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Directions
(below)
Worksheet
(.rtf file to fill in, save, print or submit electronically)
Resources
(below)
Supplemental
directions for using various resources effectively (separate page)
Video Demos
for using some of the online resources (below)
Grading
Criteria (below)
Directions: using the worksheet,
locate
at least one worship community (i.e., church, synagogue, temple, mosque, etc.)
for each religion listed. For each group, write down the name, address and
phone number of the community that is closest to you and indicate the
total count of communities in the area for each faith listed.
A
"community" is a group of people, whether of not they
have their own building. But it is not a single person (e.g. a priest
who provides services); nor is it a "community center" for purposes
of socializing or education (unless they do also worship there as their
primary location). There should be a name for any such community - not
a person's name, even if they use a person's home or PO box as a mailing
address. But you should provide the address for the location where they
worship (if indicated).
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Do not use too
large an area (e.g. the entire state) nor too small (just your town or rural
county). Approximately 20-25-mile radius search area should suffice to
find most of the religions (this may include
surrounding counties and even go into the next state if you are on the
border). (however, if the mileage takes you across a river that you
can't easily and directly cross on a road, then you can ignore that part
of the radius - for instance, if you are in Woodbridge, VA, 20 miles would
take you across the Potomac into Charles co, MD "as the crow
flies" but to drive there would be a much longer distance).
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For counts: This should be the
total number of congregations for a given religion in your 25 mile search
area. For example: you are in Winchester and are looking for Baptist churches. You want to find out how many are within your 25 mile search area. Maybe you find there are 89. So that's the number you put for "counts" (I just pulled that number at random for the example, off hand I don't know if that's even close).
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For realistic
demographics you want to be sure to
use the same search area (25 miles or so) for the counts for all the religions. And you want to be sure you are counting
actual places of worship for each religion. Not schools, not administrative offices or service organizations that might be associated with the religion. And not individual
people or members of the religion.
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For some of
the less common religions, especially if you are in a rural area, you may need to
extend your search - up to a 50 mile radius search area would be within
reason for the hardest to find religions. If you have to go further than
that to find the "closest" place for a given religion, then do so. Do not just leave it blank! When it
comes to entering a count for such a place, Indicate when you've made
exceptions (indicate just "1" - and how many miles away it is). Do not use this larger range as the
search area for counts on all the other religions - this is an
exception. Unless you have to use a larger search area for more than 10 of the
religions, stick to the standard range and just make the occasional
exception as needed.
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If you do not provide a
street address for the center of your search area, I will just use the
center of the zip code area to determine the accuracy of your findings.
(if you want my evaluation of your work to be most accurate, then provide
me with the same information you used when doing your search. If you want
to maintain the privacy of your home address, you can just provide a
nearby address - anyplace within a few blocks of you should result in
fairly similar findings but a zip code alone can be several miles away
from your actual "home base" and thus result in different
locations as the "closest").
Note that every
one of the religions on the worksheet can be found within Fairfax county,
VA. Every religion can also be found beyond Fairfax county (at least
one location) throughout the greater northern Virginia region, from Prince
William and Loudoun counties west to the Shenandoah.
Resources
to use: (click links for detailed directions and helpful hints to use these
resources most effectively) Effective use of these resources will result in
greater accuracy of your findings.
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You
can begin with Mapquest or
Google Maps to locate the places closest to you.
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You can also do an Internet search for places of worship: using
a search engine, enter key words for geographical location (e.g. your town,
your county, nearest major city, etc.) and the name of the religion you
wish to locate (you may want to narrow your search by also entering terms
such as "temple," "worship," and/or "directory").
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Some religions have their
own directories online. These are often the most reliable sources and some
are quite easy and effective to use (others are not).
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To locate Christian churches of various denominations, try
Church
Angel or Churches-in
("the USA church directory") (these links will take you directly to Virginia listings; if you want
to search in other states follow their links to other states). These sites
break down the listings
by city. Don't limit yourself to just one city, check surrounding cities as
well. You can use these resources to get addresses of
specific congregations to include on your worksheet.
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A good on-line directory
for non-Christian religions can be
found at "The
Pluralism Project Directory of Religious Centers."
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Do not try to use Mapquest or GoogleMaps for counts. The
Association
of Religion Data Archives and American
Church Lists databases are more reliable sources for counts.
Be aware that no one resource or online directory will be complete.
You
will get the best results by comparing and consolidating results from several
resources.
You
can also use the yellow pages of your regional (not local) phone book(s)
(under "churches" and "synagogues").
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 Video demos of above noted resources:
Worksheet
Rich Text Format, should be able to open in any word processor. Your
findings can be typed in and then saved. (This worksheet will open in a new
window so you will still be able to reference these directions.)
How you will be graded: Three
criteria, each counted as one third of your grade for this assignment
(averaging the three grades)
- Complete:
including at least a paragraph of commentary and no blanks -
locations and counts (grade for being complete based on number of blanks -
including "none" or "zero" counts as there is certainly
at least one that is "closest" to you, even if more then 25 miles
away. Missing commentary = 10% blank). up to 25% blank = B, 25-50% blank = C,
50-75% blank = D, more than 75% blank = F (the more blanks you leave will
also impact on your grade for accuracy of locations and counts, as only
those you actually provide can be counted as correct)
- Locations
given (addresses) are the closest to your home base, appropriate
groups identified and truly associated with the religion in question (i.e.,
no mistaken identify, no service, political, educational, administrative or other
organizations that are not likely to be actual worship communities) (need to include city with address to
verify where it is - I will verify locations using above noted
resources. Also need to include the name of the community so I can verify
that it is truly a worship community associated with the given religion). 0-5
correct = F, 6-10 correct = D, 11-15 correct = C, 16-20 correct = B, 20-25
correct = A
- Counts
given are realistic for expected search area (as per directions above) and in relation to one another for
diverse groups, indicating effective use of resources (I know what is out
there to be found and if I don't know the area you are using, I will check
it out myself, using the resources I recommend) (counts are considered
"correct" if they are within 50% high or low of the target number I find for your area)
0-5 correct = F, 6-10 correct = D, 11-15 correct = C, 16-20 correct = B,
20-25 correct = A
grade for correct locations + grade for
fairly accurate counts + grade for completeness, divided by three = average
example: out of 25 religions on the list: 15 correct locations (C+) + 20
correct counts (A-) + 100% complete (A) = B
Curious about some of these religions?
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