About the project

During this project, we wanted to record the events happening at the prayer meetings of Servos do Amor through an anthropological eye. We focused on the experience of religion through music, and attempted to answer our research question ‘How do Servos do Amor experience their connectedness with music and the Holy Spirit?’ through our film and accompanying academic report.

 

Before being able to answer this question we visited the Nossa Senhora de Fátima Church five times from the beginning of March till the end of April. During these visits, we conducted participant observation. The course of every evening was the same, as Hille, the Dutch guitarist explains in an elicitation interview: "At seven o'clock the meeting starts with the opening of ‘Em nome do Pai’ (‘In the name of the Father’), after that they pray the rosary. Then things get warmed up, Kadu calls it ‘animação’. Then it moves on to reading the Bible and prayers, this is the nicest part making music to, because it requires improvising and tuning in to what happens at that moment."

 

Though the course of every prayer meeting was the same, every week the ambience of the evening was different. On one hand because of the spontaneous inspiration of Ana-Paula and Kadu, who lead the evenings textually and musically, by opening themselves up to the Holy Spirit. On the other hand because of the different Catholic holidays such as the feast day of Saint Joseph and Easter. The day we eventually filmed was the Wednesday before Easter.

 

In line with Catholic tradition, the images and the cross of Jesus were covered during that evening, as is visible in our film. Also there was another great celebration in the cathedral in Haarlem that evening, which was why the church in Amsterdam was less crowded than usual.

 

This website, together with the film, accompanied by an academic report are the end result of the bachelor's course in Visual Methods at Leiden University. For more information, see:

 

Bachelor's & summer course in Visual Methods, Leiden University

Bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, Leiden University

Master's specialisation in Visual Ethnography, Leiden University