New legislation feared of banning the use of incense in church.

Ecclesiastical bodies expressed concern that banning incense use in church could affect worship quality. 

According to the new bill, the use of any substance meant for human consumption, producing a psychoactive effect, would be a criminal offense.

In this case, the use of church incense might become a criminal offense because it is intended for human consumption. 

This will become an unintended consequence of the New Psychoactive Substance Bill that aims at outlawing the use of legal highs UK.

The new bill has attracted a considerable number of criticisms. 

Chair of the Advisory Council, Professor Les Iversen, said that the issue is the inability of the bill to proving psychoactivity in courts, something very basic to a new law that aims at banning psychoactive substances.

Two bodies of the church expressed their concern that incense use in worship would be included in the new legislation.

In fact, the Association of English Cathedrals expressed their concern that the term psychoactive substances in the bill can be broadly interpreted that it might also be criminalizing incense use in the churches, cathedrals and other worship places, they assumed.

Additionally, the Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service (with members including the Church of England, the Catholic Church…), said that they couldn’t believe that the intention of the bill would be to include and ban the use of incense in church.

The body added they would urge, in order to avoid any doubt, that there should be particular exemptions on the use of incense in churches, something that could be inserted into the new bill.

On the other hand, Professor David Nutt, an ex-drug tsar of the government, said that the bill was poorly thought through and that it was embarrassing to know that educated people in the government support it.

Furthermore, he said that through targeting the people’s moral and mental well being, the new bill would become the worst since the Act of Supremacy (1559) that banned the Catholic faith’s practice.

The Cathedrals use incense in worship services, in particular when there are celebrations of the Eucharist, said the Association of English Cathedrals.

They said that incense has always been present in worships for many years and since the foundation of the Christian church because incense smoke, for them, represents  God’s presence, allowing the prayers to go up to God.

It also symbolizes the sacrifices, including lives and gifts to God. In addition, incense use has been helping in the worship’s preparation as well as it is providing a sense of purification.

In this case, they revealed that the use of incense is an important aspect of multi-sensory worship, as the people are using their whole bodies, with the aid of lights and colors and incense gives that visual impact, while music uses their hearing sense and incense their sense of smell.

And by banning incense use in worships, the church bodies said that their conduct of worship would be adversely affected.

Let’s stay tune for more of this story.