Choose a worship service from one of the religions that is outside your own

Buy ready-to-submit essays. No Plagiarism Guarantee

Note: Every paper is crafted by human writers to ensure authenticity and originality.

Religious Experience Paper, 500 word minimum
The Religious Experience paper should be written in the 1st person, past tense, as you reflect back on what you observed and experienced during your observation of worship within one of the six major religions we are studying in this course.

Minimum criteria for the paper to be accepted for grading:

500 word minimum met or exceeded
experience meets the assignment criteria
MLA format followed
MLA citation method followed
The MLA format link will show you how to format your paper (margins, line spacing, font size, page number header, identifying information, title, paragraph indentations, and Works Cited page). It will also show you how to apply a hanging indent to the citations on the Works Cited page. Carefully review and follow the instructions in the graphic.

MLA FormatLink

Choose a worship service from one of the religions that is outside your own. The religions we are focused on are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Christianity is the majority religion in the United States. Therefore, unless you are a practicing Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist, or Hindu, do NOT choose a Christian worship service. (Christian churches include, but are not limited to, denominations such as Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, Mormon, Mennonite, Assembly of God, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah\’s Witnesses, and non-denominational, indepenent churches.) If Jesus is part of the belief system, it is Christian. Most of you will need to observe a Jewish, Islamic, HIndu, Buddhist, or Sikh service. In order to avoid any confusion, review your choice with me and get my OK in advance.

A direct way to learn about a religion is to experience it in person. Many places of worship welcome guests, however they may have safety protocols in place. If you decide to attend and observe worship in person, check ahead of time regarding any Covid-19 or other safety protocols, and be prepared to follow them. Also confirm the time of worship and allow sufficient time for travel and parking.

You may watch an on-line worship service rather than attending in person. This is a popular option. Choose either a live streamed service or one recently posted to YouTube, Facebook, or another online platform. Virtual worship services do not need to be local, but they must be a complete service, not just a sermon or study group. Do NOT use a video about a religion or religious community. You may want to explore several options before deciding which worship service to write your paper on. Here are a few religious communites with recent worship services on YouTube. If you are interested in a different worship community, run it by me in advance via email to make sure it meets the assignment criteria.

Windward Buddhist Temple , Kailua, Hawaii- https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=windward+buddhist+temple (Links to an external site.)

Central Synagogue, Manhattan, New York- https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=central+synagogue (Links to an external site.)

Islamic Center of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan- https://www.youtube.com/c/MYICD/videos (Links to an external site.)

Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar, Westminster, British Columbia- https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Live+Gurdwara+Sahib+Sukh+Sagar%2C+New+Westminster%2C+B.C. (Links to an external site.)

Hindu Temple Society of North America, Flushing, New York- https://www.youtube.com/nyganeshtemple (Links to an external site.)

Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Tarpon Springs, Florida- https://www.youtube.com/c/StNicholasTarpon/video (Links to an external site.)

Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia – (Links to an external site.)https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHistoricEbenezerBaptistChurch (Links to an external site.)

The paper should include multiple indented paragraphs. In the introductory paragraph, indicate what worship service you attended, the name and location of the worship community, and the date the service was held. Identify key worship leaders by name if the information is available. Identify any deity or deities being worshipped and the theme of the service if one is noted.

Address the items below in the body of the paper, along with anything else you deem significant.

Why did you choose this religious experience?

Describe the worship space and any sacred or ritual objects you observed.

Describe the attire of the worship leaders and participants. What stood out as distinctive?

If possible, identify the language or languages used.

How did you follow along if a languages other than your own was used?

Identify sacred texts that were read, recited, or chanted.

Describe the music, chants, or prayers?

Describe any special body postures assumed or gestures made during worship.

Describe the key points of the teaching, talk, or sermon, and identify the speaker by name.

What struck you as most unique or unexpected about the worship experience?

What, if anything, felt familiar?

What questions are you left with that you would like to explore further?

Would you recommend this worship experience to a fellow student or a friend?

Sum up your paper with a concluding paragraph. Then, either insert a selfie taken in front of the place of worship or a screen shot and link to the online worship service you observed. This will document your experience.

Follow the MLA guidelines and parenthetically cite the source of any information you share in the paper. Cite the worship service for the key observations you make about it. If you paraphrase or quote something a particular speaker says, preceed the information with the full name of the speaker and follow the information with a parenthetical citation that includes the last name and time on the video (if you observed the service online). You may refer to scriptures, prayers, and songs without citation, but if you quote specific text from these sources, cite the source parenthetically in the paper. You may consult the website of the worship community for names, worship books, and other information related to the worship service. If you quote additional information from the website, parenthetically cite the worship community.

Do NOT include any other internet research in the paper.

The Works Cited page should be separate from the body of the paper. It should include a citation for the worship service you attended, along with citations for any speaker, text, or religious community that you parenthetically cited in the body of the paper.

The links to the Purdue Owl below provide the information you need for creating MLA style citations, including how to cite a conference (worship service), a speaker at a conference (worship service), a religious text such as the Bible, and a website.

Purdue Owl: Citing Electronic Sources

Purdue Owl: Citing Other Common Source

Writing hints for this paper:

Using standard capitalization rules, capitalize proper nouns such as Rabbi Hickman and Temple Israel. Do not capitalize a word simply because it sounds religious, such as rabbi or temple.

Capitalize the names of historical figures such as Siddhartha Gautama, Abraham, Jesus, Muhammad, or Guru Nanak.

Capitalize the names of individual gods and goddesses, such as Shiva, Krishna, Ram, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Amida Buddha, God, Adonai, and Allah.

Capitalize the names of the religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Likewise, capitalize Hindu religion, Buddhist religion, Sikh religion, Jewish religion, Christian religion, and Islamic religion.

Capitalize the names of the followers of the religion: Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jew, Christian, Muslim.

Capitalize the names of sacred scripture, such as Torah, Holy Bible, Qur\’an, Bhagavad Gita, or Guru Granth.