- It is on Thursday 19 June 2014 this year.
- It is always on a Thursday.
- It is one of the most extravagent and lovely religious festivals that human beings have devised.
- Thomas Aquinas is said to have invented it to bring the focus back to Jesus Christ in churches which were rather keen on his mother.
- It is about gazing in wonder – and we don’t do that nearly enough.
- Our Lord himself comes and wanders amongst his people – just like in real life!
- Abraham (as Bishop Kevin was always wont to say) would have understood this feast
- We scatter flower petals hither and yon to make a suitable pathway for God to come amongst us
- It smells. Lovely.
- The service takes place at 7.30 pm in St Mary’s on Thursday evening – please bring flower petals to the sacristy by 7 pm if you can
3 responses to “Thurible Spotting”
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Re: Thurible Spotting
Just a small correction – Big Aggie came from Glasgow's Catholic Apostolic Church, not Edinburgh. But who has the Edinburgh one? -
Re: Thurible Spotting
Thanks for the correction Ruth – I have no idea who has the Edinburgh one. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get them all together for a service? Is the Glasgow CA church building still extant? I don't even know where it was.
There is a rather odd offshoot of the CA Church called the New Apostolic Church which exists in Scotland in Dunfermline, but they do not seem to have taken on the powerful aesthetic of the Catholic Apostolic church. It is wonderful that the two thuribles from Glasgow and Dundee are different – no mass production in those days. -
Re: Thurible Spotting
The Catholic Apostolic Church in Glasgow was in McAslan St in Townhead. The building was apparently designed by AWN Pugin but was demolished in 1970. There’s a photograph of the interior in The City that Disappeared by Frank Worsdall
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