Thurifers behaving badly
WHILE a man from Chichester has stopped going to church because he is allergic to incense, I can reveal an even greater potential danger - from priests who swing the stuff in sacred worship.
Ronald Caseby had been attending St Paul's church in the town for 19 years but had breathing difficulties and collapsed during a service in November.
However, according to readers of Ship of Fools' bulletin boards, tricks are being tried out by thurifers, who carry the censers full of burning coals and incense. Some swing them in 360 degree circles in narrow, packed church aisles.
‘Flamboyant clergy enjoy the game of seeing who can cense the bread and wine fastest and with the biggest swings,’ says Ship of Fools’ reader Adeodatus (all names pseudonymous). ’They take the censer (or thurible) as close as possible to the chalice without sending everything flying. Gasps of admiration or horror can be heard during offertory hymns.’
Peter Jackson's 'in between' could spark a divine debate
A 14-YEAR-OLD girl's idea of a place between earth and heaven.
That's how director Peter Jackson describes the 'in-between' portrayed in his new movie The Lovely Bones (12A, Paramount Pictures)
In the film, teenager Susie Salmon (played by Saoirse Ronan), is brutally raped and murdered by a neighbour. Intriguingly, the story is told by Susie from beyond the grave, against a Jackson-inspired dreamscape of golden cornfields, shimmering stars and sweeping shorelines.
'We wanted this world to be ruled by Susie's unconscious desires - familiar and strange, comforting and sad,' Jackson told USA Today. 'It is a world of dreams, using the magic of metaphor to convey Susie's psychological and emotional life.'
Actress Susan Sarandon, who plays Susie's grandmother, thinks parents should watch the film with their children.