Churches
Among other maces (more correctly described as staves) in use today are those carried before ecclesiastical dignitaries and clergy in cathedrals and some parish churches. The ecclesiastical equivalent of the mace-bearer, the dodsman, appears in church contexts. Other churches, particularly churches of the Anglican Communion, a verger ceremoniously precedes processions.
In the Roman Catholic Church maces used to be carried before Popes and Cardinals.
Read more about this topic: Ceremonial Mace
Famous quotes containing the word churches:
“People fall out of windows, trees tumble down,
Summer is changed to winter, the young grow old
The air is full of children, statues, roofs
And snow. The theatre is spinning round,
Colliding with deaf-mute churches and optical trains.
The most massive sopranos are singing songs of scales.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“A few years ago, the liberal churches complained that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of Christian. I think the complaint was confession; a religious church would not complain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The law of God is a law of change, and ... when the Churches set themselves against change as such, they are setting themselves against the law of God.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)