Religion: Fieldwork Analysis

The religion I choose to observe for my fieldwork project is Catholicism. In order to complete the fieldwork assignment required for this paper I attended St. Lawrence Church on 5225 N. Himes Avenue in Tampa, FL. One of the reasons I chose to observe Catholicism for my fieldwork project is because it is a prominent religion throughout the world. In addition to the US, Catholicism is widely supported within Europe and Latin American countries. Another reason I chose Catholicism is because I found it to be relatively different from my own religion, Hinduism. I favored St. Lawrence Church over some of the other catholic churches in the area due to the fact that a few of my friends were already part of the community. Also, St. Lawrence Church

Lawrence Church they introduced me to a few other members of the congregation of which they befriended after attending the church over the past couple of years. The members were very friendly, and offered to answer any of my questions after hearing about my fieldwork assignment. Shortly after being formally introduced my friends and I as well as the members they introduced me too all sat down in the fifth row. On my right sat one of my friend’s Jacob while on my left was Margaret, one of the members I had recently been introduced too. I was glad that Margaret had sat next to me during the mass as she explained hidden meanings or otherwise peculiar things to me throughout the

Lawrence Church were: welcoming, community, and faithfulness. As I had observed throughout the service, the congregation of St. Lawrence Church was rather friendly as well as inviting, and readily able to accept anyone into their community. Also, I noticed the congregation seemed to be more of a “family” or community as there were lots of people having conversations both inside and outside the church even after mass was over. Furthermore, the church as well as the congregation were always willing to help those in need within their community. In addition, I found most of the congregation took their faith as a Catholic as well as the duties of a Catholic quite seriously. Such as, actively practicing in all religious ordinances like, baptism and confirmation. Also, though mass typically differs every week, there always seemed to be the underlying message that god has a plan for you and once it is known you must follow that plan to the best of your knowledge, and even though you may make mistakes along the way, god with always love