Censers

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, censers (incense burners) are used often, typically at every vespers, matins, and Divine Liturgy. If a deacon is present, he typically does much of the censing, otherwise the job falls to the priest. Unordained servers or acolytes are permitted to prepare and carry the censer, but may not swing it during prayers. Censing is the practice of swinging a censer suspended from chains towards something or someone, typically an icon or person, so that smoke from the burning incense travels in that direction. Ancient tradition ascribes to the censer smoke the symbolism of blessing by the Holy Spirit while another tradition has incense burning as generally representing the prayers of the people rising towards Heaven. One commonly sung psalm during the censing is "Let my prayer rise like incense before Thee, my hands like the evening sacrifice." Some Orthodox Christians use a standing censer on their home altars. All censers are usually come with copper censer insert that can be easily removed from the censer for cleaning after burning charcoal. Censers with twelve bells are used by the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church (Bishops, Archbishops, Metropolitans and Patriarchs) because these censer bells symbolize preaching of the twelve Apostles whom the hierarchs represent. (Partial source: Wikipedia).