Need some advice on a church to visit...

[meow]

For my next uni assignment I need to place myself in a situation that puts me in the minority and removes my 'power' so that I can further embrace perspectives of others.

Having considered various options I think visiting a church will best suit me. I would consider myself very liberal and generally non-judgmental though so i have struggled to think of something that will make me 'uncomfortable' so to speak.

I'm an atheist but have attended a couple of churches with friends before. They have all been Christian denominations so thinking I should try something different- Jewish? Islam? Wicca?

Anyone have any suggestions for churches that you think might push me out of comfort zone? I really want to do this with the utmost respect to the religion and the people there, but at the same time it needs to be something that 'scares' me a little or else the point will be lost...

[Pandora]

i had to do that assigment at uni too!

If you are going to go to a non christian church, it might be advisable to contact them first in case there are any religious obervances or traditions, like some wemen and men sit in different areas, or require dress codes etc.

[meow]

Thanks for the tip... that makes it scarier! I will be so clueless!

What Uni did you study at? I'm studying with CSU- wondering if we've done the exact same subject

[Pandora]

I went to swinburne, it was a HR subject, diversity I think.

[meow]

Must be a common thing to get you to do! Mine is diversity too but in early childhood education.

[Kazbah]

Ren - have you thought about a male-dominated area like a CFA station etc? Or an army reservist meeting? Or even the CWA?

I can't think of any churches / religions to visit.

[meow]

have you thought about a male-dominated area like a CFA station etc? Or an army reservist meeting?

Hmm... those could be good- thanks! CWA wouldn't be much different to the women in the town I grew up in though

I sort of landed on a religion as it seems like a place you can access their meetings well... maybe one with strict codes of conduct would be good. Anyone know which ones you have to dress and behave a certain way for?

I had thought of things like white supremest or pro-life meetings but I think they keep the dates and locations of their meetings a bit more private...

[Pandora]

some of the things people in my group did were:

go to a big shopping centre in a wheelchair - most shopping cventres have them for hire or you can get one at a chemist

go to a sporting event in team colours and sit at the other teams end

I must admit a lot of people pretended to do thie assignment and made up their presentation.

[Bloom]

Sounds like a really interesting assignment!

I think that the Exclusive Bretheren church is fairly strict but I really don't know much about them and I'm not even sure they let strangers into their meetings! (Note: Bretheren church are pretty mainstream and different to the Exclusive Bretheren).

I've been to a mosque service before and it was really challenging. The service was chanted in Hebrew/Arabic and the men and women had to sit in different areas wearing certain things.

Another idea that came to mind would be going to a gun club meeting or similar. For me that would really push the boundaries!

[meow]

There were a lot of exclusive brethrens where I grew up- you have to be born into it. I think a mosque could be good- but I wonder how much I would get out of it as I don't speak hebrew? Any mosque regulars with a tip on that?

Otherwise I was thinking a new-age, pagan/wicca group could be good to visit... trying to find where everyone meets is hard though.

[AnyDream]

Ren, if you want to visit a christian church, try finding a pentecostal service where people might be filled with the spirit and start speaking in tongues...alternatively in the Catholic Church there are some fairly strict conservative groups like Opus Dei that are commonly misrepresented in popular culture (Da Vinci code etc) and have also had cult allegations placed against them. Could be quite interesting, really.

[Kazbah]

That's a good point Marydean - my uncle goes to the latin masses.