Anglicanism & incense

I love incense...

I'll admit my soft spot for "smells and bells."

 

Incense makes me physically ill. I view it as air pollution, but never once has a church offered to put it away out of concern for 'the weaker brother'.

 

Incense is an adiaphora; some churches use it, some don't, but it's never been used for the purpose of 'censing', and is used here and there just for the perfume of the Church. As an adiaphora, I'm sure you could talk to your priest and if he had enough people he could accomodate them.

 

Then why did you go to a church with incense if you cannot handle it? They should not have to make any concessions, just leave.

 

Well, because Scripture teaches to present only the offense of Christ. If Church were like a country club, I would agree with you, but it's not like a country club.

 

Church is formost for the worship and adoration of Almighty God, and please read The Book of Revelation, there is much about incense in there. I thought the Unitarians were the Country Club by the way.

 

Anyone know what ingedients are used in Anglican incense?

 

Different blends are available but it generally it has a base of Frankincense and sometimes Myrrh to which various natural oils or resins can be added by the manufacturer to create a variety of aromas.

Incense blends by CofE Benedictines:

http://www.mucknellabbey.org.uk/shop/Incense/

 

My former church I was with used Prinknash Abbey (Basilica) incense, quite liked it and miss it

 

Seems like a pretty pointless exercise, and overly pious, to offer smoke-incense when the sacrifice acceptable to God is the incense of our prayers. Becoming wrapped up in Christianity for the sake of ostentatious, dramatic liturgy is clearly not the message of God Incarnate.

Not attacking anyone specifically, here. It just seems silly to get so bunched-up over something God has said He hates. Incense is of no use or favour to God. Prefer the spiritual incense of good will, virtue, and faith.

 

What makes you think that God "hates" incense?

 

In Isaiah 1:13, mentioned in the OP, God announces His hatred for the abomination that is incense. When incense is offered to Him as if it's inherently pleasing to the Divine, it is rejected. Worse, if it's offered by those with impure hearts and little faith, it's hated even more.

God condemns those who think and act as if incense everywhere is somehow "holy". It's a pagan assumption. Clouds and puffs and aromas do not please God. Faith pleases God.

EDIT: just to clarify, I think incense offered in faith as a joyous act of worship is fine. Demanding it just 'cuz it's incense, however, is pointless traditionalism.

 

But in Exodus 30, God instructed Israel to offer incense. Aaron was to offer it every morning. And the magi offered a gift of incense to Christ. God does not hate incense.

 

Why do you think He calls it an abomination so often? (Isaiah 66, Leviticus 26, Amos, etc., don't treat incense as if it's a universal need).

Aaron offered it in the tabernacle, the priests in the Temple (very special, specific places). The Magi offered it as a symbolic gift, representing Christ's divinity and priesthood.

 

Incense is not an abomination. God instructed them to offer it. There's no way around that. In those passages, it is clearly hypocritical or false worship that is being condemned. We don't say that OT sacrifices are "abominations" or that God "hates" them, even when he rejects the offerings of those who are only outwardly devoted. It's the same with incense.

 

That's something which has always confused me personally. Psalm 49/50 has God specifically tell us that He does not desire the blood of goats, and sacrifices of rams. Different emphases for different times, I guess?

 

I believe that it's more along these lines: God desires a sincere follower more than he desires the shedding of an animal's blood...which really tells us more about him and what he wants for us.

 

We use incense at our Sung Eucharists. Candles and bells too. It's a bit of a bind but at the same time when I've been to Church In Wales in the past and they not had incense I instantly miss it and almost notice it more for it not being there to when it's there apart from as an Altar Server I get the odd 'healthy' dose which is all part of it.

 

A good topic!
I personally like incense.
In German: "Weihrauch = Holy Smoke".
And I do not think that God is opposed to it.

 

Incense is fine. In the early church they pretty strongly opposed it so generally that’s why we generally don’t use it either, but you can find a few places that do.