Ritual Studies Paper

Cody Rodgers

March 2011

Religion in America

Rituals studies paper

For my ritual study I went to the First Baptist Church of Archer. In going out into the field and actually doing a study I learned a lot that I was not familiar with before doing so. On March 13, 2011 I went to this service and looked at it from a researcher’s perspective and was able to get more out of it then if I would not have done it this way. Observing the space and the action I also learned more about this religion and the way that the believers worship.

The size of the building was a decent size; it was very tall as well as wide. You could really tell that this was a sanctuary and was where the worship took place. As you walk in there is a foyer that had a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Continuing on into the sanctuary you walked through two more doors. Once inside there were tall ceilings around thirty feet tall, they came down on either side and finally dropped down to about twenty feet. It was very bright inside there were lights that ran down the center and all the way across the building. There were lights above the stage where there were choir chairs and a pulpit. Directly behind the choir chairs was the baptismal where the baptizing took place. Three columns of pews ran down the middle of the building about ten rows deep. Two aisles led you to where you would sit. Instruments were on opposite sides of the stage, you had an organ on the right, a piano on the left, and dead center was the pulpit. The churches alter went from one side of the pulpit to the other, not having a designated place to kneel down to pray, but the steps of the stage acted as the alter. The windows in the church went down either side of the building. They were about four to five feet tall and spaced about four feet apart. The stain glass was not colorful like you see in a lot of churches. The windows were made of clear stain glass, you could not see through them but they were clear enough for light...