REMINDER: You must attend a religious service in a tradition that is not your own. That means that if you were raised with a particular tradition, but now identify with/attend services in another tradition you may not attend service in either of those. Since most of you were raised in some type of Christian tradition, NO ONE may attend any type of Christian* service without my prior permission. If you have any questions please ask me in advance! It’s much easier to deal with something before it is a problem.
*Catholicism is a type of Christianity
***For this assignment you must attend a service* of a different religion than the one you attended for the first site visit essay. Your essay should be 1000 words.***
*Attend a service: Physically go, this semester, to a synagogue/mosque/temple etc at a time when they have a scheduled service. Friday afternoon prayers at a mosque, a Friday night or Saturday morning service at a synagogue, a Sunday service at a church etc. You will need to check the website of the place you’re planning to visit or call them to determine what times/days they hold services.
Additionally, this is (still) not a research assignment. You are going to be writing about what you saw/did/experienced. If you already know information about the tradition or service it’s fine to include it, but there is no need to seek outside information. If you speak to someone at the service and they give you information that you include in your paper you do need to cite it as such (example: “person x, who was siting next to me, told me that ____ represents ____.”). If you use any outside sources, they must also be cited. Again, any questions, please ask me in advance.
Topic:
For this site visit, observe the hierarchical structure of the community you visit. Think about who the leaders are (either among an official hierarchy or among the lay people) and how they are given prominence. Where are the leaders compared to others in the community? How do the others in the community show respect? Are there particular groups that appear better respected than others? What are the grounds for differentiation among them? How do seating arrangements, physical postures, clothing, or the building’s design emphasize the leadership roles?