An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

coming but her method is not primarily autobiographical. She has adopted theethnographic, phenomenological approach in order that the mental worlds of theparticipants can be better understood, and ultimately, the way in which religious andmedical approaches can work together, rather than be seen as belonging to two differentuniverses.3.2 The research sites: Congregations of the Church of God in Christ(COGIC) and the United Reformed Church (URC)The fieldwork was conducted in an urban area on various sites for each church althoughthe main site was the URC building which was also rented to two Pentecostal churches(neither the COGIC congregation observed, although one was COGIC-affiliated) for itsservices. Although the host minister conducted most of the URC services, he also hadpastoral responsibility for three other churches at the beginning of the data collection.About one year later this was reduced to two churches. The Pastor of COGIC does nothave pastoral responsibility for another church.Both churches are protestant. The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is Pentecostal and itsmembership is almost entirely Black with the exception of the occasional white person.The United Reformed Church (URC) has a white majority. Both churches have similarDoctrine on the Trinity, (Father Son and Holy Spirit) and they both believe in spiritualhealing and the Pentecost event as described in Acts chapter 2. This is when differentpeople from nations with different languages were gathered in one place, and wereconsumed with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As we shared our experiences andunderstanding of church doctrine, it seemed to me that both churches had similar beliefs inthe visitation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the ministry of healing. It was64