Jean Parisien

Ethnography observation

Last Saturday on February 18, 2012, I went to The Black American Church of Seventh Day Adventist to observe the customs of the people in that church: the way the families come to worship God; sit and eat together after the service of the Church. In the assembly I interviewed three families of the church on their faith, and their family expectations when it comes to reverence to God.

The church is on River Street, Hyde Park, Massachusetts. It is a fairly big church with the capacity to have at least  500 hundred people, it has a big yard, and everybody can recognize it by its architecture and the sign that says Seventh day Adventist, along with the name of the pastor and the hour they are open. Inside of the church there are three bench rows with over 180 hundred people each. On the podium there are seven main chairs behind the pulpit and several other chairs for the choir of the church.A planned, I managed to come early enough to observe everything, even the time of the members’ arrival. The church’s service started at 9:30, as written on the sign in front of the church. I was there one hour before the scheduled time. When I arrived, the church wasn’t yet open, but  ten minutes later someone came and opened all doors of the church which allowed me to notice and describe all the details written above.

The most important thing for me was to identify family groups as they gathered in front of the church. To do so I first observed the people coming out of the cars; my curiosity allowed me to ask people who came in the same car if they are a family. They were very nice in giving me an answer about my question. Most of them, over 80 percent gave me a positive answer and even presented to me the members of the family: kids, husband and wife. The method that I used was to stand between the entrance door and the parking lot, walking towards them if I had a feeling they were a family. I questioned them while walking and watched how they were seated. Almost, all the families sat together .Some people who weren’t sitting together with their family had something to do with the podium or were talking to other people. Before the end of the service I saw them return to their family. All people were very nice. They wore clean clothes.  Some of the women wore hats.

                The service started at 9:30.At this time, I saw one person come to the podium and welcome everyone. After that, he invited the congregation to stand up to sing. When they finished singing, he read a psalm in the Bible. After reading, the congregation knelt down and someone prayed for the all assembly. Once up, the whole congregation sang another song that allowed  the membership to embrace one another. All people sat down and listened carefully to everything that was going on at that time. That was the first part of the program.

11:00 o’clock was the most important time of the program.  At that time, children and young people who were in another part of the church came in and sat down with their parents. The church choir and people who were in the program walked to the sound of music as they went to their places behind the pulpit. All people stood up and sang while those people took their places. When the marched was finished, someone read something that said: “call to worship”. After that the preacher prayed and all people sat down. The church was very quiet and all people kept silence until someone said: at this time we are going to give glory to God. The musicians began to play and everyone stood up to sing for a long time. Adult, children and young people enjoyed the songs. After the song there was a prayer. The pastor of the church was done preached for 45 minutes.

The way they were singing and preaching made a strong difference from other groups. The music they played was gospel music and the people did a lot of movements when they were singing. Some of them were swaying back and forth. People were singing loudly, saying alleluia and clapping their hands. When the preacher started to preach, he didn’t stay on the podium. He walked around sometimes running in the aisle. He preached with power and people were motivated. While the gospel was delivered, people got up clapped their hands, saying amen, alleluia.

 When the program finished, people went down to the basement to eat together. Family people sat at the same table to eat. When I asked them why they sit together?  Almost all of them answered that this was the best opportunity to be together. During the week there is a lot of activity to do, and they don’t have enough time to eat together. That’s one of the benefits of Sabbath day. I interviewed three families about their faith. They believe in Jesus Christ as God and the Ten Commandments, especially the Fourth that talks about the Sabbath. They hope to see all family shares the same faith with them until death.

In my observation of this ethnography group, I realize that church is a good thing. It allows family to be together and attracts young people to have their own family when they have the maturity.