Ships of Thules and Thuribles

Sometimes concept is better than reality. When I read about the “Ship of Fools” website (http://www.shipoffools.com/) I thought it was a terrific idea. To have “mystery worshippers” leaving their calling cards in collection plates around the country and posting reviews of individual churches and their services had my mind racing. Sadly the site is rather dull and far too international and inter-denominational in scope.

Anyway a review of Peterborough Cathedral found me a word which I have been looking for (or nearly) - thurible. It is of course an incense pot and these are sometimes swung around in places of worship:

“…the way in which the thurible was swung was pretty eye-opening. The celebrant and thurifer must have been trained by baton-twirling majorettes, as they were of the school that likes to rotate the thurible through 360 degrees!”

Suddenly thuribles are everywhere. There are loads to them on eBay, mainly from China, but sadly it is not quite the word I am looking for. The thing I want a name for is the item with which each member of the congregation makes the sign of the cross in front of a coffin (in France). Maybe I should open the blog to comments and receive a steady stream of “censers” and other suggestions. Maybe not.

Talking about “th” words, the daughter (bless her) is back from another skiing holiday and looks like a panda (the big white rings around the eyes which, set against suntan, are the giveaway trademark of ski goggles). Anyway she went to an Italian resort called La Thuile (somewhere near Mont Blanc) and coincidentally I have been reading a review of a fascinating-sounding book about Thule -the land discovered by the ancient Greeks about six days sail north of Britain and believed to be the northernmost place in the world. So La Thuile is presumably the Northernmost part of Italy, and a Thule box on top of a Ford Mondeo estate is the northernmost part of a passenger car. Very droll, but the Thule Society (Thule-Gesellschaft) founded in 1918 by Rudolf von Sebottendorff will quickly wipe any smile off your faces, gentle readers, for here are the formative elements of Naziism and the Third Reich.

So much perceived knowledge, but it’s amazing what an aid the World Wide Web can be when one is in full rant, specially with sites like wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org to add to one’s armoury.