I would really like to know why Anglicans see the cross as an important part of the denomination and how do they use it in worship. I would also like to know more about the importance of incense on liturgy. Thanks
To quote Bp. Lancelot Andrewes, a famed Anglican Divine, "It is well known that Christ and His cross were never parted, but that all His life long was a continual cross. At the very cratch, His cross began. … He was in the psalm of the Passion ... a morning hart, that is, a hart roused early in the morning; as from His birth He was by Herod, and hunted and chased all His life long, and this day brought to an end, and as the poor deer, stricken and wounded to the heart. This was His last, last and worst; and this we properly call His cross, even this day's suffering. To keep up then to our day, and the cross of the day." The Cross is the method by which Christ offered himself up. We then must bear the same cross in his name. In worship, it tends to be used in a couple of ways. Firstly, in procession. Processions are often led by a crucifer or cross-bearer, who holds a processional cross. Crosses also adorn the "rood screen", which separates the sanctuary (altar area) from the nave, as well as often upon the altar itself. Incense represents the prayers of the saints, and is used at the Procession, Kyrie, Gospel, the Offertory, and the Consecration.
As Tertullian (155-240 AD) wrote: "In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross."