Religious Visitation

  Visit a religious service that is NOT from a tradition that you grew up in or attended previously. In a report, include the following as a guide: A preliminary note. For this exercise, it would usually be best to select a group about which you do not have strong positive or negative feelings, but which would be fairly neutral for you and about which you can be objective. When you visit, be sure to dress appropriately and be respectful. If you take notes, do so very inconspicuously, and do not make a recording or video without first asking permission. It is best just to try to remember what transpired. On the other hand, it is usually all right to ask leaders or members questions afterward if anything is unclear. But depending on what you actually get from this experience for the paper, not what a book or Internet source says about the group—this is a field research project, to be based on what you actually see and hear; individual members or bodies may deviate quite a bit from the official teaching and practice of a denomination or tradition. • Background Information. Give the full name, exact address, and religious affiliation, including exact denomination, of the group; give the date and time of your visit; and give the name and type of service attended. • General Information. Describe the outside and inside appearance of the building, giving special attention to particularly important symbols and distinctive architectural features. Then describe the way visitors are greeted, and the sort of people in this group—their apparent social class, lifestyle type, ethnic background, average age, gender, and approximate number present. Describe in the same way the leadership conducting the service. • Account of Service. Describe what happened in the service from beginning to end. Try to give some sense of the emotional tone and subjective spiritual meaning of the activity. For example, was the opening dramatic or casual? Was the congregational participation emotional or reserved? Was much of the service spontaneous? Did it seem to be an ancient ritual or contemporary? • Analysis. Analyze the worship experience in terms of the three forms of religious expression: theoretical (teaching), practical (worship), and sociological. At least one-third of the paper should be this part. o Theoretical. What, essentially, does this religion teach? As far as you could tell from this one experience, from the sermon, practices, symbols, and so on, what seems to be the main message of this religion? You may need to distinguish between what was “officially” said in creeds or the like, and what really seemed to be most important to the people in the congregation as they took part. o Practical. What was the basic nature of the worship? Formal or informal, old or new, structured or spontaneous, intellectual or emotional, or something of all of these. What message about how this group conceives of the role of religion, and the best way for humans to build bridges to Ultimate Reality, did this worship communicate? o Sociological. What kind of group was it? As well as you could tell from this one experience, was it close-knit or more individualistic? Was this group composed of mostly people drawn to the religion by family or ethnic ties, or mostly committed converts of different backgrounds? What role did the priest or leader play? What message about the religious experience was communicated by the nature of the group? • Conclusion. How would you summarize your interpretation of this group in terms of the three forms of religious expression? (This does not mean your personal opinion of it, but how the forms fit together and how it served the persons for whom it is important.)