Annalisa_Cultural Immersion Project

Growing up in Guyana, there were three main religions: Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Hindus and Christians make up the majority of the population, though Muslims are a very large minority. I was raised as a Baptist Christian even though most of my family at the time was Hindu. That was the only denomination of Christianity that I knew until I moved to the United States and learned about all the others. There were other denominations of Christianity in Guyana, but as a child in the countryside, one really never thinks about it. I’ve had the opportunity to attend services at several other churches such as Methodist and even a Jehovah Witness service. When the cultural immersion project was assigned, I had two ideas for what I wanted to do. The first was to attend a Hindu temple and the second was to attend mass at a Catholic church. I could not get a hold of the Hindu temple in time, so instead I attended morning mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church.

            My curiosity of attending mass was finally satisfied. I have friends who are Catholic and I’ve studied Catholicism when I minored in religion in my undergraduate studies, but my preconceptions were corrected as I sat with the rest of the congregation and listened to the sermon.

            St. Joseph’s was the biggest church I had ever been in. It was somewhat an awe-inspiring place to be. The ceilings were high and the church itself was apparently modeled like Catholic cathedrals throughout the world. In this aspect, my preconception of what the church would look like was reinforced. I got there a little over five minutes before mass would begin and I observed the diversity in the congregation. Since it was the 8am mass, I had the completely false notion that it would be filled with the elderly, mainly because they wake up earlier. Instead, it was a good collection of people of all ages as well as differing ethnicities. Winter Haven, my town, is a fairly homogenous population of Caucasians so it was surprising that there were so many Asian and African American congregates.

            As mass started and altar children and the priest walked to the altar, I was surprised to find that the priest was Haitian. I found that he had a thick accent and though I understood what he was saying, I could not catch every word. His English and ability to communicate with the congregation as well as his use of intonation was impressive; I guess it would have to be to speak to a native English speaking audience. I thought that the priest would stand at the altar and speak, but he walked around a little as he delivered his sermon.

            There was a lot of singing throughout mass and it was very helpful to have the lyrics up on screens on either side of the altar and also a lady leading the signing with a mike up in front. The hymns were different from the ones that I am familiar with and some of them were in Latin.  Another thing that I noticed throughout the service was the recitation of creeds and prayers such as the Prayer of Penitence, in the beginning, and the Proclamation of Faith, towards the middle.

            The priest then gave communion, or Eucharist, and the Lord’s Prayer was said. The congregation formed lines in which they took the wafer and wine, which according to Catholic theology is transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ.

            Then the concluding rites were administered through the priest praying and then the congregation replying. The alter children and priest then left while the concluding hymn was being sung. When the priest left, then the congregation left the church.

            As I felt it would be improper to take pictures during mass, I asked the pianist, who was the last person in the church, if it would be okay to take some pictures which are shown throughout. The entire experience was a positive one. There were times when I felt apprehensive as I didn’t know when to kneel to pray or when to make the sign of the cross; I followed along what everyone else was doing more or less. The people were very nice and welcoming and the very formal mass that I was expecting was a lot more personable than I thought it would be. I'm glad that I had the opportunity!