)
  • Andrew Motyka
    Posts: 945
    Where is that, Bonnie? Are you in the US?
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    I heard from a German pastor who once celebrated Mass with the charcoal in the thurible not burning; the people were still coughing. And he says he didn't notice a significant raise of funerals since he started using incense every Sunday.
  • bonniebede
    Posts: 756
    no i'm in ireland
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